Topic Last Modified: 2006-05-17

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool tries to send a message to the Postmaster account or a user-defined account for the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) domain. The Exchange Server Analyzer displays a warning if it receives a response from that account different from the following default response:

"220 Computer Name . Domain Name .com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: Version Number ready at Date Time +0000"

This warning indicates that the default response that appears when the program connects to an Exchange SMTP virtual server has been customized.

A customized SMTP banner may not be an issue if the Exchange Server administrator has intentionally changed the banner as described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 281224, "XCON: How to Modify the SMTP Banner" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=281224).

If the default SMTP banner has not been intentionally customized by the Exchange Server administrator, this warning may indicate that the Exchange Server is behind a Firewall or SMTP Proxy that is filtering the Exchange Server Extended SMPT (ESMTP) commands.

If Exchange Server ESMTP commands are filtered, this can have a significant effect on Exchange performance and may produce the behavior described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 320027, "Cannot send or receive e-mail messages behind a Cisco PIX firewall" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=320027).

For more information about customized SMTP banners see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles: