How do I configure a X.400 Exchange connector?

John Savill

December 21, 1999

2 Min Read
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A. Aside from the native Exchange Connector, the X.400 connector isthe most common Exchange connector, allowing Exchange to connector tonon-Exchange systems. While X.400 suffers a 20% drop in performance incomparison to the native Exchange connector it is still impressive.

X.400 is a common standard and Exchanges implementation is based on the 1988standard. X.400 operates on the MTA stack and has to be installed beforeinstalling a X.400 connector. MTA stacks are available for TCP/IP, X.25 andTP4. It is available for RAS as well but that stack does not support X.400. Inthis walkthrough we will look at implementing X.400 over TCP/IP.

Only Exchange Enterprise edition has the X.400 connector and not thestandard edition (also Enterprise has the SNADS and OV/VM(PROFS) connectorswhich standard does not have). If you only have standard edition and requireX.400 connector you will need to upgrade or purchase the X.400 connector as aseparate product from Microsoft.

The first step is to install the MTA transport stack

  1. Start the Exchange Administrator program

  2. Select 'New Other' - 'MTA Transport Stack' from the File menu

  3. Select "TCP/IP MTA Transport Stack" from the list and the localserver and click OK

  4. A dialog for the configuration of MTA will be shown. You can leave the OSIinformation blank. Under the Connectors tab leave blank. Make sure you enter adisplay and directory name. Click OK

If you find you don't have a number of MTA stacks check you installed theX.400 connector at installation time. Re-run setup and click Add/Remove. SelectExchange Server and click Change Options. Check the "X.400 Connector"box and click OK. Click Continue. You will now be able to install the TCP/IPMTA stack.

Now the MTA stack is installed you can install the actual X.400 connectorand configure it accordingly.

  1. Start the Exchange Administrator program

  2. Select the Connections container of the required site to add the connectiontoo

  3. Select 'New Other' - 'X.400 Connector' from the File menu

  4. Accept the default "TCP/IP X.400 Connector" and click OK

  5. The X.400 configuration dialog will be displayed. Under the General tabenter a display and directory name (this can be any string of text). You shouldenter the remote MTA name (and a password if required) which is used toidentify the Message Transfer Agent on the other host/site.

  6. Click the Schedule tab to configure replication settings

  7. Select the Stack tab to enter the IP address of name of the system toconnect to. Again you can leave the OSI information blank.

  8. Use the Override tab to specify a different local MTA name/password

  9. Connected sites is only used when connecting Exchange sites via X.400.

  10. If you don't enter anything under Connected Sites you must configure anaddress space under the "Address Space" tab

  11. Delivery Restrictions and Advanced all along other non-essential settingsto be set

  12. Once all information is entered click OK

You now have a functionality one-way X.400 link. You would now need torepeat the above for the opposite directory.

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