How to Create a New Receive Connector

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell to create a new Receive connector for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

In Exchange 2007, the Receive connector is a "receive listener." This means that the Receive connector is listening for incoming connections that match the settings of the Receive connector. A Receive connector listens for connections that are received through a particular port and from a specified IP address or IP address range. You can also set limits on the number of active connections that are supported by the Receive connector.

Note

If Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is deployed on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008, you can enter IP addresses and IP address ranges in the Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) format, Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) format, or both formats. A default installation of Windows Server 2008 enables support for IPv4 and IPv6. For more information about Exchange 2007 SP1 support for IPv6 addresses, see IPv6 Support in Exchange 2007 SP1 and SP2.

After you install the Edge Transport server role and the Hub Transport server role, you run the EdgeSync process to complete configuration of the Receive connectors that are required for mail flow to and from the Internet and between the Edge Transport server and the Exchange organization. If your organization requires a Receive connector with specific configuration options, or if you do not use the EdgeSync process, you must manually configure Receive connectors. For more information about the Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service, see Subscribing the Edge Transport Server to the Exchange Organization.

Before You Begin

Before you perform this procedure, read Receive Connectors for a detailed description of the information that you must provide to create a Receive connector.

Determine the specific usage type for this connector so that you can correctly configure the connector attributes. The usage type that you select for a Receive connector determines the default authentication mechanisms and permissions assigned to that connector. If you do not specify a usage type, the default selection is Custom, and no security settings are automatically configured.

All Receive connectors require a name and a unique combination of the local binding, port, and remote network settings. The name identifies the connector. The binding is the IP address that is assigned to a network adapter on the local server. The port is the communication port through which that network adapter accepts Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) connections. The default setting is port 25 on all available IP addresses. The remote network settings are the IP address ranges from which this connector accepts incoming connections. For more information about the default settings for Receive connectors, see Receive Connectors.

To perform the following procedures, the account you use must be delegated the following:

  • Exchange Server Administrator role and local Administrators group for the target server

To perform the following procedures on a computer that has the Edge Transport server role installed, you must log on by using an account that is a member of the local Administrators group on that computer.

For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Exchange 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Procedure

To use the Exchange Management Console to create a new Receive connector

  1. Open the Exchange Management Console. Perform one of the following steps:

    1. On a computer that has the Edge Transport server role installed, select Edge Transport, and then in the work pane, click the Receive Connectors tab.

    2. To create a Receive connector on a Hub Transport server role, in the console tree, expand Server Configuration, and select Hub Transport. In the result pane, select the server on which you want to create the connector, and then click the Receive Connectors tab.

  2. In the action pane, click New Receive Connector. The New SMTP Receive Connector wizard starts.

  3. On the Introduction page, follow these steps:

    1. In the Name: field, type a meaningful name for this connector. This name is used to identify the connector.

    2. In the Select the intended use for this connector: field, select the usage type for this connector. The usage type determines the permissions that are granted to sessions that connect to the Receive connector and the supported authentication mechanisms.

      Client   Client Receive connectors are used to receive e-mail from users of Microsoft Exchange. This connector will be configured to only accept client submissions from authenticated Microsoft Exchange users. The Client usage type is only available for Receive connectors that are configured on Hub Transport servers.

      Custom   Select this option to create a customized connector that will be used to connect with systems that are not Exchange servers.

      Internet   Internet Receive connectors are used to receive e-mail from servers on the Internet. This connector will be configured to accept connections from anonymous users.

      Note

      We strongly recommend against configuring Receive connectors to accept anonymous connections from unknown IPv6 addresses. If you configure a Receive connector to accept anonymous connections from unknown IPv6 addresses, the amount of spam that enters your organization is likely to increase. Currently, there is no broadly accepted industry standard protocol for looking up IPv6 addresses. Most IP Block List providers do not support IPv6 addresses. Therefore, if you allow anonymous connections from unknown IPv6 addresses on a Receive connector, you increase the chance that spammers will bypass IP Block List providers and successfully deliver spam into your organization.
      For more information about Exchange 2007 SP1 support for IPv6 addresses, see IPv6 Support in Exchange 2007 SP1 and SP2. For more information about connection filtering, how to add IP addresses to the IP Allow list and IP Block list, and how to configure IP Block List provider services and IP Allow List provider services, see Configuring Connection Filtering.

      Internal   Internal Receive connectors are used to receive e-mail from servers within your Exchange organization. This connector will be configured to only accept connections from Exchange servers.

      Partner   Partner Receive connectors are used to receive e-mail from partner domains. This connector will be configured to only accept connections from servers that authenticate with Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates for SMTP domains that are included in the list of domain-secured domains. You can add domains to this list by using the TLSReceiveDomainSecureList parameter in the Set-TransportConfig command.

      For more information about Receive connector usage types, see Receive Connectors. Click Next.

  4. On the Local network settings page, click Add. The Local network settings page appears only if you selected a usage type of Custom, Partner, or Internet in step 3. In the Add Receive Connector Binding dialog box, select one of the following options:

    1. Use all IP addresses available on this server   If you select this option, the connector listens for connections on all the IP addresses that are assigned to the network adapters on the local server.

    2. Specify an IP address   If you select this option, you must type an IP address that is assigned to a network adapter on the local server. The connector listens for connections only on the IP address that you provide.

      Note

      You must specify a local IP address that is valid for the Hub Transport server or Edge Transport server on which the Receive connector is located. If you specify an invalid local IP address, the Microsoft Exchange Transport service may fail to start when the service is restarted.

    3. On the Local network settings page, in the Port field, type a port number, and then click OK.

      To add multiple local IP addresses to this connector, click Add and repeat this step.

      To modify a previous entry, select the entry, and then click Edit.

      To remove an existing entry, select the entry, and then click Remove icon.

  5. On the Local network settings page, in the Specify the FQDN this connector will provide in response to HELO or EHLO field, type the name that is advertised in response to the SMTP HELO or EHLO verb. If you leave this field blank, the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Hub Transport server or Edge Transport server is automatically added when the connector is created. Click Next.

  6. On the Remote network settings page, enter the IP address or IP address range of the remote servers from which the connector will accept incoming connections. The Remote network settings page appears only if you selected a usage type of Custom, Partner, Internal or Client in step 3. To add the remote IP address or remote IP address range, use one of the following methods:

    • To enter an IP address or subnet without a subnet mask, or to specify the subnet mask by using Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR) notation, click Add or the drop-down arrow located next to Add and select IP Address. In the Add IP address(es) of Remote Servers dialog box, enter the IP address by using one of the following methods:

      IP address without a subnet mask   For example, 192.168.1.0. If you don't specify a subnet mask by using CIDR notation, the classful default subnet mask is assumed.

      IP address by using CIDR notation   For example, 192.168.1.0/24

    • To enter an IP address or subnet together with a subnet mask in dotted decimal notation, click the drop-down arrow located next to Add and select IP and Mask. In the Add Remote Servers - IP and Mask dialog box, enter the IP address and the subnet mask by using the following syntax:

      IP Address   For example, 192.168.1.0

      Subnet Mask   For example, 255.255.255.0

    • To specify an IP address range by using the first IP address and the last IP address in the range, click the drop-down arrow located next to Add and select IP Range. In the Add Remote Servers - IP Range dialog box, enter the IP address and the subnet mask by using the following syntax:

      Start Address   For example, 192.168.1.1

      End Address   For example, 192.168.255.255

      Because you can't specify a subnet mask, the classful default subnet mask is assumed.

    When you are finished, click OK.

    To add multiple remote network ranges to this connector, click Add and repeat this step.

    To modify a previous entry, select the entry, and then click Edit.

    To remove an existing entry, select the entry, and then click Remove icon.

  7. When you are finished, click Next.

  8. On the New Connector page, review the configuration summary for the connector. If you want to modify the settings, click Back. To create the Receive connector by using the settings in the configuration summary, click New.

  9. On the Completion page, click Finish.

To use the Exchange Management Shell to create a new Receive connector

  • Run the following command to create a Receive connector on the local server that has the default settings for the Internal usage type, and accepts connections from the specified remote IP address range:

    New-ReceiveConnector -Name "Contoso.com Receive Connector" -Usage Internal -RemoteIpRange 192.168.30.1-192.168.30.5

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-ReceiveConnector.

For More Information

For more information, see the following topics: