Ok - Is ANYONE else having problems with Xtra ADSL connections with an Exchange server?
These are the issues I'm finding (and they are inconsistent!)
Customer A has two domains-
domainA.co.nz is hosted by Xtra with hosted pop accounts.
No one from domainA.co.nz can send using smtp.xtra.co.nz, they get the following error
553 Authentication is required to send mail as user@domainA.co.nz
If I use smtp.officemail.co.nz and authenticate as bob's mailbox for domainA.co.nz then bob can send email but no-one else can - they get the error
553 You are not authorized to send mail as peter@domainA.co.nz
For a while I set Exchange to send via SEND.XTRA.CO.NZ using their ADSL account to authenticate - but as of this-morning Yahoo are blocking this - ie only adslaccount@xtra.co.nz is allowed to send mail authenticating using adslaccount@xtra.co.nz -Before today you could relay this way!
Now they are using DNS to direct deliver - the problem here is that some servers won't accept mail from anyone on a standard ADSL account (considered to be non-static even with a static IP).
domainB.co.nz is hosted by Discount Domains with an MX pointed directly at the clients static ip
Anyone from domainB.co.nz can happily relay mail via smtp.xtra.co.nz with no problems!
Then just to make things completely inconsistent Customer B has a domain also hosted by Xtra with hosted pop accounts and they can still happily relay mail via smtp.xtra.co.nz with no problems.
In Xtra's eye's I have no idea which end users domain they consider to be setup correctly! I have tried to talk to the Complex Technical Support team at Xtra only to be told its an Exchange server issue and I need to talk to an Exchange Server technician (I am one!!! Been installing Exchange server for the past 10 years starting with version 5.5).
I'm already at the point that if I'm involved in the decision process I will recommend Telstra as ADSL provider (even more so if Cable is available in their Christchurch Suburb), I'm not getting to the point of writing to all my customers recommending they move their existing connections away from Telecom/XTRA alltogether! Possibly refusing to work with a Telecom ADSL connection with a Microsoft Small Business Server. Over the years Telecom have changed the rules SOOOOOOO many times - usually without warning.
1st - 2 weeks out from Xmas they suddenly stopped clients being able to connect to pop3.xtra.co.nz unless they were on Xtra - I had clients using Xtra to host their sites, using Xtra to manage their mail, Xtra dialups on laptops but using another provider for broadband who suddenly couldn't get their email!! It was a while later that they introduced secure remote mail!
2nd - They bought in SMTP blocking - This one I could live with except they did give warning, nothing happened for months after the notified switchover date - there was no revised roll out untill it suddenly started happening. But at least you can easily enough opt-out - And the opt out works quickly and easily (except with one client it took 5 days to take effect??)
3rd - They outsourced all @xtra.co.nz email to yahoo and completely dropped the ball on the switch - if they'd simply aliases the new servers names (send.xtra.co.nz) etc to the current servers and notified customers to change the settings in advance it could have happened MUCH MUCH MUCH smoother.
4th - As a result of the above the new servers for business clients are a complete balls up for many businesses running their own server!
5th - Yahoo have now stopped you being able to send mail via send.xtra.co.nz as anyone but the account you authenticate as - Fine for yahoo.com email addresses etc offered free - uncool for paying xtra customers who now can't send mail from a normal email client with a sender address thats different to their Xtra email address!
I don't know whether they aren't actually aware of the problems or don't care but I can't seem to even make them understand the issues that are occuring - The inconsistency is annoying as hell - If I knew that customer 2's scenario was correct and there was a configuration issue with customer 1's xtra hosted domain I would ring and get it corrected, but I suspect its actually customer 2's domain that isn't setup "right" in telecom's system somewhere.
Please - ANYONE having similar problems please let me know.... I want to know how widespread these inconsistencies with Telecom hosted domains are with sending via SMTP.XTRA.CO.NZ and see if anyone has other workarounds...... I would love to simply let them all authenticate to my server which in turn relays to smtp.paradise.net.nz (I'm already doing this for a couple of clients) but this will choke my limited upstream connection speed.