Brian at 2002-07-16 23:47 from [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

>Hmmm- I just checked and my name server (Mac DNS - running on the same 
>computer as my email server) DOES have an mx record.  The IP it resolves 
>to IS my mail server.  How are you verifying the 'reactivity' of my name 
>servers?  As far as I know, the backup NS is not configured correctly 
>for my domain.  If I remove it, and just use my primary, will this help?

Brian at 2002-07-17 02:48 from [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

>Oops - forgot to include the link to the setup. screen.  it can be 
>viewed at:  http://solutions-consulting.net/mx.gif
>
>Thanks.
>On Tuesday, July 16, 2002, at 11:45 PM, Brian wrote:
>
>> Here is the setup screen from MacDNS (my DNS server).
>>
>> In the background you can see the mx record that currently exists, and 
>> in the foreground you can see what happens when I try to build another 
>> one that points simply to 'solutions-consulting.net', rather than 
>> 'mail.solutions-consulting.net'.
>>
>> To me this looks like it is configured correctly, but apparently it is 
>> not.  Is there anything I should have different in this MacDNS 
>> setting?  Someone did an nslookup and it apparently reported that no MX 
>> record existed for this domain, but what I see is that one DOES!
>>
>> What gives?

First, MacDNS is notorious for its instability and complete lack of 
performance.  I might mention here, I do use it;  but, I don't expect it 
to behave itself.

The following is what your MacDNS responds with:

<nslookup:solutions-consulting.net/AXFR/204.244.59.132>

Non-authoritative answer:
solutions-consulting.net      SOA   86400   dns.solutions-consulting.net
                                            bfindlay.pris.bc.ca
                                            Serial  5
                                            Refresh 28800 (8 hours)
                                            Retry   7200 (120 minutes)
                                            Expire  604800 (7 days)
                                            Minimum TTL 86400 (24 hours)
solutions-consulting.net      NS    86400   dns.solutions-consulting.net
solutions-consulting.net      NS    86400   ns1.neonet.bc.ca
solutions-consulting.net      A     86400   204.244.59.132
www.solutions-consulting.net  CNAME 86400   solutions-consulting.net
dns.solutions-consulting.net  CNAME 86400   solutions-consulting.net
dns1.solutions-consulting.net CNAME 86400   solutions-consulting.net
mail.solutions-consulting.net MX    86400   10    solutions-consulting.net
solutions-consulting.net      SOA   86400   dns.solutions-consulting.net
                                            bfindlay.pris.bc.ca
                                            Serial  5
                                            Refresh 28800 (8 hours)
                                            Retry   7200 (120 minutes)
                                            Expire  604800 (7 days)
                                            Minimum TTL 86400 (24 hours)

You can see there is NO MX record for solutions-consulting.net (there is 
one for mail.solutions-consulting.net).

The reason MacDNS is giving you the diagnostic that you can see in the 
screen-shot, is because you already have an entry for 
solutions-consulting.net - what it is basically telling you is that there 
is already an entry, add anything you want to it.

Now, if you don't mind my saying so:  your DNS stuff is really screwed 
up.  According to whois the primary is:
DNS.BACCARAT.ORG             204.244.59.132
but, your server reports it as:
dns.solutions-consulting.net
this is a CNAME (as opposed to a A, as specified by RFC).  However, let 
me hasten to add, so far everything should work just fine (just fill up 
other servers' logs with diagnostics).  According to whois the secondary 
is:
NS1.NEONET.BC.CA             204.244.59.78
this is one screwed up name server.  It does not respond consistenly (if 
one can get a response from it, that is - I actually got it to give me 
answers only when I queried it from India).  It also happily tells me 
that it is primary for solutions-consulting.net and that the secondary is 
ns2.westel.com (which in turn happily responds as authoritative for your 
domain).  I don't have the time to do a detailed analysis;  but, one 
thing is clear your primary (at 204.244.59.132) and your secondary (at 
204.244.59.78) do not agree with each other.

Now lets speculate as to what could be wrong.  (Since, whois reports the 
above-mentioned servers we can ignore ns2.westel.com, as no queries 
should go to it.)  Its a safe assumption that 204.244.59.78 is located at 
your ISP and hence will have a lower ping time than 204.244.59.132, which 
is located at your site (I further assume, you have something less than a 
T1).  It is probably a safe bet that most queries end up with your ISPs 
name server (in the DNS world, primary and secondary only refer to which 
server is master and which ones are slaves - NOT the priority with which 
to consult them).  Now, your ISPs name server does not respond 
consistently (as stated above, at least not for me, from North-East 
America).  From India I was able to get it to tell me that the MXs for 
you domain are mail and mail2 (204.244.59.78 and 204.244.59.73 
respectively - I hope 204.244.59.73 is configured correctly) not 
something that your MacDNS claims (making me quite certain, that the 
secondary according to whois, is actually configured as a master;  i.e. 
does not update itself from your MacDNS, the primary according to whois - 
did you originally have ns1.neonet.bc.ca and ns2.westel.com as your 
primary and secondary in the whois;  and, did you then change the whois, 
without telling your ISP ??).  What seems to be happening is then an SMTP 
server attempts to deliver mail to you, it may or may not get a response, 
not only that, it may or may not get the right response.

I suggest you fix your DNS;  and, all (well, almost all) your problems 
should disappear.

P.S.  If the above is not very coherrent, please, excuse me - I'm doing 
this while I watch the SteveNote - feel free to grill me (to the extent 
of my limited knowledge) till you can make sense of my rambling.  If you 
need help with your DNS, we can do it off-list (since, it is not really a 
SIMS matter).

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