Managing Smart Host

Updated: August 21, 2008

Applies To: Windows SBS 2008

Using a Smart Host server for outbound e-mail delivery can help secure your organization's e-mail. A Smart Host server is an e-mail relay server, which allows an SMTP server to route e-mail messages to an intermediate server rather than directly to the recipient’s server. This may help prevent other servers from falsely identifying your outbound e-mail messages as spam. If you designate a Smart Host server, all outgoing messages are routed to that Smart Host server, which may be more direct and less costly than other connections.

Important

E-mail messages are normally transmitted through the Internet in clear text, which is not secure for transmitting sensitive information. The messages may be encrypted from your server to the Smart Host server or from the inbound server to your server. However, between the Smart Host server and the recipient's server, the message may be in clear text. Make sure that the Smart Host server that you designate is secure and that it is administered by a trusted authority, especially when forwarding sensitive information.

For information about configuring Internet mail to use a Smart Host server, see “Configuring Internet Mail in Windows Small Business Server 2008” at the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=106489).