Mail Problems - Resolved - Explanation

[Eric "Shubes"]

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'