When trying to test an email (smtp) notification, I always get an error that tells me that the server is unable to relay (550 5.7.1 Unable to relay for externaluser@hotmail.com). How can I fix this?

Article ID: 155
Category: Notifications
Created: 2007-12-12

If the email recipient you configured in the EventSentry action is outside of your email organization then the host attempting to to send the email must be allowed to relay email through the email server configured in EventSentry.

If relaying is currently not allowed on your email server, then you can usually allow relaying in two ways:

1. Authorize the IP address of the sending host to relay through the email server: You will have to authorize all computers that are running the ES agent as well as the computer that is running the management console if you test an email action. You can usually also authorize an entire subnet if, this is only recommended if the computers on the subnet can be trusted.

2. Allow clients to relay if they authenticate against the email server: If you cannot allow a subnet or multiple IP addresses to relay (e.g. for security reasons), then you should be able to configure your email server to allow relaying to authenticated users. In this case you will have to ensure that EventSentry supports at least one of the authentication protocols used by your email server.

The list below briefly outlines where to configure relaying options for common email servers:

Microsoft Exchange 2003
Open System Manager and navigate to Servers->[SERVERNAME]>Protocols->SMTP->Default SMTP Virtual Server. Right-click Default SMTP Virtual Server and select Properties. The Access tab contains all available options for relaying.