Well it has been a few weeks now since I got my server going and I had yet to get Exchange fully functional. I had only got as far as installing it and having all the services running, but hadn’t hooked it up to my websites or started using it rather than my web server’s POP3 email accounts.

I have started studying for my 70-284 (Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003), so that inspired me to get everything going; especially as it’s exactly what I am learning about right now. I have actually decided that I will sit this exam next as I am finding it very interest (and a little easy!) and it will break up the studies a bit. I want to do the exam within the next 2 weeks as I really need to get some of these exams out of the way and get back on my certification war path.

I really didn’t have that much to do, and I’m pleased to say everything went exactly to plan and I had everything hooked up and working in no time at all; a pleasant surprise to the norm. So I changed my domain’s MX records to point to my FQDN address, which is a dynamic forwarder (as I have a dynamic IP from my ISP, the router updates this FQDN any time it changes). Then I setup the following port forwards to my server:

• 80 – HTTP (already activated for other services)
• 25 – SMTP
• 110 – POP3
• 443 – Outlook Web Access
• 389 – LDAP (required for remote access user authentication)
• 143 – IMAP4

Then I enabled and started the POP3 and IMAP services (for access on PC’s I have linked to other Domains & Exchange Accounts) and I was in business. Too easy!

I did hit one stumbling block though. I want to use one exchange account which is configured with 2 SMTP accounts for different domain names (Pixsoul and XXIV) which works perfectly for receiving email from either account. However when you send email it address it from the default SMTP account, so you can only send email from one of the accounts – no choice. I have done a lot of playing and poking around but it appears the only way to have this work is to create 2 separate user accounts in AD, linking each individual email to their accounts…I will keep searching though and post up on the success / failure of that tomorrow.