I *really* messed up...

jorune · Post by **jorune** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:45 pm

Kiliman wrote:Hi, sorry to bust in to this thread, but I also did a test at www.dnsreport.com

It seems that there are a lot of problems with your DNS and MX settings. For example, you can expect a lot of mail to be rejected because you don't have a PTR record.

Thanks for helping. I didn't do a full check but it is easy enough - just go here and put in your domain:

http://www.dnsreport.com/

You are correct, Kiliman, if he doesn't have a PTR record there is a high percentage that mail being sent out of his server will be rejected.

But the biggest problem he has now is that his DNS zone is not showing an MX record. Basically he won't be able to receive mail after a while (assuming this just happened recently).

You may want to try reinstalling it.

That may be a tad rash. I think if he cleans up the other problems first (the MX record, PTR record, and the relay issue - in that order) then he should be on his way to happy mail serving.

andreabash · Post by **andreabash** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:39 pm

I'm really confused here. ME has been working perfectly for 6 months. No mail has ever been rejected and I haven't experienced one problem. The problems only started when I touched the SMTP and Relay settings.

I was advised by Rackspace not to add an MX record because they did not believe it was necessary. I am going to open a ticket with them to find out if their recommendation has changed.

I honestly do not think this is an issue with the MX/PTR/etc -- otherwise I would have been experiencing issues for many months. This is simply something I did in the settings within the last week.

I will work with Rackspace and see what I can find out.

andreabash · Post by **andreabash** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:20 pm

This is what Rackspace had to say:

Hello Andrea,

Technically you do not need an MX record if your mail server is on the same IP address as the host name (ie. Hosting and email are on the same IP). It is recommended to have a PTR or reverse DNS record. This helps to keep you from being marked as spam. These are setup for the IP addresses.

I have verified you already have a PTR setup for your primary IP of 69.20.61.117.

117.61.20.69.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer babysfirstsite.com.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to update this ticket or call us at anytime.

Thank you for choosing Rackspace Managed Hosting!

Brian Jawalka
Rackspace Support

Soo... I'm not sure where to go from here. I rebooted my server and I received 2 new e-mail messages. Perhaps I'm just having an extraordinarily slow day that just happens to coincide with the issues I've been having with relay.

I haven't received any more message delivery errors in my inbox since clearing out the outbound queue, so maybe the relay really is closed now.

If that's the case, then I guess I'm OK... except for the issue of my mail script that stopped working, but I'm guessing my developer can take a look and maybe see what needs to be done.

I thank you both for you help on this... I appreciate you taking time out of your day to give me this information.

jorune · Post by **jorune** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:46 am

Technically you do not need an MX record if your mail server is on the same IP address as the host name (ie. Hosting and email are on the same IP).

This is technically true, but man that sure is sloppy if you ask me. It's not a big deal to put in an MX record (assuming your host provider is managing this record) and just makes for 'best practices'. Oh well.

The PTR record would also be controlled by your host provider so get on them to make sure you have one. EDIT: just noticed in their response they verified this for you already - sorry.

Finally testing your relay won't be possible with the mailenable tool because - well see the sloppy work your host provider is doing - so you'll have to find some other way to test the relay. Again I think this is a very poor response from your host provider - just plain sloppy (and lazy sounding).

Anway, Good luck!

-Johnny

andreabash · Post by **andreabash** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:59 am

I've responded to my ticket to see what can be done. My host is really not in charge of anything on my domain/server. It's a dedicated server, so I'm more on my own than I've been in most of my other ventures. I'm not really clear on what is my responsibility and what is theirs.

I will find out in their response to my ticket.

Kiliman · Post by **Kiliman** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:31 pm

My bad. Ignore what I said earlier. I typed in babyfirstsite.com without the 's' after baby. That's why I got such goofy results.

As far as I can see, everything looks like it should. Again, sorry for butting in and making things more confusing

Kiliman

jorune · Post by **jorune** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:46 pm

Kiliman wrote:My bad. Ignore what I said earlier. I typed in babyfirstsite.com without the 's' after baby. That's why I got such goofy results.

As far as I can see, everything looks like it should. Again, sorry for butting in and making things more confusing

Kiliman

Ah yes. I didn't really notice myself and took your word for it that the PTR record was missing. Of course his host provider verified it was okay but confirmed that the MX record was missing (basically stating he didn't need one because "technically" it's not needed in his case). Which in my opinion is pretty sloppy.

andreabash · Post by **andreabash** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 5:52 pm

Well, I had them add an MX record. However, I'm really not sure it matters. I haven't had one for 6 months and haven't encountered any issues. Plus, I've never heard anyone accuse rackspace of being sloppy or lazy. Generally they are pretty highly regarded.

It's apparently one thing checked off a list, but it's not related to this issue. I seem to be receiving e-mail and the delivery failure notices have completely stopped. I guess I'm back to normal now.

Thanks for all of your help!

Andrea