Applies to: Exchange Server 2013

Topic Last Modified: 2012-10-15

This procedure shows you how to configure a Receive connector to receive email from the Internet.

Note:
In most cases, you won’t need to explicitly set up a Receive connector to receive mail from the Internet, because a Receive connector to accept mail from the Internet is implicitly created upon installation of Exchange. See Receive Connectors for more information.

Interested in scenarios where this procedure is used? See the following topics:

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 15 minutes

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Receive connectors" entry in the Mail Flow Permissions topic.

  • See Deploy a New Installation of Exchange 2013 if you are beginning your installation. After the installation you can use the steps in this topic to create your receive connector.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard Shortcuts in the Exchange Admin Center.

Tip:
Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection

Use the EAC to Create a Receive Connector to Receive Messages from the Internet

  1. In the EAC, navigate to Mail flow > Receive connectors. Click Add Add Icon to create a Receive connector.

  2. On the New receive connector page, specify a name for the Receive connector and then select Frontend transport for the Role. Since you are receiving mail from the Internet in this case, we recommend that you initially route mail to your Front End server or servers, to simplify and consolidate your mail flow.

  3. Choose Internet for the type. The Receive connector will receive mail from Internet senders.

  4. For the Network adapter bindings, observe that All available IPV4 is listed in the IP addresses list and the Port is 25. (Simple Mail Transer Protocol (SMTP) uses port 25.) This indicates that the connector listens for connections on all IP addresses assigned to network adapters on the local server.

    Note:
    If you have multiple network adapters, on this page you can add an IP address that is assigned to a specific network adapter on the local server, but this isn’t required.
  5. Click the Finish button to create your connector.

Once you have created the Receive connector, it appears in the Receive connector list. If you would like to see an example of how to create a Receive connector with a cmdlet, see New-ReceiveConnector.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully created a Receive connector to receive messages from the Internet, test that you can send mail from an outside source and one of your users can receive it. If you can receive mail, you know that the configuration worked successfully.

For more information