When performing test on a Microsoft Exchange server, some tests will return a transaction time warning. For the most part this is not an issue and nothing needs to be done. This delay is intentional on the part of Microsoft Exchange to help prevent spam. The warnings are typically given when it takes more than 1 second for the SMTP connector to respond to the request. This process of delaying multiple mail requests is called tarpitting.

If this warning bothers you, there is a change that you can make that will fix the Transaction time warnings for Exchange 2007 and 2010.

  1. Run the below in Exchange Shell
  2. get-ReceiveConnector | select name,tarpitinterval
  3. The above commend will get a list of receive connectors
  4. Use the following command to change the Tarpitting setting to 1 second. Replace
          "Windows SBS Internet Receive SERVER1" with the actual name of the Connector.

    set-ReceiveConnector "Windows SBS Internet Receive SERVER1" -tarpitinterval 00:00:01

Using the above command to set the tarpitinterval to 00:00:01 will change the default 5 second delay to 1 second. This will fix the Transaction time warnings for most smtp testing applications.

We hope that this information is helpful. Please let us know how this has helped you or if you have additional questions. As always Firestone Technical Resources, Inc. is here to help with your computer support issues - "Providing personal service for your impersonal technology."