DNS Issues

[nobaloney]

Looks good. tail can do much more than just show the last line of the file.

# tail -f filename

will show you filename, in real time, as it scrolls up the screen.

For more informaion on using tail, see:

$ man tail

Jeff

 

[Mopquill]

Looks good. tail can do much more than just show the last line of the file.

# tail -f filename

will show you filename, in real time, as it scrolls up the screen.

For more informaion on using tail, see:

$ man tail

Jeff

Ah, thanks for that. I didn't know I could do that. I used tail, saw what it was doing, and then I just nano'd the files and ctrl+v'd all the way down.

man pages never seem to help me, I have trouble understanding them. I've even tried man man, and I seem to get lost. Someone once told me that man is for reference, not tutorial. So, that might be why.

I seem to be having some other strange problem. I can't get mail. Also, I fixed all that IP stuff (as far as I know how to) in the files, and I'm still getting that "Error" status, even though my nameservers and IPs appear to be working.

As far as mail goes, when people try to send mail to anything on my server, they get a "550 550 authentication required (state 14)" error. I've tried running the ./set_permissions all command in /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/ , and I tried running ./build dovecot exim and that majordomo script in there. I can't seem to get mail to work correctly. I even deleted my main email account and recreated it, both with no errors, and I still got the problem.

Also, what should my MX record be? Should it be:

emulysianfields.com. MX 10

or

mail MX 10

or something else entirely?

Again, thanks for all of your help so far, I don't mean to keep bothering you guys, but, Google is turning up a lot of nothing for me. :-/

 

[nobaloney]

man pages never seem to help me, I have trouble understanding them. I've even tried man man, and I seem to get lost. Someone once told me that man is for reference, not tutorial. So, that might be why.

$man man is just as arcane as all the other man files, but you can get used to understanding them; it's only taken me years .

I seem to be having some other strange problem. I can't get mail. Also, I fixed all that IP stuff (as far as I know how to) in the files, and I'm still getting that "Error" status, even though my nameservers and IPs appear to be working.

Which error status; I can't take the time to read the entire thread again from the top.

As far as mail goes, when people try to send mail to anything on my server, they get a "550 550 authentication required (state 14)" error. I've tried running the ./set_permissions all command in /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/ , and I tried running ./build dovecot exim and that majordomo script in there. I can't seem to get mail to work correctly. I even deleted my main email account and recreated it, both with no errors, and I still got the problem.

Generally authentication required means the server doesn't think the domain doesn't accept mail on the server. So either people are reaching the wrong server or the server doesn't have the domain name properly set up to receive email. Since mx is pointing to the same IP# as your main site, it's more probable that the email isn't properly configured on your server.

Is the domain name and the mailbox set up through DirectAdmin?

If it's already turned on, turn on DNS access for your username, and then check MX Records at your user level DirectAdmin login, to see if the X is where it should be. If not, check the box, and save.

Also, what should my MX record be? Should it be:

emulysianfields.com. MX 10

or

mail MX 10

In your case either will work since both point to the same server. You only need one of them, and by convention we usually use mail. However this NOT the cause of your problems.

Again, thanks for all of your help so far, I don't mean to keep bothering you guys, but, Google is turning up a lot of nothing for me. :-/

Google of course doesn't search only this forum, and you'll get a lot of stuff that's just not related to DirectAdmin. You can tell google to search these forums only: just add a space, and then site:www.directadmin.com immediately after your search terms.

Jeff

 

[Mopquill]

$man man is just as arcane as all the other man files, but you can get used to understanding them; it's only taken me years .

I'm trying, believe me. XD

Which error status; I can't take the time to read the entire thread again from the top.

Ah, sorry. IP Management in Admin Level and Nameservers in Reseller Level both show my IPs/Nameservers as having the Status "Error" and nothing else. I've tried making sure they had files in /usr/local/directadmin/data/admin/ips/ (they do), and that the ip.list files in both admin and my user have them, and, they do. I'm not sure what's up, but, I imagine I have to get them to show up correctly in IP Management before I can get them to show up in Nameservers.

Generally authentication required means the server doesn't think the domain doesn't accept mail on the server. So either people are reaching the wrong server or the server doesn't have the domain name properly set up to receive email. Since mx is pointing to the same IP# as your main site, it's more probable that the email isn't properly configured on your server.

Yeah, I was checking error logs and could *see* that I was being emailed by whomever with each occasion, so, it was clear that my mail was being sent around the server, and just being rejected. Why, I don't quite know.

Is the domain name and the mailbox set up through DirectAdmin?

I'm not sure. They were originally, and I tried restoring its old files, but, a lot of DirectAdmin seems confused. /etc/virtual/domains only seems to have sonata.emulysianfields.com and a domain I added yesterday in it. I have backups of /etc/ /lib/ /usr/ and /var/, so, I tried copying the info from the old one into the new one and restarting DirectAdmin, Exim, and Dovecot, but, it just seems to remove them. I've tried deleting [email protected] and recreating it, but, that doesn't seem to help.

If it's already turned on, turn on DNS access for your username, and then check MX Records at your user level DirectAdmin login, to see if the X is where it should be. If not, check the box, and save.

Oy, I didn't realize there was a toggle for that. I went in there, checked the "Local Mail Server" box, and clicked Save.

Testing now, I'm not immediately getting that 550 returned error, but, I'm not receiving the email on the other end. I imagine I'll hear it about it later, after the queue spits it back out.

In your case either will work since both point to the same server. You only need one of them, and by convention we usually use mail. However this NOT the cause of your problems.

I'll just leave it as "mail" then.

Google of course doesn't search only this forum, and you'll get a lot of stuff that's just not related to DirectAdmin. You can tell google to search these forums only: just add a space, and then site:www.directadmin.com immediately after your search terms.

Jeff

I was aware of this trick, however, I had not tried it, as much of what was coming up was on here anyhow, having prefixed the search with "directadmin". Your way, however, is pulling up a few extra thread, but, most of them seem to be about webmail or SMTP, or sending the mail. I found a single thread about what seems to be my problem here, but, it's from 2005, and seems to have gone unresolved. So, I'd rather not try too much of what's there, in case it's outdated. But, like I said, I'm not sure how to get the entries back into my /etc/virtual/domains file. Is there some sort of script I can run that will check everything existing as far as domains and tie directadmin into them? I was simply trying to port over my old DirectAdmin settings (as per a thread on here), but, it doesn't seem to understand that it's supposed to take over.

The only thing I do manually as far as DirectAdmin's territory is concerned is the httpd.conf in my user folder (/usr/local/directadmin/data/users/<my user>/httpd.conf), and that is just a symbolic link that points to a file DA can't edit, and only because it assumes I want a www. on every single subdomain, which I don't like (www is supposed to be the subdomain for access to the site, although this use has since become unnecessary/deprecated, so, I don't get why I'd need www.example.example.com), and I don't want to have to remove the DNS entry for every single one anyhow. This is a huge digression, though.

 

[nobaloney]

My personal feeling is that I can't help you with these problems further except as a commercial service, logging into your server and checking whatever I need to, until I find the problem. Unfortunately perhaps for you, I charge for that. However hopefully someone else will respond based on the additional information you've supplied. If you want to contact me privately please email rather than use the forum PM, for fastest response.

Jeff

 

[nobaloney]

The only thing I do manually as far as DirectAdmin's territory is concerned is the httpd.conf in my user folder (/usr/local/directadmin/data/users/<my user>/httpd.conf), and that is just a symbolic link that points to a file DA can't edit, and only because it assumes I want a www. on every single subdomain, which I don't like (www is supposed to be the subdomain for access to the site, although this use has since become unnecessary/deprecated, so, I don't get why I'd need www.example.example.com), and I don't want to have to remove the DNS entry for every single one anyhow. This is a huge digression, though.

You're right it is; and it's a long runon sentence which I'm having trouble following (please excuse my dangling participle). However you should be able to change the templates for both the site-level httpd.conf file and the DNS zone files (first copying them to the custom subdirectories of course). Once you've eliminated the DNS entries for www.example.example.com which you can by customizing the zone template (as above) and rewritten all the zones, it doesn't matter if the httpd.conf file manages them, the requests won't ever hit the server.

Besides, what difference doesit make if the www entities are there?

And there are many reasons to keep them, including that the main domain for an entity should represent the entity. Should a University or a very large company really have a main domain at example.com? Many would argue not.

DirectAdmin is designed to be a shared-hosting control panel, so it must allow for other preferences than your own. As I mention above, you can change the templates.

Jeff

 

[Mopquill]

My personal feeling is that I can't help you with these problems further except as a commercial service, logging into your server and checking whatever I need to, until I find the problem. Unfortunately perhaps for you, I charge for that. However hopefully someone else will respond based on the additional information you've supplied. If you want to contact me privately please email rather than use the forum PM, for fastest response.

Jeff

Okay, thanks a lot for your help thus far, and I understand. I'm happy you did as much as you did. Anyhow, I don't want to have anyone do anything for me, money or not. Every problem I've ever had I knew how to fix once I had it, because I learned. That is the point of all of this. Once I learn how, I'll be able to fix these things myself, and more problems in the future will represent less of an actual problem.

Anyhow, I've mostly been waiting for DirectAdmin Support to respond to this some more (as they seemed to opt for responding here rather than email), and I didn't want to make a new thread or spam their email. I'll just be patient, while I keep trying to figure this out myself. Maybe I'll shoot them another email if I find myself still stuck.

You're right it is; and it's a long runon sentence which I'm having trouble following (please excuse my dangling participle). However you should be able to change the templates for both the site-level httpd.conf file and the DNS zone files (first copying them to the custom subdirectories of course). Once you've eliminated the DNS entries for www.example.example.com which you can by customizing the zone template (as above) and rewritten all the zones, it doesn't matter if the httpd.conf file manages them, the requests won't ever hit the server.

Besides, what difference doesit make if the www entities are there?

And there are many reasons to keep them, including that the main domain for an entity should represent the entity. Should a University or a very large company really have a main domain at example.com? Many would argue not.

DirectAdmin is designed to be a shared-hosting control panel, so it must allow for other preferences than your own. As I mention above, you can change the templates.

Jeff

You're right, and sorry for that- I do it a lot. My point is, most websites (especially nowadays) have content on example.com . I get why you'd want a www.example.com , too, and why both should mirror each other on smaller websites.

What I don't get, is why I'd want, say, www.music.example.com . I'd like music.example.com to be the only way to reach it, and having www. in front of it doesn't ever make sense. I suppose I could always keep it and just redirect it to the non-www. subdomain, but, it irks me. Anyhow, I find it better to make the entries myself, it's quicker, if nothing else.

 

[floyd]

What I don't get, is why I'd want, say, www.music.example.com . I'd like music.example.com to be the only way to reach it, and having www. in front of it doesn't ever make sense. I suppose I could always keep it and just redirect it to the non-www. subdomain, but, it irks me. Anyhow, I find it better to make the entries myself, it's quicker, if nothing else.

Years ago before I started including the www by default on subdomains I had some very confused customers who thought something was wrong because they could NOT get to www.music.example.com. I tried to explain to them that www was a subdomain and music was a sudomain. They didn't get it. I had to start including www even with subdomains because of customer demand.

We have to allow for a variety of preferences. If you don't link to www.music.example.com then nobody will ever know its there or use it. So what harm does it do? On the other hand it IS there for those who do want to use it.

But if you really don't want it then you can edit the templates.

 

[daveyw]

But if you really don't want it then you can edit the templates.

Indeed, or he can overrule that it will be 'forwarded' to music.domain.tld by using mod_rewrite.

 

[Mopquill]

Years ago before I started including the www by default on subdomains I had some very confused customers who thought something was wrong because they could NOT get to www.music.example.com. I tried to explain to them that www was a subdomain and music was a sudomain. They didn't get it. I had to start including www even with subdomains because of customer demand.

We have to allow for a variety of preferences. If you don't link to www.music.example.com then nobody will ever know its there or use it. So what harm does it do? On the other hand it IS there for those who do want to use it.

But if you really don't want it then you can edit the templates.

Yeah, I suppose that is true. I suppose part of it is that I just want the fine-grained control over all of it, but, maybe I will pull out the templates and go over them. Where would those be located?

Indeed, or he can overrule that it will be 'forwarded' to music.domain.tld by using mod_rewrite.

Right, that is usually what I do.


Anyhow, this is all a huge digression, I still can't receive mail, and I made sure all of the domains are present in /etc/virtual/domains . It'd seem I can *send* mail just fine, and no one gets that 550 error anymore. I just don't get the emails. I'm really not sure what's up, and my research has mostly turned up problems *slightly* different than my own.

Any suggestions anyone? And, I'm going to email DirectAdmin Support and re-link him to this thread, as I think he's forgotten about it.

 

[nobaloney]

maybe I will pull out the templates and go over them. Where would those be located?

Probably in the templates directory. Look for it:

# cd /usr/local/directadmin
# find . -name templates

Any suggestions anyone? And, I'm going to email DirectAdmin Support and re-link him to this thread, as I think he's forgotten about it.

That would be my suggestion.

Jeff

 

[Mopquill]

Probably in the templates directory. Look for it:

# cd /usr/local/directadmin
# find . -name templates

That would be my suggestion.

Jeff

Ah, thanks for that. =]

Haha, I've done that. We're trying to resolve it via email. I'll post again if he tells me what it was. XD

 

[Mopquill]

spamd wasn't running. I had a smaller hunch earlier today that that might be it, but, I couldn't figure out what was missing.

DA Support fixed it, it was some missing Perl modules. I believe everything is now operational after the initial install, so, I'm happy.

Thanks everyone for your help. =]