This is a blog on all things Microsoft that I could not find the answers for when I looked. I hope that by my documenting the fix, I save you the hassle!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Adding Routes Using CMAK
Error 1: Connect action to update your routing table failed (80070057) - shown in the VPN client
Error 2: ErrorCode = -2147024809 ErrorSource = to update your routing table - recorded in the VPN log file
The reason! It was because I had entered an incorrect routing record in the text file. So to get this right, add the routes manually when connected and make sure they work, and then duplicate these entries in the text file. If the routes cannot be added on the command line then the VPN connection will fail with the above error message.
Monday, February 13, 2006
P1 and P2 Headers in SMTP
P1 = the value on the MAIL FROM command of the SMTP connection (the message envelope) as defined in RFC 821.
P2 = the email address in the message body as defined in RFC 822. These include the FROM, REPLY TO and SENDER fields
For example, the following SMTP command sequence describes where P1 and P2 are used:
HELO server
MAIL FROM this_is@my_p1_address.com
RCPT TO: recipient@domain.com
DATA
FROM: this_is@my_p2_address.com
TO: recipient@domain.com
SUBJECT: This is a blog on P1 and P2
This is the text of the message
.
The MAIL FROM value should be your email address, but it does not have to be (ie one of the reasons why spam is so prevalent)
The FROM: header should match this, but this value is what is displayed in the email in Outlook (and other clients). The P1 address is used for routing and not display.
If the connection to an Exchange Server is anonymous then the P2 address will contain the display name and the email address, but if it is an authenticated connection then the P2 email address will be resolved to the value in the address book and this value will be displayed.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Invalid Visibility When Sending Email in Microsoft CRM
This error occurs because the code that sends the email does not complete successfully, and in my case because of anti-spam restrictions enabled on the Exchange Server that was being used as the SMTP gateway. The Exchange Server is the organisations only SMTP server, and the corporate firewall allows SMTP inbound and outbound only from this machine. Therefore this Exchange Server has a series of global message filters enabled which where activated on the SMTP virtual server on this machine. One of these anti-spam settings was to reject any mail on the SMTP virtual server that was from the domain name of the company and not authenticated. This stops lots of spam from outside the network that poses as if it where from inside the network, but as the CRM SMTP session was not authenticated, it too fell into this category.
So when CRM tried to send email, it received behind the scenes a 550 error - Sender Denied and so it generated the Invalid Visibility message.
Therefore, in this case, the fix was to authenticate the session, but alternatives exist such as providing a dedicated SMTP virtual server for the CRM application and additional routes outbound through the firewall for SMTP.
In addition to the above, the same error can be caused by other SMTP failures, so if you are getting the same error then open a command prompt on the CRM server and enter the following commands, waiting for an error and then using this to diagnose the reason why CRM 3.0 will not send emails for you (if anonymous email is allowed).
TELNET smtp_server_name 25
HELO crm_server_name
MAIL FROM: email_address@yourdomain
RCPT TO: recipient@externaldomain
DATA
TO: email_address@yourdomain
FROM: recipient@externaldomain
SUBJECT: CRM Test
blank line needed here
Some text to act as the body of the message
.
Always finish the email with a full-stop on a line on its own