How to Enable Recipient Filtering

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell to enable or disable recipient filtering. When recipient filtering functionality is enabled on a computer, recipient filtering functionality filters all messages that come through all Receive connectors on that computer.

By default, recipient filtering is enabled on the computer that has the Edge Transport server role installed for inbound messages that come from the Internet but are not authenticated. These messages are handled as external messages.

Before You Begin

To perform the following procedures on a computer that has the Edge Transport Server role installed, you must log on by using an account that is a member of the local Administrator's group on that computer.

Also, before you perform these procedures, confirm the following:

• You have reviewed Anti-Spam and Antivirus Functionality to understand the general strategy for configuring all anti-spam agents so that they work together efficiently for your organization.

• You have read Recipient Filtering.

• Verify that the AddressBookEnabled parameter is set to $true on any Receive connectors that receive e-mail for the accepted domains in your organization. For more information, see Set-AcceptedDomain.

Procedure

The Recipient Filter agent is the underlying agent for recipient filtering functionality. It's important to understand that when you perform the following procedures, recipient filtering functionality is enabled or disabled, but the underlying Recipient Filter agent is still enabled. To disable the underlying Recipient Filter agent, run the Disable-TransportAgent cmdlet.

To enable or disable recipient filtering by using the Exchange Management Console

1. In the Exchange Management Console, click Edge Transport.

2. In the work pane, click the Anti-spam tab, and then select Recipient Filtering.

3. In the action pane, click Enable or Disable as appropriate.

To enable or disable recipient filtering by using the Exchange Management Shell

• To enable recipient filtering, run the following command:

  Set-RecipientFilterConfig -Enabled $true
  

• To disable recipient filtering, run the following command:

  Set-RecipientFilterConfig -Enabled $false
  

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-RecipientFilterConfig.

For More Information

For more information about how to configure recipient filtering, see the following topics:

• Get-RecipientFilterConfig

• Set-RecipientFilterConfig

• Configuring Recipient Filtering

• How to Add Recipients to the Recipient Block List