Question : Exchange Smart Host

We manage and support about 30 SBS 2003 servers. We have a huge problem with people being black listed by ISP's. Now we have updated the servers etc to the latest updates and request removal. They are removed but this may happen again.

My question is, i know that if a smart host is used this normally solves the problem. Is it possible to use a dedicated server as a smart host? This is a general question and not related to a problem.

Answer : Exchange Smart Host

I have a server in a datacenter that I use as a smart host for clients with email delivery problems. The server is correctly configured with forward and reverse DNS and other protection measures. I then use an SSL certificate to provide TLS connection to the server from the clients and they have to authenticate to send.

However as already pointed out, you have to see why they are being blacklisted.
If they are getting blacklisted because they are on a dynamic IP address range, then there is nothing you can do about that. Simply setup the smart host on the server to use the ISPs SMTP Server.

If they are getting blacklisted for another reason then you have to investigate what is going on - whether the machine is an open relay, allowing authenticated relaying and the administrator account has been compromised etc.

Simon.