Handling unresolved addresses (ie: *@domain.tld)

[Frustrated]

I am deploying a new installation of Exchange 2000 which will handle mail
service for many different domain names (not unlike a hosting environment).

Everything is configured and seems to work well, however, there are two things
that we have been unable to figure out how to accomplish:

1) Catch-all forwarding of mail with unresolved addresses to a specific user.
For example, if there are two valid users (tim@domain and sally@domain) their
mail will be delivered as normal. What we want to do is then take any other
mail (abc@domain or lisa@domain; essentially *@domain) and deliver it to
a specific user on the server. We have tried adding the e-mail addresses
@domain and *@domain and just 'domain' to an account in Active Directory,
however, it seems to have no effect and all unresolved mail is bounced back
to the sender.

2) Aliasing or forwarding of mail from one domain to another.
Many of our domains have similar names and resolve to the same IP addresses
and we would like all mail for any domain in a particular group to go to
the same place. For example domain1, domain2, and domain3 are all for the
same organization so any mail for a given user on any of those domains should
go to the same user account.
I know that policies can be used to essentialy generate an address for a
list of domains, however, this seems entirely too high maintenance. It would
be nice to do the equivalent of "route all mail for domain2 and domain3 to
domain1".

Any tips or help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Gary McDonnell]

With regards to item 1: There is no built in capability in Exchange 2000 or
5.5 to do what you're after. On a related topic, I've written an extension
Exchange 2000 that does this and am in the process of releasing it to market.
Pricing is still TBD. You can get more information at http://turbogeeks.com.

With regards to item 2: Modifying the default recipient policy is the proper
way to do what you want according to Microsoft. There is no ongoing maintenance
- all one does is create the entry in the "E-Mail Addresses(Policy) tab,
check the box that says "This Exchange Organization is responsible for all
mail delivery to this address" and then activate the rule. It takes just
a few seconds per domain.

good luck! /gary mcdonnell



"Frustrated" <none@none.non> wrote:
>
>I am deploying a new installation of Exchange 2000 which will handle mail
>service for many different domain names (not unlike a hosting environment).
>
>Everything is configured and seems to work well, however, there are two
things
>that we have been unable to figure out how to accomplish:
>
>1) Catch-all forwarding of mail with unresolved addresses to a specific
user.
>For example, if there are two valid users (tim@domain and sally@domain)
their
>mail will be delivered as normal. What we want to do is then take any other
>mail (abc@domain or lisa@domain; essentially *@domain) and deliver it to
>a specific user on the server. We have tried adding the e-mail addresses
>@domain and *@domain and just 'domain' to an account in Active Directory,
>however, it seems to have no effect and all unresolved mail is bounced back
>to the sender.
>
>2) Aliasing or forwarding of mail from one domain to another.
>Many of our domains have similar names and resolve to the same IP addresses
>and we would like all mail for any domain in a particular group to go to
>the same place. For example domain1, domain2, and domain3 are all for the
>same organization so any mail for a given user on any of those domains should
>go to the same user account.
>I know that policies can be used to essentialy generate an address for a
>list of domains, however, this seems entirely too high maintenance. It
would
>be nice to do the equivalent of "route all mail for domain2 and domain3
to
>domain1".
>
>Any tips or help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Frustrated]

Thanks for the information. I am very surprised that Microsoft did not build
more advanced domain and alias handling into Exchange 2000, considering their
intense focus on Internet related technologies.

MailBasket seems like it would provide exactly the capability required for
handling unresolved addresses.

For managing groups of domains, the reason I feel using recipient policies
would be high maintenance (in *our* situation) is that we see a lot of strange
combinations of users and addresses, with various addresses going to multiple
user accounts. I am going to investigate some other ways to approach this;
perhaps with a combination of mailing lists and filters.

At any rate, thanks again for the info and we will be looking into MailBasket.



"Gary McDonnell" <garymcdonnell@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>With regards to item 1: There is no built in capability in Exchange 2000
or
>5.5 to do what you're after. On a related topic, I've written an extension
>Exchange 2000 that does this and am in the process of releasing it to market.
>Pricing is still TBD. You can get more information at http://turbogeeks.com.
>
>With regards to item 2: Modifying the default recipient policy is the proper
>way to do what you want according to Microsoft. There is no ongoing maintenance
>- all one does is create the entry in the "E-Mail Addresses(Policy) tab,
>check the box that says "This Exchange Organization is responsible for all
>mail delivery to this address" and then activate the rule. It takes just
>a few seconds per domain.
>
>good luck! /gary mcdonnell
>
>
>
>"Frustrated" <none@none.non> wrote:
>>
>>I am deploying a new installation of Exchange 2000 which will handle mail
>>service for many different domain names (not unlike a hosting environment).
>>
>>Everything is configured and seems to work well, however, there are two
>things
>>that we have been unable to figure out how to accomplish:
>>
>>1) Catch-all forwarding of mail with unresolved addresses to a specific
>user.
>>For example, if there are two valid users (tim@domain and sally@domain)
>their
>>mail will be delivered as normal. What we want to do is then take any
other
>>mail (abc@domain or lisa@domain; essentially *@domain) and deliver it to
>>a specific user on the server. We have tried adding the e-mail addresses
>>@domain and *@domain and just 'domain' to an account in Active Directory,
>>however, it seems to have no effect and all unresolved mail is bounced
back
>>to the sender.
>>
>>2) Aliasing or forwarding of mail from one domain to another.
>>Many of our domains have similar names and resolve to the same IP addresses
>>and we would like all mail for any domain in a particular group to go to
>>the same place. For example domain1, domain2, and domain3 are all for
the
>>same organization so any mail for a given user on any of those domains
should
>>go to the same user account.
>>I know that policies can be used to essentialy generate an address for
a
>>list of domains, however, this seems entirely too high maintenance. It
>would
>>be nice to do the equivalent of "route all mail for domain2 and domain3
>to
>>domain1".
>>
>>Any tips or help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>