XFOR: IMC May Not Save Turfed Messages or Save Them to an Unexpected Location

ID: Q197289

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

Spoofed messages coming into Exchange Server from the Internet Mail Service may not be saved as configured in the Windows NT registry. The spoofed messages may be saved on the system drive or not at all.

CAUSE

The Exchange Server Administrator program in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 Service Pack 1 provides a dialog box (Configuration-Connections- Internet Mail Service-Connections-Message Filter) for adding originator domains and user names to the "Turf" table. The turf table is then used to filter out incoming messages. If incoming messages are from a user or domain in the turf table, the message is not delivered to the Exchange Server recipient. Instead, it is deleted, or saved in a turf directory. This directory is set by default in the Exchange Server Administrator program to be C:\Turfdir. You can change this location by adjusting the following registry key:


   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\Services\MSExchangeIMC
   \Parameters\Turfdir

NOTE: The above registry key is one path; it has been wrapped for readability.

However, every time you add a domain or user to the turf table through the Message Filter in the Exchange Server Administrator program, the turf directory is reset to the default location. If the default location does not have a turfdir directory created, the messages will not be saved.

For more information on turf tables and turf directories, please see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

Q155683 XFOR: Verification of FROM Address in SMTP Messages

Q193926 XFOR: TURFDIR Must Be Manually Created for Message Filtering

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5.


Keywords          : 
Version           : WinNT:5.5
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: August 3, 1999