Implementing Exchange 2003

[el_vago32 0]

Hi guys, I need serious help on implementing an Exchange server. Let's say I'm a dummie on this area, but at least I have started to do something. The basic problem that I have is that I can receive e-mails ONLY from my internal network (of course, I can SEND emails inside and out of my network), but , this is, I suposse, because my Exchange server isn't public on the internet. So here is what I've done:

 

1-We have a domain name on Businesspremium.com named unicomputos.com and I created a sub domain (for testing purposes) named exchange.unicomputos.com, and set up its IP to our Internet address which is a fixed IP (200.42.211.176, yeh hack me :-P).

 

2-We have a Netgear firewall in our network, so I've fowarded the ports 25 and 110 to my local exchange server (192.168.0.8).

 

...But nothing happens, so i made a search on the web, and this forum too, and I've founded that I need to "do something" with my MX Records, and here is where all of my doubts appear: businesspremium.com does not allow me to do anything with the MX records (first I supossed it had to do something with them), so i guess that I have to talk to my ISP to do this work, am I right?, also, I'm not really sure about what kind of information would They ask me to do this, remember I'm a newbie, so I'm pretty unsure about all this.

 

Hope I've explained myself clearly (my english is not vey good), and hope that u guys can help me, 'cause I'm really curious about how all this Exchange stuffs work.

 

PS: I'll also like u to recomend me an Step-By-Step guide on implementing Exchange 2k3, since what I've done I've done it "on the fly", u know, test and fail, so I dont have any guarantees of it to work.

[AndyFair 0]

You need to update your MX record so that it points to your IP address from your ISP. It looks as though BusinessPremium do allow you to change the MX record for your domain - see this page. Bear in mind that once you've changed the MX record, it could take up to 48 hours to propogate around the internet, so your server probably won't start receiving mail straight away.

 

It looks as though you've got most of the other bits in place - the easy way to check that it's working is to telnet into your IP address (from another address) using port 25. If it's working, you should be able to send yourself an e-mail (see this page for the commands that you should use.

 

Hope this helps

AndyF

[el_vago32 0]

Ok, thanks for the pages with the commands, it will be very useful.

 

I've seen that page from BP before, and it looks so easy to do, but the thing is that we're hosted with them, but with Sleekhost....so, when I tried to update my MX records using the procedure that they give on the page, I found this:

 

"NO HOSTING ACCOUNTS

 

You have not purchased any web hosting accounts yet. Click here to purchase."

 

So, as I have nothing, I cant modify anything, that's the problem as far as now. I'll try sending them a mail to ask the procedure in this case, because I really dont think it has to do with sleekhost.

[el_vago32 0]

"...the thing is that we're hosted with them.."

 

sorry, I meant "We are NOT hosted with business premium, but with sleekhost"

[AndyFair 0]

So I'm confused - if you're hosted with sleekhost, where does Business Premium come in?

[el_vago32 0]

We bought the name "unicomputos.com" at business premium, but sleekhost is providing us the hosting.

 

BTW, their support (sleekhost) sucks big time!, they haven't answered yet ;(

 

ok, here is one more question, what should I do so i can access the OWA interface from outside of my network?, which ports do i have to redirect?..i heard i had to open the ports 135,137,138,139; i did so, but nothing happens.

[Mtwapa 0]

Ok, Here goes, i totally understand if no one wants to reply to this..but i would be grateful if someone did.Basically i have been landed in S**t and have to get something sorted and don't know where to begin.

 

I have a Negear router plugged into my main server through one network card. I then have a NAT firewall forwarding my internet connection to another card on the server which goes out to my switch which then gives internet access to the pc's and 2 other windows 2003 servers.

 

If i manged to build 3 servers and they are all working fine then surely i can have a go at making exchange work.

 

I have followed the Exchange server setup implicitly and i think did everything as it should be. I can now send emails with the correct domain name, but as you imagined, i can't recieve.

 

The domain is hosted by another company and they are hosting our website. Now here come the stupid questions.

 

1. Is it possible for someone to host a wesbite with the same domain in a seperate location. I.e if www.2003.com was the website and i wanted ...@2003.com as the email address but not hosted in the same location (i.e different IP's) is it possible ?

 

2. How would i port forward port 25 to the exchange server ? would i do it on the netgear router ? or would i do it in the Nat setting somewhere ?? has anyone else ever heard of this kind of setup ? Even more stupid.. when you talk about Ports.. are you talking about TCP ports ?

 

3. Do you think i should have the exchange server coming straight off the netgear router ??

 

Ok stupid questions over..

 

Many thanks to those that think they can help this stupid person.

 

Thanks

[nievelc 0]

Okey dokey matey, not gonna reveal all the secrets to you straight away, will first suggest, if you ever need to forward ports from a hardware dsl router eg. netgear dg834 then best thing to do is rtfm then check out www.portforward.com, all shall be revealed!!

 

With the point you made about the email requests going to the seperate IP then this is also possible as OSI model will dictate.

 

-HTTP requests (port 80) will be forwarded to your webserver

-SMTP requests (port 25) will be forwarded to your email server

 

To achieve these goals you will need to liase with your isp to update their DNS records and add the ip of your webserver to your domain name. Then also asks for the Email (SMTP) requests to be forwarded to the ip of your email server. done diggy done.