mrmontymick

That's normally either a publishing error with ISA server or an ACL (access control list) error on your router or down the line with your ISP. External publishing of services in ISA is fairly differently setup from web browsing. Is your ISA server acting as a web proxy or do you pass requests through to an external web proxy or does your ISA server chain to an external web proxy? Have you asked your ISP if they can make a connection to your exchange server or website from their internal network? And to trace to see where it's stopping? If it stops at your ISA server address (technically probably just before it) then it's the ISA server that's causing the issue. If it stops before that it's a chaining/routing/ACL issue between you and your ISP. Again bypassing ISA or an overriding allow rule would probably help you diagnose this.

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

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.

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?

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?

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.

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?

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?

Isn't the bulb normally excluded from the extra warranty?

We used to use an old free helpdesk which was fairly basic but clunky - take up was a bit low as people didn't like the fact they had a separate username/password for yet another system. Since we already had Netsupport DNA installed (which is an hardware/software inventory tool with some handy extra features) we went for the DNA Helpdesk product. The product is pretty good, it's AD integrated so it picks up your users from there (although you do have to make sure you have filled in department and company - which typically we hadn't!) It handles tickets well, is configurable for different issue codes/resolution codes etc and it will email techs when a new ticket is put on. The only thing I wish it had was the ability to make it's look'n'feel more like your own internal branding/intranet/vle/whatever. But for me the best feature is the integration with DNA for the hardware/software inventory so you can see exactly what machine it is users are reporting a problem on. I understand you can integrate it with their remote control product as well so you can remote into a machine direct from the helpdesk - can't say how it works as we don't have the remote control product installed. I'm not sure on cost though, might be an eeeeek moment.

Hmmm... that reminds me of the old Pen Island Company joke.... they registered their domain name: penisland.com We are in the process of creating a completely new infrastructure and previously had DC01, DC02, MAILSERV01, SQL01 etc... This time we decided to go for Greek Mythological names... now not only can people not remember the name but if they do happen to remember they can't say it or spell it... perfect...