How to modify the POP or IMAP banner (303513)

SUMMARY

When you connect to an Exchange 2000 server with the Post Office Protocol (POP) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), you receive a banner that is similar to the following:

Microsoft Exchange 2000 POP3 server version 6.0.4417.0 (your_server_name) ready.

If necessary, you can now change this banner (and the disconnecting banner). This article describes how to change this banner. For additional information about the latest service pack for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

301378 How to obtain the latest Exchange 2000 Server service pack

MORE INFORMATION

To change the POP or IMAP banner (and the disconnecting banner):

Apply the feature that this article describes.
Stop the service for which you want to change the setting (either Microsoft Exchange POP3 or Microsoft Exchange IMAP4).
Use syntax that is similar to the following syntax to set the property keys in the metabase; for example, to set the IMAP4 connection string, run the following command from a command prompt (where <the_new_connection_string> is the string that you want to include in the banner):
smtpmd SET -path imap4svc/1 -dtype STRING -prop 49884 -value "<the_new_connection_string>"
The following values are the other values for the metabase keys:
- POP3ConnectionString - 41661
- POP3DisconnectionString - 41662
- IMAP4ConnectionString - 49884
- IMAP4DisconnectionString - 49885
Restart the service.

Notes

In Exchange 2000, this modification is applied to all the virtual servers on the Exchange server. This is not a setting that can be changed for each virtual server.
In Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, this modification is applied only to the virtual server that you modify. This modification must be set for each virtual server on the Exchange server that you want to return no banner. If a banner is deleted from any one virtual server, that virtual server will revert to the default banner.

You can also change the SMTP default banner. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

281224 How to modify the SMTP banner

In order for this to work effectively, the Exchange 2000 Server Post-Service Pack 2 Protocols Fixes need to be applied. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

316664 Exchange 2000 Server post-Service Pack 2 protocols fixes available