E-Mail Distribution List

[Steve T. Gove]

Has anyone set up an EMail Enabled Distribution List on Exchange 200 and
gotten it to work?

I am trying to set up an email list. I have tried several times, and sent
email (from outside) to the list to have the mail go to each person on the
list but so far, nothing...

Ideas?

Thanks..
-steve

[Rich Matheisen [MVP]]

"Steve T. Gove" <stg...@swbell.net> wrote:

>Has anyone set up an EMail Enabled Distribution List on Exchange 200 and
>gotten it to work?

Yes. Hundreds of them!

>I am trying to set up an email list. I have tried several times, and sent
>email (from outside) to the list to have the mail go to each person on the
>list but so far, nothing...
>
>Ideas?

Does the DG appear in your global address book? Have you had a look at
the DG with either LDP or ADSIEDIT to verify that it's really
"mail-enabled"? Can you send to the list from a MAPI/RPC client like
Outlook?

------------------
Rich Matheisen
MCSE+I, Exchange MVP
MS Exchange FAQ at http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm

[Steve T. Gove]

Okay, let me start off by saying that I am not an MCSE anything. So let me
try to let you know what I am trying to do in plain english. I want to set
up a mailing list (and perhaps my terms are not quite accurate) that will
hold peoples names (e-mail addresses) and when anyone sends a message to the
list address it (the list) then sends that message out to everyone on the
list. It will be public for anyone to send to it. Other lists will be much
the same but I may only want certain people to be able to send mail out to
everyone. I DO NOT want to give all these people accounts on my server, nor
should I have to. Later on I want the list to be self-running so that
people can "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" at will.

So I will tell you what I did to set the one I have up here and you can tell
me where I went wrong... (see below)

> >Has anyone set up an EMail Enabled Distribution List on Exchange 200 and
> >gotten it to work?
>
> Yes. Hundreds of them!
>
> >I am trying to set up an email list. I have tried several times, and
sent
> >email (from outside) to the list to have the mail go to each person on
the
> >list but so far, nothing...
> >
> >Ideas?
>
> Does the DG appear in your global address book? Have you had a look at
> the DG with either LDP or ADSIEDIT to verify that it's really
> "mail-enabled"? Can you send to the list from a MAPI/RPC client like
> Outlook?

I opened "active directory users and computers", clicked on "users", then on
the "action" pull down I clicked on "new group". In the "group name"
section I typed in TestML2, then clicked on Domain Local in the "group
scope" section, under the "group type" section I clicked on Distribution.
Clicked NEXT. On the next page I clicked on the box for "Create an Exchange
e-mail address", which put TestML2 into the "alias" box. In the "associated
administrative group" there is only one choice which is UNODIR Mail Server/
First Administrative Group. Clicked on the NEXT button. The next box is
the "New Object - Group" box which simply says Full Name: TestML2, so I
clicked on the FINISH button. The newly created group was in the users
directory, so I right clicked on it and brought up "properties". I then
clicked on the "E-Mail Addrersses" tab, and it shows the SMTP and X400
addresses of the list (Tes...@unodir.org), While on that tab, I clicked on
"new" at the bottom, clicked on SMPT, Then hit the OK button. This brought
up a box that asked for an email address. I put in a friends e-mail
address, and clicked on "OK". That added his e-mail addess into that list.
I then added a few other peoples addresses into it the same way, and finally
clicked on "OK" at the bottom and the list was created.
I then used my swbell.net account to send mail to Tes...@unodir.org so that
the test message would then go out to everyone I put on the list. But the
messages i have sent have not made it to anyone on the list, nor has the
message bee nreturned as undeliverable.

Where have I gone wrong?

I have looked at the following:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q251/6/31.ASP

and also:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q231/2/73.ASP

I know that was pretty long winded but I didn't want to leave anything open
to misinterpretation...

Thanks...
-steve

[Steve T. Gove]

and also:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q231/2/73.ASP

Thanks...
-steve

Feel free to email me direct if you so choose, I am not sure how long my
mail feed will keep your replies on my server. This newsgroup seems to be
pretty busy.

:-)

[Rich Matheisen [MVP]]

"Steve T. Gove" <stg...@swbell.net> wrote:

>Okay, let me start off by saying that I am not an MCSE anything. So let me
>try to let you know what I am trying to do in plain english. I want to set
>up a mailing list (and perhaps my terms are not quite accurate)

A "mailing list", or "list server" is usually a bit more than a simple
list of names, which is what you're after. The Active Directory object
that contains the list of names is called a Distribution Group.

>that will
>hold peoples names (e-mail addresses) and when anyone sends a message to the
>list address it (the list) then sends that message out to everyone on the
>list.

Fair enough. That describes a Distribuition Group pretty well.

>It will be public for anyone to send to it.

Not a problem.

>Other lists will be much
>the same but I may only want certain people to be able to send mail out to
>everyone.

Provided the people you want to allow, or deny, are represented by a
user object (a "security principal") in your directory this isn't a
problem. But you will not be able to manage this if the people you
want to allow, or deny, are not represented by user objects in your
directory.

>I DO NOT want to give all these people accounts on my server, nor
>should I have to.

Well, which people are you speaking of -- the members of the
Distribution Group, or the ones you want to allow or deny permssion to
send to the Distribution Group?

The members of the Distribution Group must be represented in your
directory. Since you don't want to create an account for them, then
they must be represented in the directory by a "Contact" object (which
is not a security principal).

>Later on I want the list to be self-running so that
>people can "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" at will.

This is the definition of a "list server". Exchange has nothing that
will accomplish this. There are, however, several commercial products
that do.

>So I will tell you what I did to set the one I have up here and you can tell
>me where I went wrong... (see below)

[ snip ]

>I opened "active directory users and computers", clicked on "users", then on
>the "action" pull down I clicked on "new group". In the "group name"
>section I typed in TestML2, then clicked on Domain Local in the "group
>scope" section,

Distribution Groups are better given a Universal, rather than Domain,
scope. In a single domain directory it doesn't matter too much, but
I'd still choose a Global over Local scope.

>under the "group type" section I clicked on Distribution.
>Clicked NEXT. On the next page I clicked on the box for "Create an Exchange
>e-mail address", which put TestML2 into the "alias" box.

So far, so good.

>In the "associated
>administrative group" there is only one choice which is UNODIR Mail Server/
>First Administrative Group.

Which implies that you have only a single Administrative Group in your
Organization.

>Clicked on the NEXT button. The next box is
>the "New Object - Group" box which simply says Full Name: TestML2, so I
>clicked on the FINISH button.

Okay.

>The newly created group was in the users
>directory, so I right clicked on it and brought up "properties". I then
>clicked on the "E-Mail Addrersses" tab, and it shows the SMTP and X400
>addresses of the list (Tes...@unodir.org),

Which means that the Recipient Update Service already updated the
object with the addresses and permissions it needs.

>While on that tab, I clicked on
>"new" at the bottom, clicked on SMPT, Then hit the OK button. This brought
>up a box that asked for an email address. I put in a friends e-mail
>address, and clicked on "OK".

Uh-oh! This isn't what you want to do. What you did here is to assign
another SMTP address to the object. I.e you gave it an "alias".

What you need to do is to create a new "Contact" for your friends SMTP
address. Then you'd use the "Members" tab on the Distribution Group's
property page to add the Contact to the set of Distribution Group
members.

>That added his e-mail addess into that list.

Yes, it did. But it's not what you need to do. See above.

>I then added a few other peoples addresses into it the same way, and finally
>clicked on "OK" at the bottom and the list was created.
>I then used my swbell.net account to send mail to Tes...@unodir.org so that
>the test message would then go out to everyone I put on the list. But the
>messages i have sent have not made it to anyone on the list, nor has the
>message bee nreturned as undeliverable.
>
>Where have I gone wrong?

[Steve T. Gove]

> >I DO NOT want to give all these people accounts on my server, nor
> >should I have to.
>
> Well, which people are you speaking of -- the members of the
> Distribution Group, or the ones you want to allow or deny permssion to
> send to the Distribution Group?
>
> The members of the Distribution Group must be represented in your
> directory. Since you don't want to create an account for them, then
> they must be represented in the directory by a "Contact" object (which
> is not a security principal).

Okay, fair enough, the few people that I want to restrict to allow for them
on some lists to be the only ones that can send mail, those few can have an
account, thats not a problem..
:-)

[Steve T. Gove]

"> >Later on I want the list to be self-running so that
> >people can "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" at will.
>
> This is the definition of a "list server". Exchange has nothing that
> will accomplish this. There are, however, several commercial products
> that do.

Such as???

[Rob Hunter]

Do you have any products that would block Mail Relay ??
You should have something or you would be forwarding spam relay mail.

I would suggest you try the DL with internal accounts only adn see if
it works because this would rule out any Mail Relay blocking issues.

Your described setup accepts incoming mail for direct forwarding back
out of the domain, and although this is currently under your control,
your overall objective would leave it even more open !!

Exchange is NOT a suitable product for this application and you wil
probably find either your internal mail forward agent, SMTP anti
virus, ISP or firewall is just dropping these messages as Spam !!!

Rob Hunter

[Steve T. Gove]

> Exchange is NOT a suitable product for this application and you wil
> probably find either your internal mail forward agent, SMTP anti
> virus, ISP or firewall is just dropping these messages as Spam !!!
>
> Rob Hunter

Yes, I am starting to see that...
I am looking at the list program (in the link below) to solve this problem.
What do you think?

http://www.dolist.net/listserver_en.asp

Thanks...
-steve

[Steve T. Gove]

> Uh-oh! This isn't what you want to do. What you did here is to assign
> another SMTP address to the object. I.e you gave it an "alias".
>
> What you need to do is to create a new "Contact" for your friends SMTP
> address. Then you'd use the "Members" tab on the Distribution Group's
> property page to add the Contact to the set of Distribution Group
> members.

OK, great, got it working...
Thanks Mucho..!!!

:-)

[Rich Matheisen [MVP]]

"Steve T. Gove" <stg...@swbell.net> wrote:

Reddfish is one. NTP is another.

http://www.reddfish.co.nz/reddfish/listserver/
http://www.ntpsoftware.com/products/lm/