Sending Mail
------------

Using 'Use DNS to route mail' Or 'forward all email to email server at
ISP' means that you can *either* send mail directly to the recipients
mail system (the server uses DNS to look up the address of the users
mail server) OR you can send all mail to your ISP and they forward it on
for you - this is also often called using a 'smart host' (ie. the server
at your ISP that forwards on the mail for you).

Generally I always set to send mail using DNS but some ISPs may not
actually let you - they block the Port used by your Exchange mail server
(this is to stop spammers etc) If you want to send via your ISP they
will give you the IP adress of their smart host - ask them and type the
address in.

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You can check if you can use DNS to route email yourself - just manually
run a Telnet command that simulates a connection - to any mail server in
the world. If you get a response then you can say Yes to using DNS to
route email (i.e. if this option were blocked by your ISP you would not
get a response to the test:)

 ie.  Start/Run/ type: CMD /ok

 (this starts a DOS prompt)

 Type:  telnet mail.bbc.co.uk 25 (return)

This will connect to the BBCs mail server (picked at random - you could
use any of the millions of companies that use email) and should greet
you with a connection message like:

"220 gateg.kw.bbc.co.uk ESMTP Sendmail 8.11.2/8.11.2; Fri, 29 Apr 2005
00:31:05 0100 (BST)"

You can say hello and it will greet you:

 Type:  helo test.com (return)  - deliberate hello spelt wrongly!

It will reply simalr to:

"250 gateg.kw.bbc.co.uk Hello 181-18-89-19.dsl.pipe.com [181.18.89.19],
pleased to meet you"

This means that you can deliver mail using DNS OK!
----------------------------------------

If you get no response or a timeout error then you can not use the 'Use
DNS to route..' option. Instead get the IP address of the smart host
from your ISP and type it in the "Email Server" box.

Receiving Mail
--------------

"E-mail is delivered directly to my server" is only used if you have an
SMTP mail setup with your ISP (they give you a fixed IP address and
publish your mail server name in DNS effectily). Here your mail server
receives mail directly from the sender - just like say the BBC example
does (i.e. any PC in the world could connect to you and send their
mail). This SMTP setup is usually an extra cost option with most ISPs
(check if you are setup for SMTP mail).

"Email held at ISP until my server sends a signal" is where all mail is
queued at your ISP for you - Exchange then periodically connects and
requests the mail download using SMTP by sending a command. Here your
ISP supplies you with the name of their server. This isnt used too often
these days for installs I see.

Third option: You say you have POP3 already which is a slighly simpler
alternate way to receive mail so this is what you would use. Here your
ISPs mail server holds all your mail until you connect to it and
download it using POP3. In this case you select 'Use the Microsoft
Connector for POP3'

The Exchange  POP3 connector goes off and sends your username(s) and
password(s) to your ISP and downloads the mail (similar to say how
Outlook Express would work). You setup the user names/passwords later in
the setup.

See if that makes any sense!