Learning Windows Server 2003

SMTP Services

Business today is conducted over Internet email in nearly the same volume as over the telephone network. The instantaneous nature of virtual communication has real advantages over playing phone tag, not to mention the fact that email is cost effective, more available, and easier to manage than a phone call.

IIS includes an SMTP component that allows your server to send and receive mail on the Internet with the big boys. The Server 2003 Internet mail solution comprises two components: the SMTP server, which I’ll discuss in this section, and the POP3 server, which is coming in the next section. The SMTP server acts as the switchboard, sending mail to different hosts based on different email addresses and receiving inbound mail routed for your domain. The POP3 server acts as a post office for your local organization, retrieving email that was delivered via the SMTP component and transferring it to individual users’ desktops.

Like most other components of IIS, the default SMTP server created upon installation works as a virtual server. However, to dig deeper, let’s create a new virtual server and then look at its configuration options.

Creating a New SMTP Virtual Server

During IIS 6 installation, a default SMTP virtual server is created that is sufficient for the most basic needs. The default server listens on TCP port 25, as a normal mail server would, and stores the mail it receives in a queue directory, which is, by default, C:\Inetpub\Mailroot\Queue. It also will ...