How to bypass DNS name resolution to test SMTP service mail flow in Windows Server 2003

This article describes how to create and configure a remote domain to forward e-mail messages to a smart host in Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

By default, the Windows 2003 Server Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service uses DNS to route messages to the remote domain. When you configure a remote domain to forward messages to a smart host, you can bypass DNS name resolution and test SMTP service mail flow.

Forward Mail to a Smart Host

To configure a remote domain to forward to a smart host to test outbound mail flow, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Expand ServerName, where ServerName is the name of the server, and then click Default SMTP Virtual Server.
3. In the right pane, right-click Domains, point to New, and then click Domain.
   
   The new SMTP domain wizard starts.
4. Under Specify the domain type, click Remote, and then click Next.
5. In the Name box, type a name for the domain, and then click Finish.
6. Right-click the new domain that you created, and then click Properties.
7. Click the General tab.
8. Under Route domain, click Forward all mail to smart host, and then type the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the smart host. Make sure that you enclose the IP address in brackets ([]). For example, [10.10.0.1].
   
   Note The smart host name can either be the host name, the fully qualified domain name (FQDN), or the IP address of the remote host. When you type an IP address, you must enclose the IP address in brackets.
9. Click OK.

After you configure the remote domain to use a smart host, create and then send a test message to verify that messages are delivered as expected.

For more information about how to manage the SMTP service, see the "SMTP Administration" section in the Server Administration Guide of the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 documentation. To view this documentation, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For additional information about how to bypass DNS name resolution to test SMTP mail flow in Exchange 2000 Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: