Mail delivery is slower than expected, or mail delivery stops, on an X.400 connector to a remote site in Exchange Server

Mail delivery is slower than expected, or mail delivery stops, on an X.400 connector to a remote site in Microsoft Exchange Server. If you view the queues for the X.400 connector in Exchange System Manager, you find that messages are queued for long periods before delivery. To view the queues for the X.400 connector, see the Queues tab of the corresponding message transfer agent (MTA) in Exchange System Manager.

When you restart the Microsoft Exchange MTA Stacks service on either end of the X.400 connector, some messages are delivered. However, the symptoms occur again after some time.

Note This problem does not occur if Exchange Server 5.5 is not running on the Exchange organization.

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

• The server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is also running Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4 (SP4).
• Windows 2000 Server SP4 is updated with the Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 SP4 software update.
  
  For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  891861  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891861/ ) Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 SP4 and known issues
• Some WinSock applications that perform socket input and output asynchronously may not receive Read indications. This problem might occur on multiprocessor computers in a stressed environment. To determine whether this is the cause of the problem that is described in the "Symptoms" section, examine the Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock file (Afd.sys), version 5.0.2195.7036. Afd.sys is located in the C:\winnt\system32\drivers folder.

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required to install the hotfix.

Restart requirement

You must restart the computer after you install the hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

Hotfix installation information

The hotfix must be installed on the Windows 2000 Server server that is running Exchange Server 5.5. You don't need install the hotfix on the server that is running Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

For more information about how hotfix packages are named, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: