Hi linuxcomando,

This might be a brain fart of an answer...but it's the best I can come up with...do you have Active Directory installed?

" As with any piece of software you have to configure the Operating System that it’s running on. Well, configuring includes more than just installing a Service Pack for Windows. Active Directory has to be set up and fully functioning for Exchange to route properly and believe me, this will take time. If you already have Windows 2000 and Active Directory, then great, otherwise… you have some work to do. Let’s say that you’ve already installed Active Directory and now ready to continue. Your forward and reverse lookup zones are correctly configured in DNS. The Active Directory Replication monitor has been saying that everything is working perfectly (for at least the past week) and there are no significant errors in the event viewer when you reboot your machine. Ok. It’s time. Take a deep breath, place the disk in the CD ROM, and watch for the auto run screen to pop up.
Preinstallation Requirements

Exchange 2000 depends on Windows 2000’s configuration much more than the previous versions of Exchange were dependant on their parent version of Windows. This is evident in the fact that Exchange no longer has a Directory Service of its own; it relies on Active Directory for User configuration and Server information. As a matter of fact Exchange depends on Windows 2000 for five key things, so understand these before you get into Exchange. "

from here...

http://www.activewin.com/reviews/sof...stallopt.shtml
ActiveWin.com: Exchange 2000 Server/Enterprise Server - Review

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