Topic Last Modified: 2007-01-24

When a message is being delivered, it may be relayed through several servers before reaching its final destination. You can designate how many servers the message can pass through. This is known as the hop count.

After the maximum hop count is set, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual server counts the hops listed in the Received lines of the message header. When the number of Received fields exceeds the maximum hop count setting, the message is returned to the sender with a non-delivery report (NDR).

Procedure

To set the maximum hop count

  1. In Microsoft Management Console, select the SMTP virtual server, and then click Properties on the Action menu.

  2. On the Delivery tab, click Advanced to open the Advanced Delivery dialog box.

  3. In Maximum hop count, type a value for the number of hops a message can take between the source and destination servers. The default is 15 hops.

  • Configuring Retry Attempts and Intervals
  • Setting the Masquerade Domain