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Exchange 2003 truncating SMTP data

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ch...@groupinfo.com

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Jan 27, 2006, 9:11:47 AM1/27/06
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Hello:

I posted a message about this a while back and was not able to find a
solution. We are running Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2, and have
discovered a problem where if a message has a single dot "." by itself
on a line, the message is truncated at that dot. This only happens for
outgoing messages from our Exchange server to other outside servers via
SMTP. Internal messages and incoming messages are fine and don't have
this problem.

I believe this has something to do with the SMTP end of data character
being a dot ".", but we haven't been able to figure out why Exchange is
doing this. We are using Outlook 2003 sending in Text, HTML, and OWA
as well, and the problem is still there.

There is nothing between the Exchange server and the other servers,
except for a Pix firewall.

Has anybody seen this problem before or know of a solution?

Thanks for all feedback,
--
Chris

Andy David - [MVP]

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Jan 27, 2006, 6:28:25 PM1/27/06
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Havent seen that.
Sure its not the PIX?

John Fullbright

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Jan 27, 2006, 7:10:31 PM1/27/06
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A firewall smtp proxy, or smtp relay, etc., somewhere in the path isn't
supporting the amendment to RFC 821, section 4.5.2 titled "Transparancy".

Check your firewall, and check your ISP.

"Andy David - [MVP]" <ada...@pleasekeepinngcheesebucket.com> wrote in
message news:f4blt19tml3hfdbcc...@4ax.com...

Rich Matheisen [MVP]

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Jan 27, 2006, 10:14:56 PM1/27/06
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ch...@groupinfo.com wrote:

>Hello:
>
>I posted a message about this a while back and was not able to find a
>solution. We are running Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2, and have
>discovered a problem where if a message has a single dot "." by itself
>on a line, the message is truncated at that dot.

Well, yeah . . . that's how SMTP defines the end of a message.

"CrLf.CrLf"

See RFC2821.

>This only happens for
>outgoing messages from our Exchange server to other outside servers via
>SMTP. Internal messages and incoming messages are fine and don't have
>this problem.

You shouldn't have that problem if you're using Outlook using MAPI/RPC
to sned and receive messages. If you're using SMTP then that's another
story.


--
Rich Matheisen
MCSE+I, Exchange MVP
MS Exchange FAQ at http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm
Don't send mail to this address mailto:h.p...@getronics.com
Or to these, either: mailto:h.p...@pinkroccade.com mailto:melvin.mcp...@getronics.com mailto:melvin.mcp...@pinkroccade.com

John Fullbright

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Jan 27, 2006, 10:27:44 PM1/27/06
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Well, sort of.

With some of the rich email formats like RTF or HTML and fixed line lengths,
a period occasionally ends up on a seperate line, seperated from the last
word of a sentence. Seeing that this unwanted behavior does occasionally
occur, the Internet Standards Consortium amended the SMTP standard to
instruct compliant servers to add an additional period to the line where the
first period was inadvertently "wrapped" and to continue with the transport
without truncating the message.

Hence my previous reference to the amendment to section 4.5.2 of RFC 821.
Some ancient versions of smtp mail exchangers or smtp secure daemons or smtp
secure proxies lack this support. Check the path your message transited to
find the source of the issue.

"Rich Matheisen [MVP]" <rich...@rmcons.com.NOSPAM.COM> wrote in message
news:kqfkt1t0h2r29tget...@4ax.com...

Rich Matheisen [MVP]

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Jan 28, 2006, 10:56:00 AM1/28/06
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"John Fullbright" <full...@comcast.net> wrote:

>Well, sort of.
>
>With some of the rich email formats like RTF or HTML and fixed line lengths,
>a period occasionally ends up on a seperate line, seperated from the last
>word of a sentence.

I though that, too. So I composed a couple of messages with mutiple
free-standing "." and had no problem sending them (using Outlook) to
another company.

John Fullbright

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Jan 28, 2006, 11:11:26 AM1/28/06
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The problem is not Exchange. Exchange complies with the amended RFC. If's
something between Exchange and the rest of the world. If you read his
postings on *other lists, you'll come to suspect his ISP. I suppose the
person who received the truncated message could check the header and walk
back through the systems it traversed to find the culprit.

Really old versions of PIX with mailguard enabled did this.


"Rich Matheisen [MVP]" <rich...@rmcons.com.NOSPAM.COM> wrote in message

news:eq4nt1l236h0tj0kh...@4ax.com...

André Oliveira

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Jan 31, 2006, 5:01:33 AM1/31/06
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Do you have any antivirus software running on the server or message
filtering software??

John Fullbright

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Jan 31, 2006, 9:00:03 AM1/31/06
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That't an interesting thought. You can add, or custom SMTP Transport Event
Sinks. Anything that messes with the stream.


"André Oliveira" <affol...@iol.pt> wrote in message
news:ejspS1kJ...@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

ch...@groupinfo.com

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Jan 31, 2006, 11:47:27 AM1/31/06
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Actually we do use MailMarshal 5.1.0.3 which filters all messages, so
we will look into that. It is definitely a problem on our end as the
problem happens no matter what the outside recipient's system is.
Thank you for the feedback. I will definitely post the solution if we
are able to find one.

Thanks much,
--
Chris

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