Outgoing e-mail to other internal Exchange servers is queued, and you receive an error message in Exchange Server 2003

Outgoing e-mail to other internal servers that are running Microsoft Exchange is queued and retried in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Additionally, you receive the following error message in the Additional queue information area:The following event may be logged in the Application log:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSExchangeTransport
Event Category: Connection Manager
Event ID: 4006
Date: Date
Time: Time
User:
Computer: Server_Name
Description: The connection was dropped by the remote host IP address, Server_Name.Domain_Name.Root_Domain; the semaphore timeout period has expired.

This problem may be caused by one or more reasons. Some of the most common causes are as follows.

Cause 1

The Norton Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.x client is installed in the organization. The problem that is described in the "Symptoms" section is caused by the Internet E-mail Auto-Protect scanner feature that is included in the Norton Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.x client.

Cause 2

Other e-mail systems do not recognize the Summary Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (STNEF) formatting that is used in Exchange Server 2003.

Cause 3

Heuristics scanning is enabled in the Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange program. Heuristics scanning alters a message. This causes the terminating period to appear at the end of the message text. Therefore, the message is prevented from being terminated.

Cause 4

The remote server does not respond with an SMTP banner.

Cause 5

The IP INSPECT NAME Inspection_Name SMTP statement is enabled in the firewall feature set on a Cisco firewall.

Cause 6

The metabase is corrupted.

Because there may be several causes of this problem, use one or more of the following resolutions as appropriate for your situation.

Resolution 1

The Norton Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.x Internet E-mail Auto-Protect scanner feature should not be enabled. To remove this feature, follow the steps that are described in Symantec document ID 2004061009504348. To view this document, visit the following Symantec Web site:

Resolution 2

E-mail systems such as Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 do not recognize STNEF formatting. If you have to work with such e-mail systems, you must force the store driver in Exchange Server 2003 to use Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF). To do this, you must configure several registry entries on the Exchange Server 2003 server. For more information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Resolution 3

You must disable heuristics scanning in the Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange program. To do this, refer to the program's Help files. Alternatively, contact Symantec for help.

Resolution 4

To verify this cause, you can telnet to the remote server. For example, to telnet to a server that is named server.domain.com, follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type telnet server.domain.com 25, and then press ENTER.

You must receive a response that resembles the following: If you do not receive a similar response, edit the metabase to configure an SMTP banner. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Resolution 5

Disable the IP INSPECT NAME Inspection_Name SMTP statement on the Cisco firewall. For more information about how to do this, refer to the product's manual. Alternatively, contact Cisco for help.

Resolution 6

If the other causes do not apply, the metabase may be corrupted. To replace a corrupted metabase, follow the steps in the "The IIS metabase is corrupted" section of the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

For information about your hardware manufacturer, visit the following Web site: The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.