not sure if in right area: Exchange 5.5, outlook 2000 and non-delivery errors report

[scooby]

I'm getting non-delivery for e-mails being sent out of outlook 2000 connected to an Exchange 5.5 server. The server is used to store mail and do collaborative work but does not have IMS (SMPT).

Each user is configured as a POP3 client with a mailbox on the Exchange server.

CLients able to receive e-mails but unable to send; getting
No transport provider was available for delivery to this recipient.

Event ID 290 is being reported but nothing else.

On the client side i'm seeing:

win98/ME: After exiting outlook following non-delivery receipt you get an error: MAPISP32.exe caused an invalid page fault in module rtfhtml.dll

Windows 2000: After exiting outlook following non-delivery receipt you get an error MAPISP32.EXE. The instruction at "....." referenced memory @ "...". The memory could not be read.

Have tried KB 318658 and KB 813741 with no luck.

Please advice or point in right direction.

Thanks

[homer15]

just a quick question:
has this ever worked before, or is it a completely new setup?

[scooby]

It was working up until this afternoon. All clients can receive but get an error when trying to send.

[homer15]

were there any changes made to your system or your service recently?

[scooby]

Not at all, i'm the only IT guy and nothing has changed in terms of server configuration. The only event logged on the server is event ID 290.

[homer15]

i had a similar problem with exchange 2000. are the emails reaching anyone?
what service pack do you have installed?

[scooby]

It's Service Pack 4. Internal e-mails send/receive is working fine but external e-mail only receives. Nothing is leaving the outlook clients.

[homer15]

so it is for sure confirmed that the recipients are not recieving the e-mail? my users were getting a ndr, but the messages were still actually being sent out.

the research that i'm finding says that there is a connector configured improperly. most of them say it's the x.400 connector. however, i don't think this is totally the case. if all of them are experiencing the same problem, then i think there is something wrong with the server itself. with the way the folders are mapped using it as a pop3 account. is there any particular reason that outlook isn't configured to access the exchange server directly instead of through a pop3 account?

[scooby]

The Exchange server was set up this way before i started working at this place. Outlook clients were setup as POP3 to send and receive directly and then the information is stored on the server, in their mailbox.

It must be something on the server side but i cannot find any other errors and this just started this afternoon. Any ideas? I really appreciate the help.

I have recently started to look into setting up exchange or another as a true e-mail server where all mail would be sent to the server and distributed to the users.

[scooby]

back to your previous post. The users are configured with their mailboxes on the exchange server but have their smtp and pop looking at an external e-mail server at our provider. Mail is then stored on the server.

[homer15]

if the mail goes in and out through the provider, i would start asking them if they have changed anything around. if it were 1 or 2 machines, then i would look inward, but for all your machines to experience the same problem, something is going on wherever the mail is supposed to be sent to.

[scooby]

Have talked to the provider and I seem to be the only one having a problem. The message are bouncing almost immediately after leaving the outbox. Trying to see if the firewall might be blocking by mistake but nothing has been changed there either.

[scooby]

I'm at a loss for now. All outlook clients are unable to send which defnitely means it's a central problem. Seeing as the clients are configured to look outside the corporate network for their e-mails, it would seem the provider's SMTP server was having a problem (able to receive).

The provider says nothing is going on at their location. I checked the firewall to see if for some reason the port was now being blocked from in->outside but that's not the case.

Everything was working fine until about 12:00 p.m. today. I can't see why the Exchange server would be an issue, though i've checked it, when clients check outside for send/receive then store internally on the server.

First time i run into this problem.

[homer15]

i dunno, man. i would think it's the provider, but for an instant kickback it has to be internal. otherwise there would be a delay. hopefully someone else see's this. if not, you can check here. i hate to refer someone out of pcmech, but i've posted exchange questions here before and got no response. at tek-tips, though, they will have some idea of what's going on, or at least some ways to try and get around it.

edit:
i see you posted your question there as well (before i had even finished my message). good luck.

[scooby]

thanks homer

[scooby]

Well,

The problem is definitely on the exchange server side though the actual problem i'm not sure.

I setup a linux firewall to test and still got the problem.
I created a personal folder and used that to send/receive e-mail and no problems were seen.

[UncaDanno]

Sounds to me like the admins have "hardened" (tightened security) in Exchange. This is a drill that a lot of people went through a couple of years ago, including a lot of ISPs.
Basically, part of the "hardening" process is to adjust the permissions in Exchange to disallow forwarding emails in order to prevent Exchange from being a patsy for a spammer.

I went through this with my ISP a couple of years ago. I had been working at a client site, connected to my ISP's POP server for email with no problems. Until they "hardened" the server and I started getting the exact same results you are now getting.

Took them a couple of weeks to admit that the increased "security" was the cause of the errors. In the mean time they maintained that someone had probably reported me as a spammer so their ISP was blocking my emails. I finally convinced them that this was not the case since emails I would send to myself would also bounce in this manner. One of the "techs" had the gall to ask me why I had reported myself, to my own ISP, as a spammer.

They still have not changed the settings. They have no intention to do so.

[scooby]

Sounds like this might actually be the problem. Although e-mails are going out when outlook is configured with a personal folder (changed from exchange mailbox and resulting NDR), the e-mails are not arriving at their location. Only e-mails sent via webmail arrive. Our e-mail provider uses a different ISP than the one used in the office. Speaking with our ISP today they confirmed an e-mail limit of 25/sent. The company has been sending e-newsletters to 100 client/time. Looks like the problem might be our domain was tagged for "spamming".

[UncaDanno]

Our e-mail provider uses a different ISP than the one used in the office.

That (and the anti-spam settings) is the root of your problem.

The IP addy at your employer is different from the IP addy at your email provider. The anti-spam settings bounce emails that originate from outside the domain (your employer's domain) to pass through the "hardened" domain (your email service provider's) to a final address.

Notice no mention above about blocking passthrough from a domain that has been tagged as a spammer. That bit came from my ISP's techs' (mis)understanding of the settings.

Maybe this would help: If your employer has a set range of fixed IP addresses, your employer could maybe set up an arrangement with the email service provider to allow emails from your IP addresses to pass through the email service domain. If the email service provider knows how to make the appropriate settings to allow this, it will take care of the bounced messages.

[scooby]

Thanks Unca

I'll be speaking with both tomorrow morning but now at least i've confirmed the problem to be outside of my network. I appreciate all the info and will let you know how it goes.

[scooby]

Well the problem seems to have been two-fold.

On one side, the ISP changed SMTP servers without informing us and that was preventing messages from being delivered. The other appears to be the Exchange server.

As i had mentioned above, moving my mailbox to a new Exchange server in the same site stopped the NDR messages. The mail was leaving but not arriving at its destination. This was due to an incorrect smtp server being used (after isp changed their server location).

What i'm a little unclear on: The Exchange server is not configured as the pop/smtp server for the outlook corporate clients. As i mentioned, POP and SMTP are external. What would cause these NDRs? Does IMS or MTA still get involved?

Thanks for the help.