How to start exchange server??

Hey guys,

I was wondering how to finish setup on this new (old) W2k server of mine. I have it running DNS and AD right now with 3 users and two machines in its domain (xxx.local) . I recently installed IIS and got through the basic setup of Exchange Server 2003 (ran DomainPrep and ForestPrep, and did the typical install). I am going to be running Exchange SP1, iislockdown, and urlscan in a few moments once it reboots from the initial setup.

So where do I go from here? How do I get the rest of the email set up? Do I need to get into contact with my ISP and have them hook me up with something??? And do you have any other suggestions for me? Thanks for all of your help!

EDIT -- I figured out I need to register my SMTP domain, get an internet IP address for it, and get a mail-exchange record, and get the ability to resolve other external internet addresses. Is this something I need to take up with my ISP?

EDIT #2 -- I can purchase a static IP from sprint. Would I need this, and go to some other place like http://www.dyndns.org/ to finish the deal???

First off who is your ISP? I have road runner and had my own email server and a lot of email I would send would get bounced. I have no reverse look up for my domain. So when the other ISP would use reverse lookup to find out where the email was coming from it could not resolve my domain to my IP. I have noticed a lot of big ISP's are starting to do this so you can not host your own servers.

It goes through WCOIL, which runs off Sprint. I talked to a support rep and he said they provide no support for what I want, but that they do provide a static IP for a web server. He then referred me to dyndns.org.

My reason for the interest of a mail server is I want to learn how to properly use exchange 2003 for our school. We use a W2k3 domain with a freeware program called pegasus to manage our mail. But, we have problems making it compatible with Outlook, and it also lacks some of the nicer features of Exchange 2003. So I was going to setup a test server with a demo of exchange 2003 enterprise (we'd probably go for the standard version as we only have about 1200 users in our domain) and then see how hard it would be to configure, downtime, and just to see if it is worth implementing next year.

Thanks for your help!

You can use dyndns and they do support mx records. It's real easy to set up, but some mail could get bounced back when it gets rejected by the recipient’s ISP.

besides paying for dyndns's services, should I also make the purchase for a static IP?

And do you prefer dyndns or is there somewhere else that is better?

Thanks again!

I think you can use mx records for free with dyndns. The only reason to pay is if you want your own domain (yourname.com) they have a ton of free subdomains (yourname.dyndns.org) If you get a static ip you really don't need dyndns. I have only used dyndns and the service was great.

Thanks for your help. Now I need to talk to my ISP about getting some port forwarding configured. It turns out the dynamic DNS service routes itself to my dsl modem's login page... which probably is not a smart thing to do...

EDIT - I also have a small FTP and webserver, as well as the Exchange server running. What ports do I need to have forwarded? I believe http is 80, FTP is 21-23, and Exchange is... um... I don't have an idea.

As for the MX records, would I just put my dynamic dns name and some other things like this?

example.dnsalias.org. 43200 IN MX 10 example.dnsalias.org.

The port for Exchange is tcp25. (SMTP)... When you type in your IP in your browser does it also come up with the login page? Here is a good link for formatting your mx record and dns: http://www.petri.co.il/configure_mx_records_for_incoming_smtp_email_traffic.htm

Oh, btw the ports you have for http and ftp are correct and fyi https is 443

Yes - when I typed in the ip found on ipchicken.com into firefox it showed up with the same page.

Thanks for all of your help - now I know which ports to forward on my firewall and (if my ISP lets me) forward on my modem/router.