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Create a secure Receive connector to receive email from a partner

  • Article

Applies to: Exchange Server 2013

This procedure shows you how to configure a Receive connector to receive secure email from a partner. Use this procedure when you are required to encrypt communication between you and a trusted partner. The connector is configured to accept connections only from servers that authenticate with Transport Layer Security (TLS).

Interested in scenarios where this procedure is used? See the following topics:

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 15 minutes

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Receive connectors" entry in the Mail flow permissions topic.

  • See Deploy a new installation of Exchange 2013 if you are beginning your installation. After the installation you can use the steps in this topic to create your receive connector.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard shortcuts in the Exchange admin center.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Server.

Use the EAC to Create a Receive Connector to Receive Secure Messages from a Partner

  1. In the EAC, navigate to Mail flow > Receive connectors. Click Add Add Icon. to create a new Receive connector.

  2. On the New receive connector page, specify a name for the Receive connector and then select Frontend Transport for the Role. Since you are receiving mail from a partner in this case, we recommend that you initially route mail to your front end server to simplify and consolidate your mail flow.

  3. Choose Partner for the type. The Receive connector will receive mail from a trusted third party.

  4. For the Network adapter bindings, observe that All available IPV4 is listed in the IP addresses list and the Port is 25. (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol uses port 25.) This indicates that the connector listens for connections on all IP addresses assigned to network adapters on the local server. Click Next.

  5. If the Remote network settings page lists 0.0.0.0-255.255.255.255, which means that the Receive connector receives connections from all IP addresses, click Remove Remove icon to remove it. Click Add Add Icon, add the IP address for your partner's server, and click Save.

    Note

    You can also specify an IP address range with CIDR notation, such as 64.4.6.100/24.

  6. Click Finish to create the connector.

Once you have created the Receive connector, it appears in the Receive connector list. If you would like to see an example of how to create a Receive connector with a cmdlet, see New-ReceiveConnector.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully created a Receive connector to receive messages from a partner, test that the partner can send mail to one of your users and that the user successfully receives it. If you can receive encrypted mail (you can verify that TLS is used by checking the message header), you know that the configuration worked successfully.

For more information

Receive connectors