Making Exchange treat email address specified in AD user properies as external

Question

This is a strange requirement, but for demo purposes we need this. We have a test domain with Exchange 2003 and MOSS 2007. For an external demo (the SharePoint is published on the Internet) we've decided to give our AD account an external email: [email protected]. The problem is that now the Exchange in our test domain would treat this email address as local and would not send outbound messages with this address.

Is it possible to configure the Exchange, the AD User or SharePoint so that SharePoint picks up the external email and the Exchange treats the address as external when SharePoint sends notifications using that address?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I don't know where SharePoint gets its list of email recipients, but the following should do what you want on the Exchange side:

• Remove the "[email protected]" address from the AD user account if you haven't already.

• Create a mail-enbled contact object in the Active Directory and assign it the email address "[email protected]".

• Add the newly-created contact as an alternative delivery recipient on the "Exchange General" tab of the user's properties by clicking "Delivery Options", selecting the "Forward To" radio button, clicking "Modify", and choosing the newly-created contact from the AD. Optionally check the "Deliver messages to both forwarding address and mailbox" if you so choose.

That will get Exchange to deliver mail to that user to an external email address.

Answer 2

I'm not sure I completely understand your question, but if you open up the user in Active Directory Users and Computers, and choose the Exchange General Tab, you should see a Delivery Options button where you can configure a forwarding rule. I have in the past used this to work with users who have external email accounts.