In our Exchang 2003 Org we have to SMTP connectors for outbound Internet mails. One is at HQ with addrss space set to * and cost at 1. The other one is set address space to * and cost to 2. Both offices have direct Intenet access but the plan is to make the non-HQ one as a backup. What I found is that when users at non-HQ office sent Internet email it went out through local gateway server (FE) instead the one at HQ. I guess Exchange 2003 link state figured out that is the best route. How can I force the mail flow to go through HQ gateway server because we has an software to montior the emails. Don't want to pay the 2nd license and server to monitor outbound emails at non-HQ office. Thanks.

Are the two servers in the same Routing Group?Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

No, different Routing Group

Check the SMTP connector and make sure it's not scoped locally and the Entire Org can use it. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/265293Sukh

The Connector Scope are set to "entire org" for both Connectors. HQ one is set cost 1 and non-HQ one is set to 2. But I thought Ex2003 uses link state information to calculate the route first then the specified cost. Is that correct? If so, I won't be able to force SMTP traffice at non-HQ site to go through HQ FE. Idea?

If the SMTP connector at non-HQ is avaliable then Exch will try and use that before it consider the cost. What you can try is set restrictions on the connector to an AD group and leave that empty, and see if Exch then uses the SMTP connector at HQ.Sukh

Cost is not the first factor in determining a route to be used, in fact it's way down the list. You may be correct that routing determined the local SMTP connector might have been down.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."