Question : Exchange 2003 Front End Not Sending External email

SMTP Connector Configuration

I am running Exchange 2003 with a Front-End / Back-End setup.  When I run the "Internet Mail Wizard" and designate my Front-End server to send and receive all email, All external email stops working.  When I look in the QUEUE's I see that all externally destined emails are in a queue with the name of my Back End server...

This is the report of what the Internet COnnection WIzard is producing:

      Server 'FRONTEND' has been selected as the Internet Gateway Server

      Inbound Configuration was selected:
      Your current settings for the SMTP Virtual Server 'Default SMTP Virtual Server' are:
      -Relay Restrictions = closed relay
      -Access Control / Authentication = Anonymous Access is enabled
      Your settings for the SMTP virtual server 'Default SMTP Virtual Server' will now be:
      -Relay Restrictions = closed relay
      -Access Control / Authentication = Anonymous Access is enabled
      -The domain(s) your server is configured to accept inbound mail for are the following authoritative inbound SMTP domains that are configured in Recipient Policies: mydomain.com;

      Outbound Configuration was selected:
      -New SMTP connector named 'Internet Mail SMTP Connector (FRONTEND)' will be created under routing group 'First Routing Group'
      -SMTP Virtual Server 'Default SMTP Virtual Server' is configured as the Outbound Bridgehead with the following settings:
      -Uses DNS to send email
      -Allows delivery to all Internet e-mail domains

      Results:
      Successfully created the SMTP connector 'Internet Mail SMTP Connector (FRONTEND)'
      Successfully modified the SMTP Virtual Server 'Default SMTP Virtual Server'


When I delete the SMTP connector that the Internet Mail Wizard creates, external email is sent and received, but it is being delivered from the back-end server.  This is causing problems delivering email to sites that do reverse DNS lookup as the sending server and the dns entry for my domain do not match.  

The SMTP Virtual Servers on both the front end and the back end do not have smarthosts configured.  The FQDN checks out in DNS as mapping to the FE.

How can I make sure email is sent and received from the front-end?

Answer : Exchange 2003 Front End Not Sending External email

Got it.

The FQDN was te same on both the front end and the back end.  Also, I had an MX record in my local DNS.  

1) I changed the backend FQDN to backend.mydomain.com and deleted the MX Record.  
2) Replicated the AD, restarted the Exchange Routing and SMTP services on both the front end and back end.  
3) Then ran iisreset on both the front end and back end.

It took about 5 minutes after the services came back online for it to start working again.