Configuring Smart Hosts

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

You can route all outgoing messages for remote domains through a smart host instead of sending them directly to the domain. This enables you to route messages over a connection that may be more direct or less costly than other routes. The smart host is similar to the route domain option for remote domains. The difference is that, after a smart host is designated, all outgoing messages are routed to that server. With a route domain, only messages for the remote domain are routed to a specific server.

Important

Make sure your designated smart host is secure and administered by a trusted authority, especially when forwarding sensitive information.

If you set up a smart host, you can still designate a different route for a remote domain. The route domain setting overrides the smart host setting.

You can identify the smart host by fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or an IP address (but if you change the IP address, you would have to change it on every virtual server as well). If you use an IP address, enclose it in brackets ([ ]) to increase system performance. The SMTP service checks first for a server name, and then an IP address. The brackets identify the value as an IP address, so the DNS lookup is bypassed.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /User:Administrative_AccountName "mmc systemroot\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

Procedures

To set up a smart host

  1. In IIS Manager, right-click the SMTP virtual server, and then click Properties.

  2. Click the Delivery tab, and click Advanced.

  3. In the Smart host box, type the name of the smart host server. You can type a string to represent a name or enter an IP address.

  4. If you want the SMTP service to attempt to deliver remote messages directly before forwarding them to the smart host server, select the Attempt direct delivery before sending to smart host check box. The default is to send all remote messages to the smart host, not to attempt direct delivery.