Supporting Messaging Clients

Set the Message Hop Count

When a message is delivered, it may be routed to a number of servers before reaching its final destination. The number of servers a message passes through is called the hop count, which you can designate.

After the hop count is set, the SMTP virtual server counts the number of Received lines in the message header. When the number of Received lines exceeds the maximum hop count setting, the message is returned to the sender with an NDR.

To set the message hop count:

  1. Start System Manager
    On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
  2. Navigate to the SMTP virtual server.
    1. Servers
    2. Server
    3. Protocols
    4. SMTP
    5. SMTP virtual servers
    6. SMTP virtual server
  3. Right-click the SMTP virtual server, and then click Properties.
  4. On the Delivery tab, click Advanced.
  5. In Advanced Delivery, in Maximum hop count, type a value for the number of hops a message can take between the source and destination servers. The default is 15 hops.