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I have an exchange 2003 email server that outgoing emails do not appear to be going out.

The emails get as far as the email queue and don't get any further.

I am getting lots of messages like the following:

Message delivery to the host '129.35.70.45' failed while delivering to the remote domain 'comet.co.uk' for the following reason: The remote server did not respond to a connection attempt.

This leading me to think it might be something to do with my DNS settings, as my exchange server is also acting as a domain controller.

Incoming emails are working fine and the servers internet connetion is working fine.

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    Can you resolve the MX records of any of the remote domains from the Exchange server? It would appear so from the info in your post but it's best to verify that. Can you establish a telnet session to port 25 on any of the remote email servers from the Exchange server?
    – joeqwerty
    Oct 19, 2010 at 12:31

3 Answers 3

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Just to add some value. To get the MX record(s) for a domain:

nslookup
set type=MX
<domain>

e.g:

c:\>nslookup
Default Server: <your DNS>
Address: <your DNS IP>

> set type=MX
> redhat.com
Server: <your DNS>
Address: <your DNS IP>

Non-authoritative answer:
redhat.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mx2.redhat.com
redhat.com MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = mx1.redhat.com

mx1.redhat.com internet address = 209.132.183.28
mx2.redhat.com internet address = 66.187.233.33
>

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A are you certain that that company/entity is properly configured? Can you contact them otherwise? (i.e. call them) Can you telnet to their MX record?

If your other name resolution-related activities are working, I'd be loathe to say that your DNS is broken. If you can send mail to other outside entities without issue, chances are that that organization has something broken...

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As Joeqwerty asks, can you telnet to the destination IP address on port 25? If you can't telnet on port 25 to any hosts, then it would suggest a possible firewall issue at your end?

Also, does your server resolve to the correct IP address - maybe do an nslookup against the mx of the destination and compare the address against the same lookup on www.mxtoolbox.com? This should tell you if its the DNS at fault or not.

Couple of other things to take into consideration:

  • Do you use a smarthost for routing, or just use dns (i assume as per your comments, that you use dns).
  • Did this ever work?
  • Check your servers internet address against blacklists (again - www.mxtoolbox.com)

Best of luck

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