Create an SMTP Receive Connector

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010

Receive connectors represent a logical gateway through which all inbound messages are received. Receive connectors are configured on a per-server basis, and they control how that server receives messages from the Internet, e-mail clients, and other messaging servers.

By default, the Receive connectors required for internal mail flow are automatically created when the Hub Transport server role is installed. Similarly, when you install the Edge Transport server role, the Receive connector capable of receiving mail from the Internet and from Hub Transport servers is automatically created. However, end-to-end mail flow is possible only after the Edge Transport server has been subscribed to the Active Directory site by using the Edge Subscription process. Other scenarios, such as an Internet-facing Hub Transport server or an Edge Transport server that doesn't use EdgeSync, require manual connector configuration to establish end-to-end mail flow.

You can use the EMC or the Shell to create a new Receive connector for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

Looking for other management tasks related to connectors? Check out Managing Connectors.

Prerequisites

You should determine the specific usage for the Receive connector before you create it so you can correctly configure its properties. To learn more about Receive connectors, see Understanding Receive Connectors.

What Do You Want to Do?

• Use the EMC to create a Receive connector
• Use the Shell to create a Receive connector

Use the EMC to create a Receive connector

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Receive connectors" entry in the Transport Permissions topic.

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

   • 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.
   • 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:

4. In the Name field, type a meaningful name for this connector. Specify a name for the Receive connector that helps you distinguish this Receive connector from other Receive connectors in your configuration.

5. In the Select the intended use for this Receive connector field, select the usage type for this connector. The usage type determines the permissions granted to sessions that connect to the Receive connector and the supported authentication mechanisms. The following usage types are available:
   Client   Client Receive connectors receive e-mail from users of Microsoft Exchange. This connector is configured to only accept client submissions from authenticated Microsoft Exchange users. The Client usage type is only available for Receive connectors configured on Hub Transport servers.
   Custom   Select this option to create a customized connector that connects with systems that don't include servers running Exchange.
   Internet   Internet Receive connectors receive e-mail from servers on the Internet. This connector is 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 don't support IPv6 addresses. Therefore, if you allow anonymous connections from unknown IPv6 addresses on a Receive connector, you increase the chance that spam messages bypass IP Block list providers and are successfully delivered into your organization.

   Internal   Internal Receive connectors are used to receive e-mail from servers within your Exchange organization. This connector is configured to only accept connections from Exchange servers.
   Partner   Partner Receive connectors are used to receive e-mail from partner domains. This connector is configured to receive mail from domains included in the list of secure receive domains. You can add domains to this list by using the TLSReceiveDomainSecureList parameter in the Set-TransportConfig command. Mutually authenticated TLS connections are required for domains that are on this list.

6. Click Next.

7. On the Local network settings page, do the following:

8. Specify the IP addresses and port numbers on which this Receive connector listens for incoming mail. The Local network settings page appears only if you selected a usage type of Custom, Partner, or Internet in step 3. By default, all available local IP addresses are listed. The following options are available:
   Add   To add a new IP address or port number, click Add and specify the following:
   • Use all IP addresses available on this server   Select this option to use all IP addresses associated with this computer. This is the recommended option.
   • Specify an IP address   Select this option to use a specific IP address associated with this computer.

   Important

   You must specify a local IP address that's 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.

   • Port   This field identifies the TCP port number on which this Receive connector listens for incoming mail. TCP port 25 is the default port used for message transmission between SMTP servers.
   Edit Click Edit to change an existing IP address or port. Remove   Click to remove an existing IP address.

9. In the Specify the FQDN this connector will provide in response to HELO or EHLO field, type the name 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.

10. Click Next.

11. On the Remote network settings page, enter the IP address or IP address range of the remote servers from which the connector accepts 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:
    Add - IP Address   To enter an IP address without a subnet mask, or to specify the subnet mask by using Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR) notation, click Add or the drop-down arrow next to Add and select IP Address. In the Add IP address(es) of Remote Servers dialog box, enter the IP address directly or specify a subnet using the CIDR notation. For example, if you enter 192.168.1.1, the Receive connector accepts messages from that host only, but if you specify 192.168.1.0/24, the Receive connector accepts messages from the entire class C subnet of 192.168.1.0.
    Add - IP and Mask   To enter an IP address or subnet together with a subnet mask in dotted decimal notation, click the drop-down arrow next to Add and select IP and Mask. In the Add Remote Servers - IP and Mask dialog box, specify the IP address and the subnet mask.
    Add - IP Range 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 next to Add and select IP Range. In the Add Remote Servers - IP Range dialog box, specify the start and end addresses of the IP range. Edit   To edit an existing IP address range, select the IP address range, and then click Edit.
    Remove   To remove an existing IP address range, select the IP address range, and then click .
    After you finish, click Next.

12. 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.

13. On the Completion page, click Finish.

Use the Shell to create a Receive connector

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Receive connectors" entry in the Transport Permissions topic.

This example creates 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.