Hello everyone I'm running Server 2003 SBS SP1 with Exchange 2003 and only recently it seems to of developed a problem whereby messages to certain domains will stay in the queue. Nothing has changed and this problems seems to of developed on its own. We can receive messages from the effected domains no problem and further, we can send and receive to and from other domains as normal. One of the main culprits is ntlworld.com, not that I think that is relevant, but hey. I'm having to keep a constant eye on it and have been going into the queue and right clicking on the entry for that domain and selecting the force connection option to clear it down. This seems to then clear the queue for this domain until the next message is sent to it. I'm not overly familiar with dealing with Exchange myself and pretty much rely on sites such as this for input, sorry! I have tried pausing/ stopping and starting the SMTP protocol, but this didn't seem to do anything. When I go into the queues, those domains effected are in a perpetual state of 'Retry' and if I then go in to have a look at the messages in the queue, they're all sat at a state of 'Queued' and can be sat there like this for days. I would guess there is perhaps a policy in place to queue messages to these domains for manual intervention? Any ideas? Thanks

I would ask you to check if your sending ip is blacklisted. or if your PTR record is in place see below link http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx I would also ask you t increase Logging enable for SMTP In ESM expand server and then expand protocols expand SMTP right click on Default SMTP vs in the general tab click on check box which says enable logging. then send couple of test mails you will get some idea why those domains are not accepting mails from your domain. also you can telnet to those remote domains and try to submit message and see of the delivery is successful. If it is that means their anti spam /third party software may be blocking your emails Vinod |CCNA|MCSE 2003 +Messaging|MCTS|ITIL V3|

Thanks Vinod.The sending IP is not blacklisted and I've enabled logging, so we'll see how things go.I wouldn't have thought any anti spam or otherwise would be blocking anything as when I force connection the emails go and the recipients confirm that they've got the mails through. The problem is also not a single recipient but all recipients at that domain, for example, we have 3 frequently used contacts with @ntlworld.com addresses and all their mails get queued until I go in and hit force connection.Cheers.

I think your serverencountered the Greylisting problem,Patches to try out.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934709/en-ushttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/934709and also you can try to modify the GlitchRetry value. 60 seconds often seems to workhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998772(EXCHG.65).aspxlasse at humandata dot se, http://anewmessagehasarrived.blogspot.com

So far so good, I haven't had to do anything with your response yet Lasse, but many thanks for taking the time to post - I may need it later, who knows.The only thing I've changed is enabling logging, and so far, no queues!I'll update this thread in a day or so to confirm all is still well.Cheers.

Even without logging you should see some information on why the message has not been delivered in the Queue Viewer: it may be something like can't find destination domain, connection refused, timed out, etc. make sure you can SMTP to the destination domain from your Exchange Front End server.TBrennan

Hi, There is a "Additional queue information" in the bottom of queue viewer, you can check it for more information. A related article for your reference: How to use Queue Viewer to troubleshoot mail flow issues in Exchange Server 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823489/en-us. If the issue reoccurs, please check your SMTP log. If you can't identify the problem, feel free to paste it here for our discussion. Thanks, Elvis

This issue seems to of gone away now completely. Following my last response I also updated to SP2 and I haven't had a re-occurance since. Thanks everyone.LM