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I have an Exchange 2003 server currently using MXLogic as a smarthost, relaying all outbound mail through it. I confirmed this by sending mail outside the domain and checking the headers.

I need to modify the smarthost I'm using, but I can't find these settings anywhere! The only SMTP connector visible to me is one for the *.yahoo.com address space, and it uses DNS to route mail, not MXLogic.

This is the only Exchange server in the organization.

Where did my SMTP connector go? How does mail leave this server if there's no SMTP connector matching the address space of the recipient?

  • I can't find any instance of 'mxlogic' in the system registry, or within files on disk besides the Exchange MDBs
  • No MXLogic or other Symantec software is installed on the server
  • I restarted all Exchange services. Exchange system manager view Closeup of the only available SMTP connector
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Exchange Server 2003 doesn't automatically create or use an SMTP Connector. All mail flow is handled by the default SMTP Virtual Server component (listed under the Protocols node under your server in ESM). An SMTP Connector (as shown in your screen shot) is created and configured manually by the administrator when you need to define/apply specific conditions/restrictions for email. An SMTP Connector is only created automatically by Exchange when you have more than one Exchange server in your Exchange Organization.

In your case, all email is sent out via the default SMTP Virtual Server component of your server, but it's acted upon differently based on whether it matches the condition of your SMTP Connector. If you had more than one Exchange server in your Exchange Organization it would be easier to understand the purpose and use of SMTP Connectors, as you could have email matching a certain condition of the SMTP Connector being handled by a different Exchange server (via it's SMTP Virtual Server).

Here's a very good article on the subject:

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/configuring-smtp-connector.html

The concept of Routing Groups, SMTP Connectors and Routing Group Connectors is more intuitive if you have multiple Exchange servers in the Exchange organization. With only a single server it can get a little confusing as to what these components are for and how they work.

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  • Thanks for the excellent reply, Joe. I feel silly for having missed that one- I forgot that it's possible to set a smarthost per-server. The exact place I needed to look was Default SMTP Server properties>Delivery tab>Advanced to find the Smart host field. Thank you!
    – ndespres
    Aug 17, 2012 at 14:32
  • Glad to help...
    – joeqwerty
    Aug 17, 2012 at 14:35

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