MS exchange headache

deevey

okey dokey,

i got a simple (i think) prob with MS exchange (97), the company mail server got changed over and user's and passes had to be changed, (all good and done) im recieving email all fine and dandy
on all accounts..

but when i try to SEND a message it seems that it gets "lost" ??? it sends ok via outlook, but somewhere between outlook, exchange, and the main server it gets lost. there doesnt seem to be any mail stuck in exchange, and nothing on the server either... and mail sends fine if i bypass outlook totally, and send via webmail, or outlook express via dialup...

any ideas on what might be the prob ??

any help much appriciated, save alot of head scratching

steve c

ando

hang on, what client software are you using? Outlook or Exchange? What server software is there? Exchange 5.5/2000 ?

I'm confused on how your email is setup

Client

---

>--EmailServer

---

>--internet?
Outlook2000-->--Exchange2000-->--internet?

deevey

Ok sorry for the confusion, exchange '97 is on the server, and it connects 3 times a day to the internet to send / receive email from the webserver, and distributed to various machines in the company

mail on the client machines is collected with outlook, and although i can receive the mail fine on all machines i cant send mail, because it gets "lost" somewhere along the line.

there isnt any mail stored on the server and none in the outbox of outlook

however if i bypass exchange totally and set up the accounts through outlook express and normal dialup, theres no problem..

so i guess its a prob with the configuration of exchange..


any ideas

ando

I never worked on exchange'97... infact, I've never knew there was a 97!!

anyway, I guess exchange is on a NT4 server? Have a look at the event viewer application log, see if there is any details. Look at the mail queue, or retry queue. If mail goes into your outbox and the goes into your sent items folder, then its either on the server, or gone to its desination.
Make sure your exchange server has correct DNS information, and sending to the right SMTP server. Try pinging your SMTP server, get the IP address, and configure exchange to send to that IP instead of a FQDN

deevey

ahhh see thats the prob the mail isnt on the server... i checked the q'd items on exchange b4 it connected and ... guess what, no mail, but the items have sent from outlook... weird huh ?

ando

sure is

I'll have a look around for similar problems, but I've never seen this problem before? Have a check of the event viewer, read support.microsoft.com

hmm, they have to go somewhere, I'd bet their still on the server, maybe in a different queue. Maybe try manually connecting to the internet, and while the server is connected, send an email to a webmail account like yahoo or hotmail... wait 5mins, check the webmail, see if its there.

Its a weird problem alright, maybe upgrade to exchange 5.5 or 2000 ? (clean install, upgrading might 'upgrade' the problem iswell !)

Reapply any service packs for exchange 97 iswell, and Service packs for the NT system wont hurt