Microsoft KB Archive/279404

= XCON: Mail Is Processed Outbound to the Internet When Using a &quot;*&quot; Address Space =

Article ID: 279404

Article Last Modified on 10/28/2006

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Standard Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q279404



SYMPTOMS
When you configure the Exchange Server 5.5 Internet Mail Service with an address space of &quot;*&quot; that is restricted to a site scope, when you send mail from a remote site, the mail is still processed as outbound to the Internet by the Internet Mail Service.



CAUSE
In Exchange 5.5, the Message Transfer Agent (MTA) is responsible for all routing decisions in the site. The MTA routes on a hop-by-hop basis, and is not aware of previous MTA routing decisions. When mail enters this site, the local MTAs realize that the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) route is available. They then route the mail to the local Internet Mail Service.



STATUS
This behavior is by design.



MORE INFORMATION
The explanation in this section is based on the following scenario:
 * : (Internet Mail Service scope setting: Organization)
 * : (Internet Mail Service scope setting: This Site)
 * Both Internet Mail Services have an address space of &quot;*&quot; and a cost of 1.
 * All servers in  and   are Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 3 (SP3) builds.
 * is connected to  by a site connector;   and   are connected to one or more downstream sites  by X.400 connectors.
 * SiteB is a hub for

To configure the scope settings for the Internet Mail Service, follow these steps:


 * 1) Start the Exchange Administrator program.
 * 2) Right-click Internet Mail Service, click Properties, and then click the Address Space tab.
 * 3) Edit the properties of the address space, and then click the Restrictions tab.
 * 4) The scope setting is set to Organization by default. The two other options for scope are This Site and This Location.

If you configure the scope setting for the Internet Mail Service in  to This Site, the SMTP route is not known or replicated outside of this site. The MTAs in  are only aware of the SMTP address space setting for  ; therefore, they route Internet mail to. On the way to, mail passes through. When mail bound for the Internet enters this site, it is routed correctly because the MTAs in  are aware of a local SMTP route.

If you configure the scope setting to This Location, the route is only known to the present server, or group of servers in this site. If Internet mail is processed by this server or group of servers (location), mail may be routed to the scoped address space.

Additional query words: routing IMC IMS

Keywords: kbprb KB279404

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.