No version of Exchange has a "hibernation" feature that I'm aware of.  Unless somebody has seriously b0rked a third-party program, there is nothing in Exchange itself that would cause the server to become "inactive" during extended periods without use.  Besides, if the Exchange server is supporting all that many users, it is probably fairly active 24/7 just from handling spam.  My home Exchange server (Exchange 2003 Enterprise) rarely goes more than 5 minutes without processing some sort of mail.

I'd recommend running checking the Event Log on the application and  Exchange servers and the syslogs from your PIX firewall to determine what's going on.  Exchange has a special logging feature that can be set to "debug mode" to help you figure out just what the heck is going on.  It can be configured to show you any authentication denials, which might be your problem.

Just a stab in the dark, but is it possible that the account you're using for SMTP authentication against Exchange has a logon hour limitation in Active Directory?  I've run into this problem before.  A system account was accidentally thrown into an organizational unit intended for users, and an ADSI modification was made at a later date that limited logons to business hours.  Several external processes choked every night at 6:00pm when that account lost logon authority.

If that doesn't work, I'd recommend running a packet analyzer and manually trying to send the e-mail, just to see what happens to the traffic.  It's not entirely unlikely that an ACL on the PIX firewall is set a bit too restrictively.  Ask your network administrator to log any dropped connections from the server running the problematic application, if he isn't doing so already.

Finally, if none of this works, reply back or give me a call.  There aren't a whole lot of Exchange issues that I haven't had to deal with at one time or another, and I'd be happy to help you figure this out.

-b0b
(...is the PIX sitting between the Exchange and app servers?)

You're a nerd.

Have fun on your vacation!

-b0b
(...will be leaving for vacation on 09/27.)

I just finished the upgrade to v2.2.3, which was long overdue.  I have to restore the old template and tweak it a bit for the new version.  Hit "refresh" to load the latest template.

The new software has a lot of nifty features.  My personal favorite is the resizable text window.  You can drag the text entry box up or over to resize it, just like an Explorer window.  Very nifty if you ask me!


-b0b
(...likes it!)

Thanks for the plug, but I just took a new job that I haven't even started yet.  If your boss is looking for a night-time/weekend contractor, though, be sure to give him my name!

-b0b
(...is always open for contract work!)

Quote:


So that is why you are always out on the corner...

PS.  Forum is different.  Change is bad, MMMKay.

Quote:


So...you admit they are different!  I think monk said it best, "I don't think anything should change...ever."

And I will keep my sand anywhere I want no matter what darth vador says!

Stick,

Did your Exchange problem ever return, or did this seem to fix it?

-b0b
(...is just wondering.)