XFOR: SNADS and PROFS Connectors Reject Messages When Auto- registration PAB Fills Up

ID: Q185330

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to send a message through the Exchange SNADS Connector or PROFS Connector, you may receive a non-delivery report (NDR).


CAUSE

This problem can occur when the connector's personal address book (PAB) contains more than 16,000 entries. The Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) limits the number of entries in the PAB to 16,000. When the PAB becomes full, the SNADS Connector or PROFS Connector stops delivering messages and sends an NDR to the users who sent the messages.


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Exchange Server version 5.5. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. Service Pack for Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5. For information about obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K


MORE INFORMATION

When using SNADS and PROFS connectors, Internet users can communicate with the host recipients. When they do so, Internet senders must be assigned an address in the form DGN(DEN). This is done through a process called auto- registration. To auto register users, the connector uses a personal address book (PAB). Each Internet user sending to PROFS or SNADS gets a DGN(DEN) associated with his or her Internet address. This then allows the host users to reply to the message sent by the Internet user.

A PAB has a current limitation of 16,000 entries. Due to the connector needing one entry for going to the host and one entry for going from the host, each Internet user receives two entries in the PAB. This now gives a limit of 8,000 entries in the PAB. The PAB file is located under exchsrvr\connect\exchconn\tables\ as either SNADS.PAB or PROFS.PAB.

After the hotfix above is applied, the connector behaves in the following way. Instead of sending back an NDR, the sender's address is set to the INBODY address as set by the ADHOCID in the Exchconn.ini file. This allows the host user to receive the message and then reply to the message using INBODY addressing, as explained in the text of the message just received from the Internet sender.

The following occurs when the number of entries in the PAB reaches 8,000:

  1. The sender will be set to the connector's Ad Hoc mail ID; for example, EXCHANGE.INTERNET. The host user will NOT see the usual serial number type address that the connector generates when the PAB is not full. The sender's real friendly name will still be displayed in the message header.


  2. In the body of the message, the connector will insert text informing the host recipient that he or she must reply by using in-body addressing.


  3. The user replies to the connector's Ad Hoc ID and types the real native address in the first line or the message body, like this: TO:someone@microsoft.com


  4. If the user replies to the Ad Hoc ID without using in-body addressing, the user receives an NDR. The connector cannot deliver messages addressed to the Ad Hoc ID without an in-body address.


This is an example of how the message looks when received on the host side: 

<<

    Date: April 6, 1998
          From: User1 [SMTP:user1@somewhere.com]      INTMAIL  -
EXCHTEST
            To: User2 (Company1)                            USER2    -
Company1
       Subject: Testing 2
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

You must use a special procedure to reply to this message. Select the Reply option and make sure the reply address is EXCHTEST.INTMAIL. Then type the following in the first line of your reply:
TO:SMTP: user1@somewhere.com
On the next line, start typing your reply message. When you have completed your reply, select the Send option.

Additional query words: snads pab auto registration ndr 


Keywords          : XFOR 
Version           : 5.5
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: April 9, 1999