IMC partial hangs

[Herold Heiko]

Exchange 5.5sp4, IMC not directly reachable from the outside (push/receive
to an external smtp gateway).
Lately the IMC hanged various times, exactly we seem to:

- receive a particular email, a message il logged: A message from
[EMAIL PROTECTED] in temporary file C:\EXCHSRVR\imcdata\in\X2QQCAY2 was
received from mail.previnet.it with 4 local recipients. 

- other operations continue to work flawlessly

- that message becomes stuck, nothing else is logged regarding to it, the
message is not delivered, the X2QQCAY2 (or whatever) files stays.

- stopping the service does not succeed, kill of the MSEXCIMC process is
needed

- by removing that file from imcdata\in restart succeeds

- if that file stays in imcdata\in at imc start it will become stuck again.

In technet I found lots of articles regarding IMC stops (which it does not),
only a few regarding IMC hangs, nothing (apparently) relevant.

Only similarity I found yet (by eyeball inspection) between those email are:

- about half of them are forwards of emails containing rightfax fax
notifications with the images (TIF) attached. Usual mime decoders like
decode shell extension do decode the attachments without problems. There
are at least two instances where the remote senders were notified of a
problem (we did not receiver yet your urgent email), and forwarded the
message several times directly or by another mailbox in the same (remote)
organization. These emails were stuck, too.

- the other half of those messages seem to be reply to all (without
attachments) to some our emails where the original messages had a CC to
internal recipients without smtp addresses, so those recipients became auto
converted in the our outbound email to the form
IMCEAEX-_O=org_OU=site_CN=container_CN=alias@our domain
and the stuck message was a reply to that address (being a reply to all).
That conversion to IMCEAEX won't happen anymore, now every recipient does
have a smtp address, the filtering of internal mailboxes without access to
internet is done differently, but there are still lots of old emails around
people can reply to.
I'm now going to filter those IMCEAEX recipients on the gateway box, still
the first half of the stuck messages doesn't have these recipients so I
don't think that's the real problem (at least not the whole of it).

Also, the stuck emails I do have available (earlier ones unfortunately
haven't been saved) all have a X-Mailer header Internet Mail Service
(5.5.2653.19).

Any ideas ?
Thanks
Heiko

-- 
-- PREVINET S.p.A. www.previnet.it
-- Heiko Herold [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-- +39-041-5907073 ph
-- +39-041-5907472 fax

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RE: Connecting Dubai office

[Exchange List]

Hi Ed,

I am running separate SMTP server on Microsoft IIS 5.0 with GFI Mail Essential and GFI 
Mail Security. We will be having 128K VPN between Dubai and Pakistan. 

Also, I am planning to place secondary SMTP server using send mail (secondary MX 
record) in dubai as part of contingency plan.

regards,
Irf.
-Original Message-
From: Ed Crowley [MVP] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 10:46 PM
To: Exchange Discussions
Subject: RE: Connecting Dubai office


Define what you mean by SMTP gateway server.  By that, do you mean a
separate server running some other product, a dedicated server running
Exchange, or an SMTP Connector on the Exchange box?

Your decision should be determined by your business needs.  Some companies
want all their e-mail going through a single headquarters portal so that it
can be content and/or virus filtered, monitored, and/or easily shut-off in
the event of a crisis.

Other organizations have poor wide area networks, so it makes sense for
their various offices to have their own Internet presence.  Some even have
separate e-mail domains for their offices, such as pk.corp.com and
ae.corp.com perhaps in your case, so inbound mail can be routed directly to
the offices, taking the strain off their wide area network.

Ed Crowley MCSE+Internet MVP
Freelance E-Mail Philosopher
Protecting the world from PSTs and Bricked Backups!T

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Exchange List
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 8:55 PM
To: Exchange Discussions
Subject: RE: Connecting Dubai office

hi Ed, 

Country-A (Pakistan) andCountry-B (UAE, Dubai)
3 servers placed geographically Running Lotus Notes Separately.

Also how can I make it a routeable network with respect to SMTP, Is it a
good idea to place one SMTP gateway server in Dubai as MX-2 for contingency.

Regards,
Irf.

-Original Message-
From: Ed Crowley [MVP] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 7:50 AM
To: Exchange Discussions
Subject: RE: Connecting Dubai office


From what you've described, I think it's a valid approach, but your lack of
detail and changing of names (Dubai to Country-A or Country-B) doesn't give
me great confidence. 

Ed Crowley MCSE+Internet MVP
Freelance E-Mail Philosopher
Protecting the world from PSTs and Bricked Backups!T

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Exchange List
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 12:57 AM
To: Exchange Discussions
Subject: Connecting Dubai office

Country-A Existing Environment:
Windows 2000, Exchange 2000.

Three mail servers placed geographically, for all outbound and inbound mails
we have single point of entry.

Country-B Existing Environment:
Lotus Notes.

I am planning to install exchange 2000 in Country-B within the same existing
w2k and e2k environment, all outbound mails will use there Internet Access,
for inbound I will use my SMTP placed in Country-A. 

I will add their old domain as a second domain in Country-A Exchange server
and create their mailboxes so that they can receive mails from old domain.

Please let me know if this is a correct approach. I need your input
specially, on single point of entry for Internet Mails.

Regards,
Irf.

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