Proxy Addresses
Proxy Addresses
This content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release. A proxy address is the address by which a Microsoft® Exchange Server recipient object is recognized in a foreign messaging system. Proxy addresses are required not just for users, but for all recipient objects, such as contacts, distribution groups, and public folders.
Each Exchange recipient object will have several proxy addresses — at least one for each foreign address type known to the system. The proxy addresses for each foreign address type are created by a dynamic-link library (DLL). You specify the location of this DLL as an attribute of the Addr-Type object when you install the address type in Microsoft Active Directory®.
The following table shows two proxy addresses associated with a native Exchange 2000 Server user named Jonathan Mollerup. Each proxy address is prefixed with its address type. The native transport for Exchange is now SMTP. E-mail originating in a foreign messaging system is addressed to Exchange Server recipients with proxy addresses that correspond to the foreign system.
| Address type | Address |
|---|---|
| Exchange 2000 Server | SMTP:JonathanMollerup@HumongousInsurance.com |
| MS Mail proxy | MS:HumongousInsurance/sales/JonathanMollerup |
| X.400 proxy | X400:c=US;a= ;p=HumongousInsurance;s=Mollerup;g=Jonathan |
Users can have primary and secondary proxy addresses. The primary proxy address for a user is the one used to send e-mail to the foreign system. The secondary proxy addresses are used when e-mail is received from the foreign system. On outgoing messages, the primary proxy address is used as the address of the sender. On incoming messages, the recipient listed in the message is matched against the secondary proxy addresses in Active Directory to find the proper recipient object for the message.
A user has only one primary proxy address but might have multiple secondary addresses. For example, if two companies merge and give new e-mail addresses to all their employees, secondary proxy addresses might be used so that employees can receive e-mail at both their old and new e-mail addresses. By maintaining the old e-mail addresses as secondary proxy addresses, incoming e-mail can be addressed to either the old or new address. Outgoing e-mail is always addressed using the primary proxy address.
A gateway should be able to generate proxy addresses for the following types of recipient objects: users, contacts, groups, and public folders. The gateway does not need to generate proxy addresses for one-off addresses.
Note To view the proxy addresses for an Exchange user, click the E-mail Addresses tab on the property page for the user in the Active Directory Users and Computers application. This application is located under the Program Files/Administrative Tools node in Microsoft Windows® server operating systems Server.
The following topics provide more information about proxy addresses and proxy address generation:
Debugging Proxy Generation DLLs
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Build: June 2007 (2007.618.1)
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