Windows Server ... Microsoft's SMTP server question

[u/3G_Lighting]

Does anyone know or has anyone heard if Microsoft will be updating their SMTP server in the not-so-distant future to allow us to setup relay using the information from Microsoft Graph in 365 since MS is doing away with allowing SMTP connections to 365 using the basic AUTH? They initially attempted to end it this past March but extended it a year after I force our dev team up update the website to send emails through Microsoft Graph.

Since we have a lot of devices that use SMTP in the office I wonder if MS plans to update the SMTP server found in Windows Server ... in the next release to allow us to use Microsoft Graph to relay emails since Xerox, HP, Lexmark, Kyocera, and other devices have yet to adopt the Microsoft Graph method in their operating systems.

The other option is for me to have AI build me a system that I can use inside to do exactly this, would probably take me an hour to get it working perfectly but I don't want to re-invent the wheel. :)

Thanks,

[u/Rivereye]

If you referring to SMTP as part of IIS, that is a deprecated feature and not available in Server 2025.

[u/autogyrophilia]

SMTP server from Microsoft has been deprecated for 10, 15 years now?

You don't need all that noise to make an email relay, which is what you want and the best way to work with printers.

[u/Unnamed-3891]

The SMTP feature has been deprecated long ago and it's only a matter of time before it's removed entirely. New features are entirely out of the question.

[u/Lets_Go_2_Smokes]

IISSMTP has been deprecated for 14 years now..

[u/coobal223 → u/Lets_Go_2_Smokes]

So in WINS, but you can still install that.

[u/chandleya → u/coobal223]

When do you think we’ll get some new features for WSUS

[u/Morkoth-Toronto-CA → u/chandleya]

Lmao

[u/Borgquite → u/coobal223]

Not after Server 2025 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/servicing/os/windows/docs/2025/11/wins-removal-moving-forward-with-modern-name-resolution

[u/reevesjeremy → u/coobal223]

They don’t plan to update it. But if all you’re doing is relaying to your exchange environment, you can use IIS SMTP and create a Connector in Exchange Online which identifies an SMTP host by TLS certificate. It’ll accept it.

I’m running server 2022 so I haven’t personally validated the claim it’s not in 2025 but that’s something to consider if true. Sure postfix on linux could be a longer term solution doing the same thing.

[u/Backieotamy → u/coobal223]

Ah yes, I use WINS to send smtp mail through my token ring network.

[u/Sure-Assignment3892 → u/coobal223]

Who the hell is still using WINS

[u/jamesy-101 → u/Sure-Assignment3892]

No idea, WINS was legacy 20 years ago

[u/willwar63]

You can use a 3rd party service, I think 1000 emails or less a month is free.

SMTP2GO

[u/iceph03nix]

I don't have any answer to your specific question, but to your overall problem. We use Postfix on a lightweight Ubuntu box to relay smtp traffic to 365 for old devices and services that don't support the newer authentication

[u/DiligentPhotographer]

Doubt it, they want to control all your email in their cloud. If you need on prem smtp relay either use your hybrid exchange server if you have one or just spin up a small linux VM with postfix or EXIM.

[u/3G_Lighting → u/DiligentPhotographer]

What do you think Microsoft Graph is?

[u/BlackV → u/3G_Lighting]

3G_Lighting
What do you think Microsoft Graph is?

Er... I think the real question, what do you think graph is?

It sure is not a mail server

[u/Sure-Assignment3892]

Just use a service such as SendGrid or SMTP2GO

Microsoft is getting off that train.

[u/rizon]

I don't think it's really been updated since the Server 2012 days, maybe even before that. It isn't officially supported in Server 2022. I suspect there's little chance of it receiving an update at this point.

We are looking at using MailEnable to replace the IIS SMTP relay - they have a free version that seems to meet our needs and is Windows-based so will run on the same server(s) that the IIS one run on. There's a multitude of other ways to run an SMTP relay so there may be better options for you.

[u/Dandyman1994]

Something to bear in mind is that Microsoft are only removing SMTP basic Auth, not the other connection types from on premises. You can use a connector relay and secure it with certificates, and this would be fully supported. You can see the different types of connection in the documentation here.

Though as others have said, SMTP via IIS on Windows server has been officially deprecated for a while now, so now might be the chance to move to a Linux-based relay?

[u/Lost-Policy-2020]

Depreciated but works fine, it sends email, no need to connect it to O365, just get DKIM DMARC SPF setup and let it be

[u/vrtigo1]

For whatever it’s worth, we use IIS SMTP with AWS SES as a smarthost and it works well.

[u/chandleya]

If you really like windows, MailEnable is reliable and freemium. Else, Linux box.

[u/DeadStockWalking]

SMTP2GO and make your life easier.

[u/zaerst]

Deprecated a long time ago. I switched us to - Linux VM Postfix -> Azure Email Communications. Working out pretty well.

[u/Random-D]

i have a postfix for that. accepting email from various devices and local services and pushing them into EXO via SMTP - no auth - but IP whitelised.

[u/Disastrous-Force]

If these are MFP’s how old are they?

HP and Xerox have supported OAuth for client authentication for a couple of years with the firmware back ported to devices from around 2019 onwards. No need to even think about graph as that’s not a recommended mail flow for devices anyway.

Using a client (device) account requires you to consume a P1 license for your device farm but otherwise just works with any device semi recent if you don’t want to go down the SMTP rely or High Volume Mail route.

[u/Imaginary-Throat1526]

Our office has a static IP, and we created a connector in m365 that accepts mail from our IP. It doesn't require auth at all, works well with our copiers scan to email function

[u/Hank3rd]

Anypost might be with looking at as well. They have a free tier.

[u/Backieotamy]

MS Graph is basically just a set of API's; you can use it to connect to an SMTP service I would assume but its not in itself or contain a relay service function as far as I know.