[texastig]

We have sbs2003(premium) and exchange 2003 setup correctly. We are not hosting our domain on it. We can send and receive emails through the pop3 connector and our default smtp connector.
But we have one problem. We have a branch office. I have the user of the branch office on the sbs2003 system for our GAL. When someone emails him, the email sits on the server and never goes to our isps mail and the user cannot get his email from the isp server.
Someone might say, why not let the user in our server remotely. We really don't
want to open up the server for security reasons.
Is there someway to get the users email to move off of the exchange server to
our isp's server so he can download his email from the isp from his branch office?
We could remove his user info from the server but he won't show up on the GAL.

Please advise thanks.

[jasonboche]

What is different about this user's Active Directory ID, mailbox, Domain or UPN suffix that would make it different from all other users who have no problem getting their mail relayed from your Exchange server to the ISP?

Or is this user the only user that you are attempting to relay email to the external ISP?

[texastig]

The only difference is that this user is a branch user.
At our office here we all can email each other fine and
send out email to other domains.
The branch user gets email(I can see it through OWA on the server).
But we need it to forward to our isp's email server so he can download
it from the branch location.
We don't want to open OWA to the world.
Is there anyway to forward the branch user email to our isp so the user
can download it?
Yes, we are trying to relay his email to our isp and I don't know how.
Thanks for the help.

[jasonboche]

Originally Posted by texastig

The only difference is that this user is a branch user.
At our office here we all can email each other fine and
send out email to other domains.

At your office, are you using Outlook connected to a corporate Exchange server via SMTP and MAPI profiles?

Email destined for domains out on the internet get routed by your corporate Exchange server (as opposed to the internet SMTP/POP3 server)?

Originally Posted by texastig

The branch user gets email(I can see it through OWA on the server).
But we need it to forward to our isp's email server so he can download
it from the branch location.

Do you know the steps to create a forwarding address in Exchange? Interestingly enough, I covered this on another forum just a few days ago. Here's a copy/paste:

Exchange accounts can be set up to forward to other SMTP Email addresses on an account by account basis.

From my MS Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant book, page 110-111:

"Any messages sent to a user's mailbox can be forwarded to another recipient. The recipient could be another user or mail-enabled contact. You can also specify that messages should be delivered to both the forwarding address and the current mailbox.

To configure mail forwarding, follow these steps:
1. Open the properties dialog box for the mail-enabled user account by double-clicking the user name in ADU&C.

2. On the Exchange General tab, click Delivery Options. To remove forwarding, in the Forwarding Address panel , choose none.

3. To add forwarding, choose Forward To, and then click Modify". Obviously this is where you add the SMTP address of the mailbox you want the mail forwarded to.

Originally Posted by texastig

We don't want to open OWA to the world.
Is there anyway to forward the branch user email to our isp so the user
can download it?
Yes, we are trying to relay his email to our isp and I don't know how.
Thanks for the help.

Yes, see the steps above.

[texastig]

Jason, thanks for your kind help.
Yes, we are using outlook 2000 to connect to our exchange server via smtp and mapi.
We are not on a domain.

Yes, the email to other domains gets routed by our server.

I need the branch users mail to forward to our isps server instead of our exchange server.
If I take the branch user off of our server this works fine but now we can't
see him in the GAL.
Is it possible to keep the branch user on the GAL and to also forward his
mail to our isps server without getting hooked into a loop?

Thanks again for the help.

[jasonboche]

Originally Posted by texastig

Jason, thanks for your kind help.
Yes, we are using outlook 2000 to connect to our exchange server via smtp and mapi.
We are not on a domain.

Yes, the email to other domains gets routed by our server.

I need the branch users mail to forward to our isps server instead of our exchange server.
If I take the branch user off of our server this works fine but now we can't
see him in the GAL.

I don't understand how removing the branch user from the Exchange server solves the problem. At that point, the branch user only has an ISP mailbox to which all users must send him/her email. The problem is now the branch user is no longer in the GAL, cannot be invited to meetings real well using Outlook, etc. Perhaps you could explain this a little for me.

Originally Posted by texastig

Is it possible to keep the branch user on the GAL and to also forward his
mail to our isps server without getting hooked into a loop?

What loop? Yes, I believe that if you follow the steps above, this should work. Here's how I imagine the process would flow once the steps above are set up for mail forwarding:

1. Sally sends email to Branch user's Exchange account
2. Exchange server delivers Sally's email to branch user's Exchange inbox
3. Acting on the forwarding rules outlined above, Exchange also forwards a copy of Sally's email to branchuser@externalisp.com mailbox
4. Branch user checks externalisp.com mailbox, reads Sally's email. Branch user can reply as necessary. Reply goes to Sally, not branch user's exchange inbox (thus no loop).
5. Branch user inbox on Exchange server will continue to accumulate Email until a) someone cleans out branch user's inbox b) in the forwarding rules, specify that mail only be forwarded to ISP and not be delivered to branch user's Exchange inbox.

Hope that helps.

Jas

[texastig]

Thanks for your continuing help.
(loop=bounce)
Jason said,
"I don't understand how removing the branch user from the Exchange server solves the problem. At that point, the branch user only has an ISP mailbox to which all users must send him/her email. The problem is now the branch user is no longer in the GAL, cannot be invited to meetings real well using Outlook, etc. Perhaps you could explain this a little for me."

Removing the branch user from exchange will allow a user in our company to
email the branchuser in our company as long as "Forward all mail with unresolved recipients to host" has our isp's smtp address in it. If we don't use "Forward all mail" we get back a NDR because the branch user is not on exchange.
If the branch user is still on exchange, the branch user will not get that email because it's on the exchange server. Exchange does not forward the email to our ips's mail server for the branch user to retrieve.
(I hope I didn't loose you there)

If I go by MS Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant book, page 110-111 and put the branch users email address in the forwarding box, exchange sends me an email saying this:

"Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: test
Sent: 5/3/2006 11:29 AM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

Branch User on 5/3/2006 11:29 AM
A configuration error in the e-mail system caused the message to bounce between two servers or to be forwarded between two recipients. Contact your administrator.
<company.com #5.4.6>"

The problem is this. We are in the same company. If I have the branch user on exchange then my email that I sent him sits on exchange and never gets sent to our ISP's email server.
I need my email message to go to the ISP's email server and the only way that I've found this to work is to remove the user from exchange and to use the "forward all mail" to our ISP's email server.

Here's a modification of your process:
1. Sally@company.com sends email to Branch user's Exchange account at branchuser@company.com (same company)
(We don't have a domain, we just use the pop3 connector and smtp to move email.)

2. Exchange server delivers Sally's email to branch user's Exchange inbox.
(This is correct. But since we don't want to open up our exchange server to the world, the branch user cannot come into the exchange server to get his email. His email sits on the exchange server and he can't get it. We need that email to go to our ISP's email server so branch user can get it.)

3. Acting on the forwarding rules outlined above, Exchange also forwards a copy of Sally's email to branchuser@company.com mailbox
(I tried that and it bounces back with a NDR because we are from the same company).

4. Branch user checks externalisp.com mailbox, reads Sally's email. Branch user can reply as necessary. Reply goes to Sally, not branch user's exchange inbox (thus no loop).
(Branch user cannot check externalisp.com mailbox because the email that Sally sent to branchuser is on the exchange server).

5. Branch user inbox on Exchange server will continue to accumulate Email until a) someone cleans out branch user's inbox b) in the forwarding rules, specify that mail only be forwarded to ISP and not be delivered to branch user's Exchange inbox.
(a)User has to get his email, we cannot clean it out. b) is what I need, but if I use the forwarding rules I get a bouced message back. If (b) is possible how can I stop the bouced message?

Thanks again for the help.

[teiger]

I don't really follow all the nuances in this thread, but this is a case of you can't have your cake and eat it ( as I understand it). There are some pay-offs for not letting your branch office user in to your system.
Another problem may be if your internal DNS domain is the same as your external e-mail address ie domain.com both internally and externally.
Having said that, if you don't have these limitations, leave your user in Active Directory and create a Contact with the address of the branch user. Then in the original AD user, tell it to forward all mail to the Contact you created (without leaving a copy in the mailbox). Finally go back to the Advanced tab of the Contact and tick "Hide from Exchange Address List" . To your users, it will appear as if he is in the GAL, your branch office user will have all his mail delivered to him, but will not fully participate in items like tasks and meetings as he will be effectively outside the organisation.

[texastig]

teiger the server is telling me that the "mail address already exists in this organization".
I followed your steps exactly.
Please advise.
Thanks for the help.

[teiger]

Of course if you have installed the SBS as domain.com and your external addresses are domain com and the user is called "user", then obviously the user@domain.com exists in the Active Directory. In that case what you need to do is create the Internal user with a different name and/or email address so that internally he is know as branchuser@domain.com, but externally as user@domain.com.