if i enter the ip address of the server i get the message "connected to the wrong server <server name> using address <the ip address>.  if i use the fqdn of the mail server which has the mx records i get the positive results that states it is connected to the server.  i believe i know what the problem is now that i think about it.  we have a couple servers that "share" an internet static ip address, on server has the A record and the domino server has the MX record and they do have separate internal ip addresses.  that's what i'm thinking is the problem but not quite sure how to correct it as this was never a problem.  i'm also getting ready to place the second domino server online that will host the sametime community server.  i do have screen captures of the port trace results, just not sure if i can upload them here.

you should not need to enter IP addresses for your client to connect to a domino server, sounds like a DNS resolution issue somewhere.  have you tried using a hosts file?

i don't know that it is a DNS issue...  i am able to ping using the FQDN but when setting up the notes 9 client and using the FQDN or ip address of the mail server, i still cannot pull down the mail... mail file doesn't exist is the message..  i haven't tried using a hosts file on the mail server here... shouldn't need that within our network as the FQDN of the servers are resolvable from outside the network.

I discovered what was causing the problem.  Even though I had the port 1352 initially opened in the windows firewall, for some reason it didn't take with the new installation.  i deleted the inbound and outbound rule, added them new again and the problem went away... connection went through immediately.

Thanks for all the prompt input...