Problems sending external mail since upgrading to Exchange 2010 SP2

[Darylrese]

Hey guys...need some urgent help!

 

Just installed Exchange 2010 SP2 and the install went fine. The problem is I cant send external emails since upgrading to sp2, they just sit in a queue.

 

When I restart the transport service some push through, but a majority do not.

 

What could be causing this? I have changed no settings other than install SP2 and rollup's

 

Receiving mail is working just fine and is instant.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Darylrese

[RabbieBurns]

I was going to say check the external send connector but its strange that some are getting through and some aren't.

[Darylrese]

OK so I wake up this morning to 17 emails all timed at 5am - 7am and the whole lot have come through....strange! Why would there be a delay for so long? Users were reporting this last week but we didn't think much of it until yesterday.

 

Just sent another 2, one to Hotmail and one to ntlworld...both sat in queue, Hotmail one arrived about 15mins later, no sign of ntlworld email. They sat in a queue on exchange at our smarthost labelled as 'ready' for a long period of time then disappear but not always being delivered

 

 

Edited December 9, 2012 by Darylrese

[RabbieBurns]

Redstone?

 

Perhaps thats your problem? Are you relaying via your ISP smtp?

[sukh]

once they have arrived, check the headers to see where they work stuck. Also , up the protocol & connector logging to see how exch is makong an connection and to what.

[Darylrese]

yep, redstone is our ISP for the council, our interent and email is hosted by them

[Darylrese]

anyone? mail is being delayed between 30mins and 3 days for all mail at the moment! We receive a stupid amount of SPAM to the school each day, not sure if that's got anything to do with it

[RabbieBurns]

Create your own send connector to bypass redstone and just send directly and see if that works. The school I worked at in the UK used them and they were shocking to be honest.

 

Also as sukh says what do the headers say from the mail once you receive it eventually?

[Darylrese]

thanks guys. Can you have a second send connector or will I need to delete the current one? Sorry I'm fairly new to exchange 2010.

 

When emails come though, they have the same header which they were originally sent with, nothing added, nothing taken away.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Darylrese

[sukh]

What I'm trying to get at, is where they delay is, can you post the message headers or PM.

 

Does your send connector use DNS Lookups or a smarthost?

[Darylrese]

What I'm trying to get at, is where they delay is, can you post the message headers or PM.

 

Does your send connector use DNS Lookups or a smarthost?

 

So having returned to the office today, i have looked at the send connector again to find there is no FQDN specified in the connector.

 

I added the FQDN of exchange, applied, sent an email to my ntlworld, hotmail and yahoo and all recived instantly...not sure if this is a fix or a pure coincidence.

[sukh]

So having returned to the office today, i have looked at the send connector again to find there is no FQDN specified in the connector.

 

I added the FQDN of exchange, applied, sent an email to my ntlworld, hotmail and yahoo and all recived instantly...not sure if this is a fix or a pure coincidence.

 

That should not make any difference on the issue you had. It's purpose is would not make a difference to your issue. Also, the default value is $null if on a HUB server.

[Darylrese]

Most strange then.

 

The other problem is the amount of SPAM we are recieving and also google and ntlworld have blocked us as a source of SPAM as they have recieved a lot of unsolicied email from us...any ideas how to stop that?

[dhicks]

The other problem is the amount of SPAM we are recieving and also google and ntlworld have blocked us as a source of SPAM as they have recieved a lot of unsolicied email from us...any ideas how to stop that?

 

You send email through your ISP's Smarthost? It sounds as though either you or another of your ISP's customers is sending out a lot of spam, so email is being rate-limited in some cases or simply rejected. You could switch to sending email directly from your Exchange server, as mentioned above, but make sure your domain's DNS settings are set up beforehand or most larger email systems (Google, Yahoo, etc) will reject your emails. Google's own documentation on the subject is quite informative, it's worth having a read through and seems to hold for sending emailt o other receipiants, too. You might also want to check your system for spam-bots, of course.

[sukh]

Most strange then.

 

The other problem is the amount of SPAM we are recieving and also google and ntlworld have blocked us as a source of SPAM as they have recieved a lot of unsolicied email from us...any ideas how to stop that?

 

relaying locked down?

 

Got AS on your Exch server or gateway

?