RDNS - how to set up?

karen

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Dec 25, 2003
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On the Road
Some of my email messages are being rejected as spam. The text has to do with "sender email must resolve". So I poked around in the DNS admin menu and added a PTR record for my domain (146.233.180.216.in-addr.arpa PTR www.alientransformer.com). That didn't seem to work, so I changed it just now to (146.233.180.216.in-addr.arpa PTR alientransformer.com) in case the www was throwing it off.

But at any rate, according to HELP, "PTR records are only effective if named.conf is manually edited and the proper zone information is added. This can only be done by a root user (the server Admin)." I don't find any named.conf file on my server - shouldn't it be in etc? I don't find an etc directory or any of the usual directories using DirectAdmin, perhaps they are hidden for my own good? And what is the proper format for this server, as there are a couple formats for named.conf files?

Any advice would be most appreciated.
 
your named.conf file is located at:

/etc/named.conf

and named configurations for individual sites can be located in:

/var/named/

just go into a text editor with word wrapping set to off and add the PTR record in the file if needs be.

Chris
 
But I can't locate the etc directory. I'm using the DirectAdmin File Manager, and it only shows three directories, none of which are relevant. Are the other directories hidden? Is there some sort of setting in DirectAdmin to reveal them?
 
karen said:
But I can't locate the etc directory. I'm using the DirectAdmin File Manager, and it only shows three directories, none of which are relevant. Are the other directories hidden? Is there some sort of setting in DirectAdmin to reveal them?

Can't use DirectAdmin for root access to your server, you will need to SSH into your system or use a terminal connection if you are local.

Chris
 
Just wondering but you can't just make a new record. With the following domain and make PTR records?

1.1.1.in-addr.arpa.

That is what we have done?
 
Exactly like that...

Why do you need to login to the box? You can do it as admin just like Chris and I showed?
 
karen said:
according to HELP, "PTR records are only effective if named.conf is manually edited and the proper zone information is added. This can only be done by a root user (the server Admin)." I don't find any named.conf file on my server - shouldn't it be in etc? I don't find an etc directory or any of the usual directories using DirectAdmin, perhaps they are hidden for my own good?

Was clearing the above question up stating the location of the named.conf files.

Chris
 
I see a lot of holes in this thread; for one you can't host your own reverse DNS unless your IP provider has delegated it to you, and most IP providers for just one or two systems don't.

We fight through reverse DNS issues all the time; it's not as easy as it seems at first go.

I'd recommend letting your IP provider handle reverse DNS if at all possible.

For most of us, they probably are, and we don't even realize it.

If they delegate it to you they have to tell you the name of the zone, and then you have to set up the zone file on the server.

For some help, see the howto:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO-5.html#ss5.3

and

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO-5.html#ss5.5

Jeff
 
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