Hints to Prevent Relaying through Exchange

The Problem		You have an old version of Exchange, and nefarious agents have been using your server to relay Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) messages, a.k.a. "Spam".
Your Solution		Configure your Exchange server so it stops relaying.
		So you tried the following resources [links are to external parties that Artige does not sponsor, they just happen to be popular]:

			1- Downloads and instructions from Microsoft Exchange Support Center
			2- The Exchange Resources at SIMPLER-WEBB, INC.

		Unfortunately, whatever you do, the relaying does not stop. All is not lost, there are additional (non-trivial) methods you can pursue.
Microsoft Solution		Upgrade your version of Exchange.
		This solution entails:

			1- Purchasing a new, more powerful, server with Small Business Server (SBS) 2003, as it is the cheapest Microsoft solution that offers Exchange for SMBs (Small to Medium Businesses).
			2- Configuring the SBS server, and the Exchange accounts. Many caveats abound if you already have an NT domain, as you will need to work with the Active Directory on two levels (network and Email) instead of just one.

		While this solution will probably stop the relaying, it brings along a new system you, and possibly your co-workers / employees, will have to learn how to use, plus you get to throw away the server that was running the Exchange system.
Another Solution		Keep the old Exchange server, and add another email server. Use the new email server to collect the SMTP messages from the public Internet and relay those messages to your existing Exchange server. Continue using the old Exchange server for its functionality internally in your company, and use it to transmit SMTP messages out to the Internet.
		How can this be done? By re-using an old server, installing Linux on it, such as Red Hat (Fedora Core 1 for free or Red Hat Enterprise for peace of mind), and then add an SMTP service, such as Postfix. The current Linux email servers are designed to prevent relaying, so you will not have the security issues that the old versions of Exchange bring. For minimal cost and support time, and least disruption to operations, one can stop relaying forever, and even add filtering capabilities. This is essentially what we have done here at the Artige Company. It has worked great since we deployed this solution over two years ago.
Already using Postfix?		We have a utility for analyzing Postfix log files, using the analysis to update the Postfix Access Table, which is used for blocking spam. This open source utility is called edBlackList, and can be downloaded from here.

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Last updated: 17-April-2005 03:51z