Exchange 2003: I can send e-mail out but I can't receive email back

[TSCustomer]

I recently ordered an Active Directory Video Lab 1 and an Exchange Server 2003 Lab 18 Video. I could say that your videos are very helpful, have a lot of information based on the real world, and I got a lot from it.

However, I have this problem about the Exchange server 2003 I'm setting up. The video's setup was having a NAT server and an Exchange Server 2003 with AD on the same box and it was stated that as much as possible the AD and Exchange should be in a different box. Anyway, that is actually my setup here at the small company I'm working on. I have a separate Active Directory server 2003 R2, an Exchange Server 2003 R2 on another box, and I have a 2Wire DSL router.

Situation: I can send e-mail out but I can't receive email back. I set
the smtp on the 2wire port 25 to be open and the domain I registered at
is yahoo.com which I followed the settings just like in GoDaddy for the
A record and the MX record for smtp. On the servers I made them both domain controllers on the same forest. The AD server is AZPHX-SVR1 and the
AZPHX-SVR2 is the Exchange server. Now both have 1 NIC card which is local private IPs and the DSl has a static IP and has the port 25 opened for smtp.

I'am sure I'm missing something coz it won't receive email but I can send email real nice. What can you point out to the schema I have for 2 separate servers and the 2wire as the firewall?

[Gary]

The first step I would take in troubleshooting this issue is running an Nslookup on your mx record (mail.yourdomain.com or whatever you are using) Make sure that it is pointing towards your IP address.

Second I would tracert and make sure that the information can actually get all the way to the IP. If it is stopping before your network you will be able to see where the problem is at and hopefully edit configurations at that location to allow the traffic to flow freely. Also, just because port 25 is open does not mean it is being forwarded to the correct Server inside your network. You need to have either NAT or port forwarding set up so that the traffic is funneled to the Exchange Server.

I hope this helps get you in the right direction.

[TSCustomer]

You the Man Dude! I didn't realize that nslookup showed me the way on the one that I have a missing configuration. It end up that the primary name server is pointing to another server because one of my buddies looked at it somehow modified it to his setting and that's why it's not pointing to my IP. Thanks man!

[Gary]

I’m glad that I could help!