Underscore in server name

[bettyb]

Why is the underscore an unacceptable character for an e-mail server name.

Our server was originally named with an "_" in there.

I have just started encountering other domains that reject us, due to the fact that "_" is in the name.

Apparently, these are recent changes on their side, since they accepted e-mail from us before.

Can anyone explain what's so bad about the "_"?
thank you

 

[Jeepix]

Weird,

I know that the Outlook client for Mac will have problems (they have a fix now for it) and there are some other oddball problems with the _ in the server name, but it shouldn't cause your email to be rejected. Are you sure that's the reason why the messages are being rejected?

 

[JonnyRep]

It is the reason that freeserve give for it.

Problem is that I have the same situation but not sure what to do about it. Have been given answers for Exchange 2000 but they don't relate to Exchange 5.5.

I don't know what effect simply changing the underscore on the server will have on incoming and outgoing mail.

Has anyone any ideas?

 

[Jeepix]

If you change the netbios server name then Exchange will stop working altogether. So, that's not an option.

Is there a chance that the name you're referring to is the MX record name? That should be able to be changed without too much headache. Just a delay while you're waiting for the MX record to propagate through the internet.

Is that the case?

 

[Bluenose]

I think an '_' is generally not a good isea for a server name. There are a number of applications that don't like and I think there may be a problem with non-WIndows DNS servers but I can't remember exactly.
I'd avoid using '_'

 

[RichardMoran]

I had the same problem a few months ago, when some of my users sent mail to people using Freeserve as their mail provider. After some searching I found an RFC relating to SMTP ( sorry, but I can't remember the number ) saying that an '_' was not a valid character in the naming convention. I believe Windows servers handle it fine, although really they shouldn't as it's incorrect usage.

My mail went out via a MailSweeper system, which had a netbios name of 'gp_mailsweeper'. To correct the problem all I needed to do was go into Network Properties, look in TCP/IP settings and under the DNS tab, change the hostname to 'mailsweeper'. The hostname defaults to the netbios name, I think.

The problem is with the hostname, not the netbios name. I believe that with Exchange it's only changing the server name that would cause a problem. I think that if you change the hostname on the Exchange server you should be fine.

Hope this helps.

Rik

 

[RogerHelmer]

I have the same problem on a Windows 2000 server with Excange 2000 server. the Netbios name is w2k_srv_1. It also functions as DC. I really don't know what to do with this. Please can anyone give me suggestions or a place to start searching? Thank you.