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Specifying a Custom Port for SmartHost Communications in SBS 2008

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Just this morning I helped a partner with this very scenario.  Unlike previous versions of Exchange, Exchange 2007 does not provide an interface within its management GUI to specify a custom port when using a SmartHost for outbound mail delivery.  As a result, we need to set this via the Exchange Management Shell.

Once you open the Exchange Management Shell, one simple command will allow you to specify the custom port to use:

set-sendconnector –identity ‘[Send Connector Identity]’ –port [Port Number]

In SBS 2008, the default Send Connector that gets created is named “Windows SBS Internet Send [SERVER]”  where [SERVER] is the netbios name of your SBS server.  So for example, if your SBS box was named  SERVER01 and you needed to use port 2525 to send email to your smart host, you would enter:

set-sendconnector –identity ‘Windows SBS Internet Send SERVER01’ –port 2525

If necessary, you can find the identity (name) of your Send Connector(s) from the Exchange Management GUI, or from the Exchange Management Shell.

In the GUI, expand Organization Information, select Hub Transport, then click on the Send Connectors tab.

In the Exchange Management Shell, run the   get-sendconnector   cmdlet to get a list of send connectors.


Posted Mon, Mar 9 2009 13:57 by cgross
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Comments

Zanthexter wrote re: Specifying a Custom Port for SmartHost Communications in SBS 2008
on Mon, Mar 23 2009 12:19

I can understand command line for scripting and uber-level super settings control. No problem there.

For basic stuff, such as port numbers, that is commonly modified, it should be in the GUI. More, for stuff that is generally set and forget, it should be in the GUI.

There is a really big difference between actively managing a system on a daily basis, and coming in once a month to adjust/troubleshoot/set something up. For the second category, a GUI minimizes the need to spend a great deal of time learning something seldom used, or waste a lot of time copying and pasting from Google search results.

SBS2008 isn't sold to Megacorp, so why manage it that way?

cgross wrote re: Specifying a Custom Port for SmartHost Communications in SBS 2008
on Mon, Mar 23 2009 12:31

I generally agree that there are things missing from the Exchange 2007 GUI.  However, it isn't fair to blame SBS for this.  SBS is using the management GUI that it inherited from Exchange.  What's in or isn't in the GUI was decided by the Exchange team - not the SBS team.

Exchange 2007 took a completely new approach to administration for a Microsoft product.  Instead of building a management GUI, then exposing certain functions via a scripting interface, Exchange built the entire management for Exchange 2007 on Power Shell - so under the hood, their GUI is simply executing Power Shell cmdlets.

Zanthexter wrote re: Specifying a Custom Port for SmartHost Communications in SBS 2008
on Tue, Mar 24 2009 6:20

Frustrations aside, thank you very much for providing the information. My smart host is now working just fine :)