SMTP Service Does Not Handle Large Message ID Correctly

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q290725

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SYMPTOMS

When you send a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) message that contains a message ID larger than 1.5 kilobytes (KB), Exchange Server stops responding.

This behavior occurs on Windows 2000 Server-based computers that run Microsoft Exchange Server.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260910/EN-US/ ) How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2.

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MORE INFORMATION

When a message ID is larger than 1.5 KB, the receiving server accepts the message but does not send an acknowledgement, and the sending server tries again. Every delivery attempt duplicates the message, and copies of the message pile up on both servers. This issue is even more severe if the delivery route involves more than just the two servers.

For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 hotfixes at the same time, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

249149 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249149/EN-US/ ) Installing Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Hotfixes

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