setting up exchange server

[watts3000]

I'm attemping to set up an exchange server. The problem is I can send email out to the net but. I can't send email back in. I have set me dns up as follows. I'm using forwarders in order to resolve non lan traffic. I am using zoneedit for dns. I have put a mx record in for our domain which is www.stephensnetworks.com. I tested the setup through a command prompt using nslookup and this is what I recieved.
"
H:\>nslookup
Default Server: dc1.stephensnw.com
Address: 192.168.1.55

> set type=mx
> stephensnetworks.com
Server: dc1.stephensnw.com
Address: 192.168.1.55

Non-authoritative answer:
stephensnetworks.com MX preference = 0, mail exchanger = mail.stephensnetwork
s.com

mail.stephensnetworks.com internet address = 24.153.160.173
>"

I have also opened port 110 and 25 on the firewall I also config the virtual servers to listen on the approiate nic. I did this for smtp and pop 3., but is thus even needed. I thought exchange servers used smtp to send mail out to the net and pop 3 to recieve the mail. So far I have used this turorial http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/1469721.
Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Saltin]

Exchange's SMTP server isnt listening on your public IP port 25 as of right now. Maybe it is off, but I suggest you check which IP addresses the SMTP server is listening on. Go to the properties of the default SMTP server and have a look.

 

[watts3000]

I am using a linksys befsr41 and I have forwared port 25 to exchange server on the lan. The exchange server has about 3 nics in the box. So I verified that the default ftp server is listening on the lan ip that I forwarded. This is confusing because I can send email out without a problem. How can I tell if this is a dns problem.

 

[Saltin]

It doesnt look like a DNS problem, because I can do an nslookup on you and it resolves. I believe that the default SMTP server just isnt listening on the private IP you have forwarded through your router. Look at the properties of the default SMTP server in Exchange Admin snap in.

 

[SR]

Verify that your port forwarding is turned on. Try and telnet to your address on port 25 to see if you get connectivity. Disable 2 of the nics to see if that clears up things.