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Starting, Stopping, or Pausing the SMTP Service

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

The SMTP service runs as a service on Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition and Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, and it starts upon installation. Although there is only one SMTP service on a computer, it is possible to have more than one Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual server. You can start, stop, or pause each virtual server independently of one another while the SMTP service is running.

If you have more than one SMTP virtual server, it is important to remember that pausing or stopping the entire SMTP service will affect all of the SMTP virtual servers. When the service is stopped, you cannot use IIS in Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to perform administrative functions on any SMTP virtual server.

Note

The one exception is that you can start a virtual server while the SMTP service is stopped. Starting an SMTP virtual server will also restart the entire SMTP service. This, in turn, will start all other SMTP virtual servers that had been running when the SMTP service was originally stopped.

When you start the SMTP service, it accepts new connections from users. When you stop the SMTP service, it does not accept new connections. When you pause the SMTP service, every running SMTP virtual server will cease accepting new connections but will continue to service existing connections.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /User:Administrative_AccountName "mmc systemroot\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

Procedures

To start, stop, or pause the SMTP service

  1. From the Start menu, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Component Services.

  2. In the console tree, click Services (Local).

  3. In the details pane, right-click Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and then click Start, Stop, or Pause.

Note

When you restart the SMTP service, all SMTP virtual servers that had been running when you shut down the service will automatically restart. However, an SMTP virtual server that was already stopped when the service was shut down will remain stopped, even after the SMTP service restarts.