SeanDaniel.com on SBS 2003 & other Tech-stuff: One way to

SeanDaniel.com on SBS 2003 & other Tech-stuff: One way to “send as” when using multiple domains

1. Create a mail-enabled group (aka Distribution List) representing each one of the incoming addresses. The primary SMTP address (that is the upper-case SMTP type address that you see in Active Directory Users and Computers) should reflect the correct inbound domain. So, for example, you can create the following groups with the associated SMTP address:
   1. Group 1 – SMTP: Mailbox1@domainA.com
   2. Group 2 – SMTP: Mailbox2@domainA.com
   3. Group 3 – SMTP: Mailbox1@domainB.com
   4. Group 4 – SMTP: Mailbox1@domainC.com
2. So, hopefully you can see what I’m doing here …the inbound mail destined for a specific mailbox and domain actually resolves to a group rather than an actual mailbox. From here, you can just add whichever mailboxes you like to the group, and of course, those users will receive the mail via the group.
3. The next step is to allow your users “send as” permissions on each group object (you do this through Active Directory Users and Computers as well). So, when a user replies to a mail, then can use the optional FROM: box in Outlook to pecificy/choose the name of the group that they want the message to be from.
4. When your user sends the reply, the message is stamped as coming from the group e-mail address, which of course will have the correct domain name stamped on it (this comes from that upper-case SMTP type address).

Okay, I did this today but there are some minor gotcha’s. Smarter folks than I would have probably blown right by these gotch’s but you do not need to repeat these for my sake.

1. First question out of the box is what type of distribution group do you create. The answer is Universal. Better yet is to run the Add Distribution Group Wizard.
2. If the email address you are planning on using for the group had been previously used for an individual user, you need to remove it from that user before creating the group. Mother Exchange was not happy till you cleaned up your mess. Uh..Duh!
3. You have to turn on Advanced Features of the Active Directory Users and Computers. Then when you right click on your newly created group and view its Properties you can see the Security Tab. Why do you want to see the security tab you say? So you can enable the “Send As” property for your user or security group.
4. When you create your message in Outlook, make sure you use your newly created distribution group name in the From field and not the email address for the group. Better yet, take a few more seconds and click on the From box. Drill down through menus to the groups and select the group. I thought I would save time by entering the email address but Mother Exchange rejected my email. It said I was not authorized to send to the recipient. An hour later I figured out that using the group name made it happy.