Hi all. I'm new to the list, new to NT, new to IMail, new to DNS, and new to being a hosting company. LOL So... there's my background. :)
hmm, that's quite an intro!!! vbg
First, I'm using MS DNS Server.
BZZZZZZZZ http://BIND8NT.MEIway.com
I know, that's probably my first mistake,
you're a fast learner!!
but being new it seemed a little easier to implement than Bind. :)
I guarantee you that MS's GUI for DNS in NT4 and W2K sucks seriously. Get the cricket book, forget MS DNS, and do it in BIND8, like a grown-up. Don't let MS dumb you down and trip you up with their sucky DNS GUI.
I'll dig you up a msg I put in here a couple of weeks ago that show's you how to clone-a-zone easily with BIND8's $INCLUDE directive when you add a new IIS/Imail customer. Gotta get you young'uns off on the right foot.
I'm running IMail on the same machine as the web server... for now.
Imail, DNS, static website don't require much cpu power. Imail and DNS would be pull the load in P200's with 64 megs in NT4 workstaton. I recommend that try to start with one nice web server machine, and two P200's, the architecture that will scale better and avoid those big, hairy split-it-up, white-knuckle jobs later.
I'm running virtual domains under O'Reilly's WebSite 2.x and virtual IP's on all my client's e-mail accounts. The main Imail account is set to 216.242.16.196 under the domain tropicalwebcreations.net, and I have an A record for "mail' pointing to that IP in the tropicalwebcreations.net zone file and of course a PTR record pointing back at it in in-addr.arpa. And the MX record pointing to mail.tropicalwebcreations.net.
hey, it's you, Bud, I've been to your site before for some reason. Maybe from the CF list. Handsome site you have there.
All this works fine. I'm having problems in some instances connecting to the virtual hosts for sending mail. There doesn't seem to be any problems retrieving mail. Right now I have my DNS files for my client domains like so:
virtualdomain.com MX 10 mail.tropicalwebcreations.net.
mail 216.242.16.196
BZZZZZZZZ
in the zone file db.virtualdomain.com
$ORIGIN virtualdomain.net.
@ MX 10 mail.tropicalwebcreations.net.
You don't need the mail host's A record in the virtualdomain.com because the mail host is in the twc.net zone. read the cricket book. you can buy it from my site, I make $4, yeah!!
Now, what should I put in in-addr.arpa? The people at Men & Mice (makers of DNS Expert) have told me that under no circumstances should I point the same IP address to different domains in there.
yes, only one PTR per ip address, but I recommend, for your own documentation purposes, that you put your other vdomains on that same address as comments
$ORIGIN 16.242.216.in-addr.arpa.
196 PTR somevdomain.com.
; PTR somevdomain2.com.
; PTR somevdomain3.com.
I can send you a full Class C generic reverse zone file that you chop down your you 16-ip block. Populate all the ip's with PTR's, even generic ones.
But reading the ipswitch knowledge base, it says:
"You will need a PTR (reverse-lookup) record that resolves the IP address of your IMail PC to the Official Hostname of your IMail domain.
(Many large ISPs will drop your connection if they cannot match your IMail hostname with a PTR record for your IP address.)"
What the paranoid mail servers more often do is to do reverse lookup on the ip of your Imail's "SMTPD client" and fail to accept mail from you if the reverse doesn't resolve to your DNS as authoritative. btw,
# dig -x 216.242.16.196
; <<>> DiG 8.2 <<>> -x
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 4
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUERY SECTION:
;; 196.16.242.216.in-addr.arpa, type = ANY, class = IN
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
16.242.216.in-addr.arpa. 1D IN SOA ns1.ciberlynx.net. dnsadm.ciberlynx.net. (
2141647 ; serial
8H ; refresh
2H ; retry
1W ; expiry
1D ) ; minimum
is your ns "ns1.ciberlynx.net" ?
And from www.SamSpade.com, the "ip block" tool:
IP block lookup for 216.242.16.195
"whois -h whois.arin.net 216.242.16
Tropical Web Creations (NETBLK-TWEB-B1) TWEB-B1216.242.16.192 - 216.242.16.207"
So your upstream has administratively assigned twc its ip block but technically their DNS does not delegate your ip block reverse zone to your DNS. Both are necessary. In fact, they haven't defined the reverse zone even within their DNS for your ip block. lazy buggers. So no matter what you do in your reverse zone setup, nobody's gonna look at it because your DNS is not authoritative for your ip block. Go beat on your upstream and tell 'em you can call in tactical air support (we use live coconuts!) if they don't do their job.
Encore chez Sam, see this yourself by entering an ip address from your block into the "rDNS" tool.
Your DNS is not, yet, authoritative for your ip block, so those paranoid web servers, and they are becoming more and more numerous, will not accept mail from yr Imail sender nor yr CF sender.
When it says Official Hostname, is that the Official Hostname, mail.tropicalwebcreations.net? Or the Official Hostname of the virtual mail host? I read it as the virtual host.
Best to use the 'default' imail hostname : "tropicalwebcreations.net" where in Imail you have this as an alias for that mail.tropicalwebcreations.net.
I've tried it both ways, with and without the additional reverse lookup records, and still have problems sending mail.
What's the error, in what log CF? or Imail? when you try to send mail? We need to see logs.
For instance, I can send mail from the virtual host mail.twcreations.com using ColdFusion mail and cgi forms from the machine, but not from a remote machine. However I can send mail from a remote machine if I use mail.tropicalwebcreations.net.
Sending mail from CF has nothing to do with Imail, so what's the error in CF when it can't send your mail? btw, Howie Hamlin at coolfusion.com has a free CF mailserver. Better than that junk CFMAIL stuff.
On the BIND8NT site, see 'running a public DNS'. hint: you gotta register your HOST to be a ns.
See ya soon! vbg
Len
