Microsoft Exchange 2003 - SMTP Setup Guide

Important Points

  • First you need to make sure the email address(es) you will be sending from have been authorised for your account in our Control Panel .
  • These instructions assume your email server / account has already been setup and is collecting email correctly.
  • Take a note of any settings you change.
  • Only change the items specified - you should not need to change your incoming email settings.

Step One

  • Using Exchange System Manager navigate to the 'Servers' container.
  • Drop down the 'Protocols' container.
  • Find the 'SMTP' protocol and select 'Default SMTP Virtual Server'.
  • Right click on the default SMTP virtual server and choose 'Properties'.

Step Two

  • Click on the 'Outbound Security' button.
  • Select 'Basic authentication' and enter your AuthSMTP username and password.
  • Click 'Ok'.

Step Three

  • Click on 'Outbound connections' on the delivery tab.
  • This will show you what outgoing SMTP port number you are configured to use - if your ISP is blocking port 25 enter port 2525 (but even if they do not block it at the moment we still recommend using port 2525 anyway!).
  • Click 'Ok'.

Step Four

  • In order to get mail to relay through our servers you will need to setup the 'Smart Host' setting on this screen.
  • This is what tells Exchange to delivery all mail destined for the internet though our servers.
  • Enter the SMTP server name we gave - for example: mail.authsmtp.com

Step Five

  • You will need to restart your SMTP service for all changes to take effect.
  • Any mail that is currently in the queue might not take these new settings so you might need to send a new piece of mail to test it.
  • After sending a test email you will want to check the outbound queue on Exchange to make sure that the mail did not get stuck in your outbound queue because of authentication errors.

Step Six

  • On some systems (depending on the configuration) you may need to go to:Routing Groups
  • Select the 'Connectors' and 'Internet Mail Service'.
  • Right-click and select 'Properties'.
  • Find and select 'Forward all mail through this connector to the following smart host'.
  • Click the Advanced tab.
  • Select 'Outbound Security'.
  • Enter your SMTP smart host user name and password in the 'Basic Authentication' section.
  • Restart Exchange Server.
  • Your Exchange server should now be routing email out via your AuthSMTP account.

Step 7

By default Exchange 2003 will accept email for any address at your domain name and put it into a local queue to be processed. The vast majority of this email will be junk / spam messages from spoofed or fake email addresses going to invalid addresses @ your domain name.

When Exchange processes this email it will send an NDR / DSN (Non-Delivery Report / Delivery Status Notification) email back to the sender of any email that is going to an invalid address but because the original address was spoofed or fake the messages will either fail or go back to the person who actually uses the true email address, who may then report it / you as spam.

This problem is known as Backscatter and will clog your mail queues, waste your AuthSMTP quota and negatively impact your email reputation so we strongly recommend that you disable them.

From your Exchange server please take the following steps:

  • Click on 'Start' and then 'Programs'
  • Click on 'Microsoft Exchange' and then open 'System Manager'
  • Open the 'Global Settings' container in the left pane and click 'Internet Message Formats'
  • Right-click the 'Default' object and then click 'Properties'
  • Go to the 'Advanced' tab
  • Untick the 'Allow non-delivery reports' tick box and then click 'OK'

For more information please see the following article on Microsoft's website - Disable NDR / DSN Emails

Troubleshooting

For information on how to troubleshoot issues with SMTP connectors in Exchange 2003 please see - Troubleshooting Exchange 2003 / SMTP Protocol Logging


All changes are made at your own discretion, for further support please contact your network administrator or Microsoft directly.