Issue

When I open IIS 6.0 Manager and right-click the SMTP Virtual Server, I often receive the following error:

SMTP Server Error

After several attempts, I’m sometimes able to access and configure the settings. However, any attempt to send a message through the SMTP server causes the SMTP service to stop, and an error is logged in the Event Viewer.

Event Log Details:

The Event Viewer logs the following Application Error (Event ID 1000):

Faulting application: inetinfo.exe, version: 10.0.20348.1
Faulting module: SMTPSVC.dll, version: 10.0.20348.1
Exception code: 0xc0000005 (Access violation)
Fault offset: 0x0000000000095abb
Faulting process ID: 0x2554
Application path: C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\inetinfo.exe
Module path: C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\SMTPSVC.dll


Solution

We found the following steps consistently resolve the issue. After applying them, we’re able to configure the SMTP settings in IIS 6.0 Manager without encountering errors or service crashes:

1. Stop the SMTPSVC service (Display Name: "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)"
2. Stop the IISADMIN service (Display name: "IIS Admin Service"
3. Edit C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\MetaBase.xml
4. Find Add RelayIpList="" as an attribute. (Settings are alphabetical.)
5. Save the MetaBase file.
6. Start the IISAdmin service.
7. Start the SMTPSVC service.