I'm using Windows Server 2008 Web Edition 64 bit and IIS 7, SMTP. The server is used to host a few websites and SMTP is configured to send email, but not receive email.
My server has been running fine for a few days until a few hours ago when the SMTP service stopped. Using IIS 6 Manager I tried re-starting the service several times but each time it would immediately stop again.
The last few application log entries that appeared at this time were:
"The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 50 time(s)."
and"Faulting application inetinfo.exe, version 7.0.6001.18000, time stamp 0x47919ed9, faulting module SMTPSVC.dll, version 7.0.6001.18000, time stamp 0x4791add2, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x000000000006649a, process id 0xc2c, application start time 0x01c927864ca0a4e6."
The only way I can get the SMTP service to re-start is to remove all EML files from C:\inetpub\mailroot\Queue first before starting the service.
The exact same problem occurs on another server configured in exactly the same way. That server had SMTP running for about 10 days before showing this problem.
Why should an EML file(s) in the Queue folder stop SMTP from starting and how do I prevent it from happening again?