Hi,

I'm having a hard time trying send mail *to some domains only* using a
smartserver; in all (95%) other cases, the SMTP engine would send mail
directly, as intended. Has anyone found a hidden setting for this
scenario? or is it just impossible to do so with the vanilla SMTP
engine of IIS?

I tried to add

my.isp.mailserver mx.domain.whose.mailserver.rejects.my.direct.mail

to c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, trying to trick my smtp
service into believing that my ISP's mail server is the MX for that
annoying domain; still, the SMTP engine retrieves the real MX (even
though ping mx.annoyingdomain.com shows my ISP's mail server coming up,
as intended).

IIS 6.0, XP SP2 here.

Thank you in advance for your suggestions,

I'm only addressing the name resolution issue:

the hosts file is not an acceptable way to define names, generally. MS
has been trying to eliminate this doggie for some time now, but it
takes time.

In my case, I run DNS, with unresolved names being forwarded to my
ISP's DNS as appropriate. Then I can define certain names in the DNS
system the way I want (such as pointing a specific name that may be
defined on the Internet DNS system to point to a local non-routable
name/ip combo.)

Are you running your own DNS? If yes, define that name there. If not,
consider implementing it--DNS is easy to setup, basically start it,
and define the forwarding DNS server (your ISP's) and you are set for
the basic configuration. Then define the offending names/ips as you
wish.

[quoted text, click to view]

PeterD, the Darkstar Network
To email, fix my address!

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I know - and I also know that what I've tried was just an ugly hack.

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That, I can't do, unfortunately. It's not a matter of know-how, but
alas of "can" vs. "can't" do.

I really wish IIS6's SMTP engine were just a little bit more flexible.
I mean, it's just an SMTP engine, after all; it wouldn't become a

"Can't do..." Somewhat like trying to drive a car without the igniton
key... <g> It really looks to me that you are trying to do the
impossible. I guess the restriction is your employeer''s right? You
may want to educate them as to that has happened in the last ten years
or so.

[quoted text, click to view]

PeterD, the Darkstar Network
To email, fix my address!