Re: Mail Problems - Resolved - Explanation

Nathan Aubrey wrote:
> All,
>
> I have made some progress with my registrar and the company that maintains the
> domains for that registrar. Supposedly, in the next few hours I will receieve
> the authorization code and the domain will be unlocked...
>
> 1&1 here I come!
>
> I apologize, I don't mean to be a 1&1 fan boy, but when you call tech support,
> someone answers. And while I really really really like it when they speak
> english, at this point I'm willing to speak to ANYONE!
>
> But, I have done a few things wrong, and I thought I'd post it here to help
> anyone who may be doing things the way I have been...
>
> My main server is called calvary, the FQDN is
> calvary.paysonfirstbaptistchurch.net
> I registered paysonfirstbaptistchurch.net with my DNS, then created a CNAME
> for anything I needed, ie; www, mail, smtp, ssh, and a couple others. All
> pointing to the initial paysonfirstbaptistchurch.net A pointer.
> Then I created my MX pointers.
>
> MX 20:mail.paysonfirstbaptistchurch.net
>
> I have several domains all hosted on the same computer and have them all setup
> somewhat the same. I also have multiple faked MX records
>
> MX 10:zombie.paysonfirstbaptistchurch.net which pointed to 0.0.0.0 in an
> attempt to stop a lot of spammers that only go for the first or last MX
> record. This worked great, until AOL and Juno came into the picture, whereas,
> much like many spammers, only want your first MX record.
>
> So then, I found out you cannot have your MX pointing to a CNAME ! Which ALL
> of my domains do. Even dumber than that, I didn't even think about it, but my
> mx is mail.paysonfirstbaptistchurch.net but the FQDN is calvary.pay...
> So many other mail servers were bombing on me because it was a faked domain or
> something... You have to have all the names be FQDN's... Why I had not done
> this, is beyond me. I just don't know.
>
> Anyway, thought I would share, hope it helps someone. I am now an expert on
> how (not) to set up an email server! lol
>
> Thank you all for your help. As always, the knowledge on this list makes
> google look stupid.
>
> Nathan

Thanks for the post, Nathan. "Resolved" posts like this are most helpful.

One (not the only) reason I like dyndns.com is their documentation:

http://www.dyndns.com/support/kb/email_mail_exchangers_and_dns.html
    * Mail Exchanger: This field defines the destination host record for
your mail server. The destination mail server record must be a host (A)
record, not a CNAME or IP address.

Sorry I'm so far behind reading the plug posts. :(

--
-Eric 'shubes'
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