I am trying to setup DNS services on Windows 2000 server for IMail 6.0.

DNS Expert report sent by private mail. You got major cleanup to do.

  The setup below works but I am not sure why.

Well, in MS's dumb-down world, nobody every learns anything clicking around on GUI panels.  If you're going to run your own DNS, you need to get THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565925122/bind8fornt

Using pcA, I helped an ISP in Missouri get his W2K DNS to be master to his NT4 BIND8.  I saw that MS has adopted all the BIND terminology and basically done a good job compared to their NT4 DNS of 1996.  But you still need to know what's going on. The GUI is a useless learning tool.

  It does not have any MX or A records and still works.

Yes you do, you have 2 MX's, and very nice one they are:

# dig proassistinc.com mx

; <<>> DiG 8.2 <<>> proassistinc.com mx
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2
;; QUERY SECTION:
;;      proassistinc.com, type = MX, class = IN

;; ANSWER SECTION:
proassistinc.com.       1H IN MX        10 mail.proassistinc.com.
proassistinc.com.       1H IN MX        10 proassistinc.com.

 I can ping any of the hosts and send/receive email and all works fine.

This is a user list for pb's, David, what's yours??   vbg

 Does anyone have a sample screen shot of how this is suppose to be setup?

Here's your entire zone file (you should restrict zone transfer to your own ip block):

# dig @PA-NS-01.proassistinc.com proassistinc.com axfr

; <<>> DiG 8.2 <<>> @PA-NS-01.proassistinc.com proassistinc.com axfr
; (1 server found)
$ORIGIN proassistinc.com.
@                       1H IN SOA       pa-ns-01. administrator. (
                                        74              ; serial
                                        15M             ; refresh
                                        10M             ; retry
                                        1D              ; expiry
                                        1H )            ; minimum

                        1H IN A         216.9.233.130
                        1H IN MX        10 mail
                        1H IN MX        10 @
cal                     1H IN A         216.9.234.12
mail                    1H IN A         216.9.234.41
www                     1H IN A         216.9.233.130
@                       1H IN SOA       pa-ns-01. administrator. (
                                        74              ; serial
                                        15M             ; refresh
                                        10M             ; retry
                                        1D              ; expiry
                                        1H )            ; minimum

;; Received 8 answers (8 records).
;; FROM: ls1.meiway.com to SERVER: 216.9.234.11
;; WHEN: Sun Jun 25 12:27:24 2000

Problems:

1. your SOA is broken, that's why, at least, why you ns's aren't answering authoritaively, which will block one of your NS' from being the slave to the master NS.  It looks to me like your two broken SOA data fields are missing the $ORIGIN.  You have to type in the $ORIGIN value inside the record, since DNS won't fill it in from the varialbe $ORIGIN.

2. TTL is way too low, should be 1D after you get your DNS settled down.

3. No NS records??

4. Cosmetically, I'd drop the "pa-ns-01" as the hostname for your DNS, and just go with ns1, ns2, unless you're planning to be an international backbone operator with 100's of ns's where you need some kind of nomenclature.

Len

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