Exchange 2003 - no external email - urgent

[kevbaz]

Hi guys, got a big problem here, NM is out sick and im left trying to keep things ticking over, however exchange has been playing up, currently internal email is fine but were not recieving any external email. i have very little experience with ezxchange and am after some help please !

 

what should i be checking? can someone talk me through it please?

 

thanks

 

Kev

[kevbaz]

update

 

 

 

http://i316.photobucket.com/albums/mm360/kevbaz/que.jpg

 

 

 

any ideas? i dont want to go fat fingering

[bio]

mmmmm is seems you cannot send email as well. I would check your firewall (if you have one between your exchange box and the net) first. It is more likely that you should contact your ISP since mail cannot reach your smarthost (ISP) via the SMTP connector.

 

bio..

[mrmontymick]

I would check the following;

 

Make sure you know what your smarthost is - it's set under Protocols -> SMTP Server -> Right Click -> Properties and look under Delivery and then Advanced.

 

Then get a CMD box up and try resolving it if it's a hostname - nslookup smarthostname

 

if that doesn't resolve you need to check your dns.

 

If it does resolve or you've got an IP address in there try pinging it from a CMD box. or try a tracert -> tracert -d

 

If you can get to it that's a start - then try telnetting to it on port 25 -> telnet 25

 

If you can get a connection try a mail command such as EHLO

 

If you can't get to it check routing on the machine or firewall access.

 

You may also want to check Control Panel > Admin Tools > Services and look to see if the Microsoft Exchange Routing Protocol is started and that the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is Started.

 

Have you also tried sending yourself an email from an external account? What happens? Do you get a message? or not?

 

Have your tried your ISP - have they got any issues?

[kevbaz]

Thanks for the replies so far

 

Then get a CMD box up and try resolving it if it's a hostname - nslookup smarthostname

 

that resolves fine

 

If it does resolve or you've got an IP address in there try pinging it from a CMD box. or try a tracert -> tracert -d

 

tracert times out

 

all services are up and running.

 

is this looking more like an isa issue?

 

SWGFL say they have no isses their end so its definatley something here...

Edited July 1, 2009 by kevbaz

[adhutton]

Have you tried doing a reboot of the Exchange server? If it was working then just stopped often a restart can fix the issue.

 

Just a thought.

 

A

[kevbaz]

have restarted twice today already...

[mrmontymick]

Thanks for the replies so far

 

 

 

that resolves fine

 

 

 

tracert times out

 

all servies are up and running.

 

is this looking more like an isa issue?

 

Can you get through if you do: telnet 25

 

or does that fail as well?

 

If you have an ISA server in the way what version is it? does it provide your web browsing etc as well? If it does is that working?

 

Can you see what the firewall rules are on it? is port 25 opened to your smarthost?

[mb2k01]

Kev,

 

Have you checked your protolcols have all started?

Have a look in your Services (control panel etc) and check the normal ones are running etc.

 

PM me if you like - I'm quite local to you (another school in neghboring county) I could give you a ring / work through some things if you like?

[kevbaz]

Can you get through if you do: telnet 25

 

or does that fail as well?

 

If you have an ISA server in the way what version is it? does it provide your web browsing etc as well? If it does is that working?

 

Can you see what the firewall rules are on it? is port 25 opened to your smarthost?

 

 

 

Telnet fails...

 

 

We have 2 ISA servers one for inbound one for outbound, they are both isa 2003, our internet access is fine, we have no incoming or outgoing external mail, internal mail is fine, our website is also unavailable (http://www.tamarside.co.uk) which is hosted on one of our other servers.

 

 

Kev,

 

Have you checked your protolcols have all started?

Have a look in your Services (control panel etc) and check the normal ones are running etc.

 

PM me if you like - I'm quite local to you (another school in neghboring county) I could give you a ring / work through some things if you like?

 

 

All the services seem fine, thanks for the offer ill see how it pans out

[mb2k01]

If your site is unavailable too I'd guess the problem lays with the ISA servers. Would be worth concentrating efforts on them to confirm they're not the issue. (I'm not much help on those though!)

[kevbaz]

yar am looking at them now, although theres nothing obvious (i prefer issues with smoke coing out of servers, easier to find the problem!!)

 

I will be restarting the server at 3pm when there will be less disruption, hopefully thatll help

[mrmontymick]

Telnet fails...

 

 

We have 2 ISA servers one for inbound one for outbound, they are both isa 2003, our internet access is fine, we have no incoming or outgoing external mail, internal mail is fine, our website is also unavailable (http://www.tamarside.co.uk) which is hosted on one of our other servers.

 

 

 

 

 

All the services seem fine, thanks for the offer ill see how it pans out

 

If you have the ability to I would plug a machine into the external side of your ISA servers - i.e. if the ISA servers are on a separate switch and then connected to your external router plug a machine into that external switch.

 

Configure said machine with an appropriate IP address and the default gateway as your inbound ISA server and then try accessing your website from the external side of the interface. If it works you know your ISA server is working properly and the problem is either the external router or futher up the line.

 

If it doesn't work you know it's the ISA server and you then need to look at the firewall publishing rules.

[mb2k01]

It might be worth checking with SWGfL if there are any routing issues affecting you...

(I've sent you a PM with results of a tracert)

[kevbaz]

Called swgfl earlier and theyre reporting no issues

[kevbaz]

have restarted both our isa servers but the issues remain... at a loss

 

any ideas?

[mrmontymick]

have restarted both our isa servers but the issues remain... at a loss

 

any ideas?

 

were you able to try plugging a machine in to the external switch?

 

as a stupid question have you checked the default gateway on the exchange server?

[mb2k01]

were you able to try plugging a machine in to the external switch?

 

as a stupid question have you checked the default gateway on the exchange server?

 

And that the Global Catalogue server is contactable from it...

[kevbaz]

were you able to try plugging a machine in to the external switch?

 

as a stupid question have you checked the default gateway on the exchange server?

 

not able to plug in a diff machine to test..

 

 

the default gateway is set and is pointing at one of the isa servers

 

 

And that the Global Catalogue server is contactable from it...

 

no idea how to test that...

[mrmontymick]

not able to plug in a diff machine to test..

 

 

the default gateway is set and is pointing at one of the isa servers

 

 

 

 

no idea how to test that...

 

The next thing I would try is either bypassing the ISA server entirely or putting a new ALLOW all INBOUND and OUTBOUND as the top rule on the ISA server.

 

If you can't bypass try the new ALLOW rule. It that works your existing ruleset has an issue, if it doesn't work then it's probably a deeper problem.

 

BTW did: telnet 25 work at all?

[mb2k01]

Do you know which server runs as the GC? If you do (I'd hope you do in a network enviroment!) then just check it's working.

 

If you need to find out:

 

Log on to Exchange Server

Open System Manager

Expand the tree to Administrative Groups > First Administrative Group > Servers > The name of the server your on.

 

Right click on that server name, go to Directory Access and you will a list of servers. In the "type" column you'll see one or more is listed as a GC.

 

For Exchange to function it needs constant access to the GC - it can survive without DC access for a while but not GC

[kevbaz]

telnet didnt work no...

 

 

at the moment neither isa server seems to be able to browse the internet but our workstations can? and when i attempt to ping bbc.co.uk i get destination host unreachable?

[kevbaz]

Do you know which server runs as the GC? If you do (I'd hope you do in a network enviroment!) then just check it's working.

 

If you need to find out:

 

Log on to Exchange Server

Open System Manager

Expand the tree to Administrative Groups > First Administrative Group > Servers > The name of the server your on.

 

Right click on that server name, go to Directory Access and you will a list of servers. In the "type" column you'll see one or more is listed as a GC.

 

For Exchange to function it needs constant access to the GC - it can survive without DC access for a while but not GC

 

3 of our servers are set as GC one of which is one of the isa servers

[mrmontymick]

telnet didnt work no...

 

 

at the moment neither isa server seems to be able to browse the internet but our workstations can? and when i attempt to ping bbc.co.uk i get destination host unreachable?

 

If telnet didn't work then your ISA server is most likely blocking it or it's unreachable further down the line.

 

ISA servers normally can't web browse unless you have specifcally set them up to do so.

 

Try doing a tracert to BBC - Homepage and see where the trace stops.

 

I would still try the ALLOW all rule - just make sure that it's at the top above and deny rules and that you have applied the changes.

 

If that still doesn't work the issue is probably further down the line.

[mrmontymick]

3 of our servers are set as GC one of which is one of the isa servers

 

I'd guess as your internal mail is working fine on exchange it's probably not a DC or GC connectivity issue....