Hi all,

just finished installing exchange 2013 and all went well.   Internally, everything works perfectly.   However, I then moved my testing externally.   Browsing to https://mydomain/owa times out - as does https://mydomain/ecp    Also, I cannot telnet to my mail server either:  telnet mydomain 25 times out.  I can though telnet mydomain 143 and telnet mydomain 110 no problem.

I have setup the receive connector as per the instructions (in fact, it was already setup) the frontend default allows anonymous access (as it should).  Windows firewall is off.  Router forwarding ports fine.

I can telnet 25 locally and as I said, everything works internally.    Clearly, there is another step that has to be taken to allow external access to the port 25 and also for owa and ecp.  I have double checked the SERVERS - VIRTUAL DIRECTORIES area and all the external url are correct.  Can someone help please?

If you can Telnet youdomain.com 110 from the Internet but not yourdomain.com 25 while at the same time you can Telnet the Exchange 2013 server 25 internally, my guess would be that something infront of Exchange is causing the issue.

Please verify/doubble check the port forwarding and any firewalls inbetween the Internet and your internal LAN.

Thanks Jesper - all I have in front of the server is a Router/Firewall.  Ports 25, 53, 80, 110, 143, 443, 993 are all forwarded to the Exchange Server.   I can web browse to http://mydomain.com and it works (well, I get the IIS page - access denied as it is setup for SSL only i presume).  I can't however get to https://mydomain.com as it times out - the same as the exchange url  https://mydomain.com/owa  

Does exchange listen on 443 ?  I read somewhere else about 8243 ?    I have checked IIS and it only seems to be 80 and 443.   This is very strange indeed.

regards

steve

Ok, I rechecked my router page by page and have found one solution .. .the https management page of the router defaults to 443 - so have changed that to 4443, rebooted router and can now access my http://mydomain/owa - so that is good.  However, still cannot telnet to port 25 on the exchange server from external.  The port forwarding is definitely correct for port 25.

I have rechecked the receive connector:  MAIL FLOW -  RECEIVE CONNECTORS - DEFAULT FRONTEND SERVER

and under security - anoymous users is checked.   That SHOULD let me connect yes?  But it does not.

Where else does this need to be changed - can you advise?

regards

steve

Cool. A bit further to a working Environment at least. :-)

Your settings sounds ok. What actually happens when you try telneting into Exchange remotely; timeout or?

Thanks Jesper - only firewall i have behind the router is the Windows Firewall on the Exchange box.  I have checked and port 25 is definitely ok.  However, I also turned windows firewall completely off - recheck and it still times out when trying to telnet from port 25 externally.  I have tried two different clients at two different locations just to be sure.

I can also confirm that I can instantly telnet localhost 25 on the exchange box

regards

steve

update - disabled recipient connector - enabled.  It works.     Hmm, bit buggy ?

problem resolved.

• Proposed as answer by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]Microsoft employee Thursday, March 28, 2013 12:14 PM
• Marked as answer by Frank.Wang Monday, April 01, 2013 2:36 AM

Hmm, seems to be a bit shakey. :-(

Glad you found a solution (?) to your problem. :-)

could you clarify this?

"update - disabled recipient connector - enabled."

what exactly do you mean by this?

thanks