Using Mail and Windows Exchange Server 2003

Hi

You should be putting the Exchange Server's IP address or DNS hostname in the incoming and outgoing mail server address fields. For example if your Exchange Mail Server has an IP address of 192.168.1.1 then that would be the information you would use to populate those fields. Equally if internal DNS services are configured on the Windows Server and an MX record has been created for the server then you could use that instead. This would also depend on whether this information was being pushed out to network clients. This DNS hostname would take a form similar to this: mail.mymailserver.com. This would work equally as well as the IP address, either one will do.

Hope this helps, Tony

Hi

Without any further details regarding how you have set up your exchange mail server as well as your private network its going to be difficult to help you. In any rate you are the one who has configured the exchange/windows server so I would imagine all of the information regarding the mail server you should know?

For example if you have enabled webmail on the exchange server then you should know that. If you have not enabled it then there is nothing you need put in the relevant field.

How well internal DNS queries resolve for your server name to its IP address will depend on how well you have configured internal DNS Services. Only you would know why you can use the IP address and not the name, or the name and not the IP address. Perhaps you should review this. Typically you would match the external MX Record with an internal one, that way DNS names can resolve internally as well as externally to their relevant IP addresses. This all depends on how you have configured Exchange mail server. For example you could be using the POP connector feature. Again this is something you should know as you are the one who has configured it.

also when going through the mail setup it wont connect to the
incoming mail sever using the dns info but it will to the outgoing
mail server using the same info.

This could mean that internal DNS Services are not set up and that outbound mail is actually using your ISP's mail server rather than your internal server.

I'm not sure where you are getting Port 993 from? The default ports for POP (inbound) and SMTP (outbound) are 110 for POP and 25 for SMTP. All that is required is a Port forwarding/firewall rule for those ports that point to the internal IP address of your mail server. Provided your domain's MX record is pointing to the fixed external IP address configured in your router at your location then mail should flow in and out. Again this all depends on how you have configured your domain and mail server to send and receive mail. Again only you would know that.

If you launch MS/DOS (PC) prompt or terminal (Mac) and telnet to the server's internal IP address for port 25 it should tell you if it is accepting mail. You can use the same thing for port 110. The command would look something like this:

telnet 192.168.1.1 25

You should see something like this:

Trying 192.168.1.1...
Connected to whateveryouhavecalledit.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 yourdomain ESMTP

If you configure Apple Mail for a POP account then it should work using the internal IP address of your mail server for both inbound and outbound mail, as long as the account configured on your mail serverr is configured for a POP mail account.

Most Mail Server's today will offer a mail service using IMAP accounts (this is in addition to the other methods offered) which can be accessed simply using a web browser. In my view this is preferable to POP accounts as (a) you don't need a separate mail application (b) no mail is ever stored locally, its all kept on the server (c) you don't even need your own pc/mac to access your mail. As long as you know 3 bits of information you can send/receive mail anywhere in the world just as long as you have access to any computer that has access to the internet.

Hope this helps, Tony