Networks

Ask something
Question Locked

Exchange Server issues on Small Business Server

0 helpful
8 replies

by agreen

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Hi there, I apologise for the long post, but i'm trying to include as much info as possible.

I have just taken over looking after a server.
The server is a Small Business Server (Standard)
The config is as follows:

MODEM -- 10.1.1.x -- Server -- 192.168.16.x Network

The network has about 5-6 computers

The server runs the following:
Exchange Server 2003
Frontpage 2003
ISA Server 2004 Standard
Microsoft SQL Server

The problems are:
1. The website cannot be accessed from external to the network (works internally)

2. The Exchange webmail cannot be accessed from external to the network (works internally)

3. The client computers have trouble sending emails through Exchange. Most emails turn up in the Exchange Queues with one of the following "Additional Queue Information":
a) An SMTP protocol error occurred
b) The connection was dropped due to an SMTP protocol event sink.
c) The remote server did not respond to a connection attempt
A few emails do go through, however. Not sure why some go through, but not others.

4. People trying to send emails to the company and most get bounced back.
I sent an email from another Exchange server (My main business) and the emails are still in the Exchange queue:
Unable to bind to the destination server in DNS

5. Client computers take about 10 minutes (no exaggeration) to load at the "Applying Personal Settings" bit

That is all I can think of at the moment. These problems coudl all be related, but not definitely.

Any ideas what to look at first?

8 replies

by cookieorc

When did these problems arise?
Any new changes to the business?
Firewall settings correct?
I check to see if it is a firewall problem by shutting down the service.
start
run
services.msc
stop service windows firewall..

by csheppard

your ISA Firewall may be blocking SMTP. Also, if you want to access your server from outside the LAN, you need to contact your ISP, purchase a public IP Address and configure your network connection with that IP Address.

by agreen

My next step was to disable all the firewalls and see if that fixes the problem.
Then I will know if it is a firewall issue.
It is just really weird cause some emails go through and others don't.
The firewall may be the problem with the website and webmail, though.

As for the external IP address we have one. It is configured to the external port of the modem. Forgot to mention that. I am thinking of configuring the modem to just pass the ip address through to the server, rather than adding the extra layer of networks

by cg it

Small Business Server isn't configured the same as W2003 Server or any other Windows Server. It's wizard run and doesn't operate well or at all unless if you don't use them. The same is true for ISA Server 2004 on SBS

so here's the scoop.

1. The SBS Intranet Web site is NOT supposed to be accessed externally. It's a security sink hole. If you want people to access it from the internet, you publish the site using ISA Server Web publishing rules.

2. OWA is configured using the CIECW [connect to the internet] wizard from the Server management console/ "things to do list". If you don't run the wizard, the SBS server won't be configured properly, including ISA Server to allow OWA. Another hint is that SBS is an Active Directory Services network. Security group membership determines which users have what rights. [get the book below. Explains it all]

3. This is a little more tricky.

a. Many companies will block your email if they can't do a DNS reverse lookup. Add a reverse lookup zone in your DNS if you don't have one, then run the DNS lookup and recursive tests.
b. many remote email servers will simply not respond to other email servers if they don't have security certificates or any # of other security features that promotes secure authenticated communications. just the way other administrators have their network. Nothing you can do about it.

4. verify that your SBS server is the authoritative name server for your FQDN and that it will answer whois queries with your public address. If your SBS server isn't the authoritative name server, that can cause problems with a whois query and mail will not be received.

5. client computers need to have their network connection addresses reference the SBS box as the DNS server. If your SBS box is 192.168.16.2 than that address is the first address listed in the DNS box of the NICs TCP/IP properties. It can't be listed second, third or not at all. It must be there and be the first DNS server they go to for DNS resolutions. [the process order is first listed to last listed].

Go out and get Microsoft Press Small Business Server 2003 Administrator's Companion book. Best reference book for SBS.

by agreen

Thanks CG IT,

That info looks very helpful. I am having another crack at the server tomorrow, so this will be very useful.
I have to admit that I have not had any experience with SBS before 2 weeks ago, so this has my head spinning. I am more used to 2003 server, and most of that is still theory based, not practical.
I will definitely keep an eye out for that book, it looks like I will definitely need it!!

I do have a couple of clarifying questions for you, however.

1. I have to research this a bit more. They have Frontpage installed too, so am not sure if they are using that to publish the site.
It is located in IIS and Sharepoint, which makes me think it is published from there. I will take a closer look at the ISA for the web publishing rules.

2. I will rerun that wizard, I think I already did it, but i may not have allowed it to modify the firewall settings (which was silly when I look back, as it is very likely to be the firewall settings causing the issue!!)

3.
a) I am pretty sure I have put a reverse look up in there. I have the following ones
0.in-addr.arpa
127.in-addr.arpa
16.168.192.in-addr.arpa
255.in-addr.arpa

What are the details I need to put in the reverse lookup?
i) Type(Primary/Secondary/Stub)
ii) replicated (all DNS servers in forest, all DNS servers in domain, all domain controllers in domain
iii) Network ID or Name
iv) Type of update (Secure only, non secure AND Secure, do not allow updates)
v) Do I need to add one for the external IP?

b) What are the important things that should be done to minimise the likelyhood of rejected emails?

4. How do I check if this is the case?

5. I will check this out and add it to a Policy if possible.

Thanks again for your help.
Forgive my poor knowledge on this subject. This is what I get when I try to help out a friend and jump into the deep end.
I would not have thought an IT support person trying to tackle a server would be this difficult!!
I may need a career change! ;)

by cg it

first off I would advise that you don't really do anything to the SBS box until you get the Microsoft Press SBS 2003 Administrators Companion... available at Amazon.com Read through it first cover to cover. it has everything you need to configure SBS.

here's a link: http://tinyurl.com/2oze4b

Frontpage shouldn't be installed on the server to muck with sharepoint intranet web site. There are templates available [see MS sharepoint web site] to use and you can modify the web pages using the administrators account right in the web site itself. That's for changing text.

note the SBS sharepoint is ver 2.0 you can install in paralle!!! ver 3.0 which have much better looking templates.

Also note: backing up and restoring Sharepoint on SBS 8 out of 10 times will fail. that's just a problem with sharepoint on SBS.

DONT publish the intranet web site. It's better security wise that users VPN into the server through RRAS, then open up the intranet web site via their browser using the URL http:///companyweb

publishing the intranet web site to the internet is a BIG security risk no matter how well you try to lock it down. Even with ISA Server.

Important things for email and SBS in general?

1. have a static public IP address
2. purchase a certificate from Verisign or any other 3rd party certificate provider. Install certificate services and use the 3rd party certificate
3. install Exchange 2003 SP2 to disable relaying in Exchange. If your Exchange server is an open relay, it'll get blacklisted.
3. Install ISA Server 2004 SP2 and feature packs.
4. Setup monitoring in ISA 2004
5. Make sure that you have all patches, Service Packs installed. Note: Windows Update does not update Exchange and ISA server automatically. you have to do that yourself.

Verify backups of SBS by trying to restore from backups to a test server. This is one step no one does and when disaster strikes they find out that backups they thought were being made have errors or it didn't work at all. Never Ever Never use Travan Tape drives. SBS doesn't like Travan Tape Drives for some reason. If you use Travan Tape, SBS will report that the backup was successful and in reality there's nothing on the tape.

Buy the Microsoft Press Small Business Server 2003 Administrator's Companion Book

Did I say that already?

by agreen

Thanks again CG.

I will be looking into that book as I reckon i'll be needing it.

I rang our ISP yesterday, and they claim that our Domain is pointing at a different IP address.
This would explain why most of these problems are occuring, but I would have thought there would be more problems if this was the case.

We are in the process of reclaiming the Domain from the previous IT people and putting it back in our name pointing at the correct place.

I will let you know how it goes.

This discussion is closed to new replies.