FFAPI: Address List Contains Local Postoffice Addresses

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Mail Software Development Kit (FFAPI), version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

Microsoft Mail for PC Networks Mail users may notice addresses from their local Postoffice Address List have been added to the Microsoft File Format API (FFAPI) network/postoffice list. These local postoffice addresses may also appear twice in the Global Address List.

This problem will only appear on postoffices that are downstream of the FFAPI Gateway postoffice.

CAUSE

This problem is caused by the Administrator of a downstream postoffice exporting the local postoffice address list to the FFAPI network/postoffice.

When the Administrator of a downstream postoffice performs an External-Admin, Export, and selects to export the local postoffice address list to ALL postoffices, ADMIN.EXE will send the addresses as a *SPECIAL system message to all external postoffices - including any downstream FFAPI network/postoffices definitions.

The FFAPI-based gateway will attempt to deliver this system message to the foreign mail system, but may return it as undeliverable because *SPECIAL is not a valid address.

When External moves the returned message from the gateway postoffice to the downstream postoffice, it will recognize the message as a valid *SPECIAL system message and will add the addresses contained within the message to the address listed as the FROM address, which will be the FFAPI gateway network/postoffice that rejected the message.

If the Global Address List (GAL) is rebuilt (via DirSync or manually using the REBUILD.EXE utility), each local postoffice user will appear twice in the GAL.

RESOLUTION

This problem can be avoided by selectively exporting the postoffice address list rather than exporting to all postoffices. When selecting the postoffices to export to, do not include the Mail Connection proxy postoffice.

A second option would be to have the FFAPI gateway handle a message addressed to FFAPINET/FFAPIPO/*SPECIAL in a different manner than normal messages. This message can be handled one of three ways:

• The gateway simply deletes these messages if they come in.
• The gateway returns the message back to any account other than *SPECIAL stating the addressee is invalid.
• The gateway forwards the message to an account stating the *SPECIAL addressee is invalid.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in version 3.0 of Microsoft Mail Software Development Kit (FFAPI). We are researching this problem and will post new information in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

If you have encountered this problem, use the following instructions to repair the Mail Connection proxy address list and the Global Address List on the downstream postoffice.

1. Use the IMPORT.EXE utility to extract the FFAPI Gateway address list from the Directory Synchronization postoffice:

         IMPORT admin -ppassword -xFFAPIET/FFAPIPO -fFFAPINME.DAT -DM
   

   admin = Administrator's Mailbox name password = Administrator's Mailbox password FFAPIET/FFAPIPO = the FFAPI gateway NETWORK/POSTOFFICE FFAPINME.DAT = filename to store extracted addresses -DM = drive letter mapped to dirsync server postoffice

2. Import the extracted FFAPI gateway network/postoffice addresses into the downstream postoffice:

         IMPORT admin -p<password> -fFFAPINME.DAT -DN
   

   admin = Administrator's Mailbox name password = Administrator's Mailbox password FFAPINME.DAT = name of input file (extracted in step 1) -DN = drive letter mapped to downstream postoffice

3. If the local postoffice users appear twice in the Global Address List, run the REBUILD.EXE utility to regenerate the GAL on the downstream postoffice.

         REBUILD -DN
   

   -DN = Drive letter mapped to downstream postoffice