Bad Mail Messages Cause Queue to Grow and Block Delivery of Other Messages (311557)

SYMPTOMS

When a message is destined for an incorrectly configured mail address, a non-RFC-compliant mail server reports network disruption errors for this message. The "bad" message remains at the head of the queue in a "retry" state and blocks mail delivery.

CAUSE

This issue occurs when Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) causes all messages that are going to the domain, for example, to AOL.com, to queue up behind a message that was sent by a user whose domain is not configured correctly for the AOL filter. The AOL domain is returning a retry-able error code for a non-retry-able error.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   Date         Time   Version        Size     File name
   -------------------------------------------------------
   30-Oct-2001  20:19  5.0.2195.4569  321,296  Aqueue.dll
   09-Nov-2001  19:47  5.0.2195.4569   66,832  Mailmsg.dll
   09-Nov-2001  19:47  5.0.2195.4555   38,160  Ntfsdrv.dll
   09-Nov-2001  19:47  5.0.2195.4617  435,984  Smtpsvc.dll

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how to obtain a hotfix for Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

265173 The Datacenter Program and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Product

For additional information about how to install multiple hotfixes with only one reboot, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

296861 Use QChain.exe to Install Multiple Hotfixes with One Reboot

For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 hotfixes at the same time, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

249149 Installing Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Hotfixes