Undeliverable Messages

[Stuartp]

When messages for sending externally via SMTP are submitted to Exchange, instead of being sent they go straight to a queue called "Messages with an unreachable destination."

I have spent a couple of days looking into this and haven't made much progress. I have checked the SMTP connector and all seems OK, the IP address of the ISP's server is right, and the username and password are accepted. Messages sent straight from Outlook Express also go through with no problem so I'm fairly sure it's an Exchange issue.

It worked before the weekend, and now it doesn't so I'm completely baffled. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Stuart

 

[karlsm]

I have had the same problem since the 23rd June.
The only way I fixed it was to reinstall exchange 2000 with the original installation disk.(Say no to replace all files and cancel the error message at the service initiation stage). Install exchange service pack 3, then re-boot.
After the re-boot, all the mail was sent.

Could you tell me what virus software you are using as I think this has something to do with the problem as it is the only thing I changed before the weekend.

 

[Stuartp]

Rather strangely, our problem now seems to have fixed itself and mails are going out as normal. We don't have antivirus at the server level, instead emails are scanned on the desktop.

It may be of interest to know that we also had a problem logging onto some SSL sites, e.g. hotmail. Since the start of the week we just got a timeout. After two whole days of hunting around and pestering people, I eventually found out that our ISA Server has altered itself (apparently since no-one else claims to have touched it) so send SSL requests as HTTP ones. When this was altered back as it should be, all email went out as normal.

I can't honestly believe the two are related, but I include it here for information.

Did you reinstall Exchange more or less straight away then? It's probably academic now but I wonder what errors you were receiving in your logs. It would be nice to find out the cause of this.

Stuart

 

[karlsm]

I reinstalled exchange after about 10 hours of trying to fix the problem. What made it difficult to fix is that there was no info in the logs. So I bit the bullet and just re-installed exchnge. (My head was getting a bit sore after banging it on the desk). Unfornuately I didn't check the ISA server SSL setting before I re-installed, but looking at them now they look OK. If I find out any more info, I'll post it here.

Karl