Email setup in a forwarding DNS setup

[nappa]

Hello. I have a registered nameserver that I've told a customer to point her domin to - and she did / has. The server that I told her to point to is a Cpanel server. I don't have nameservers registered on the DA machine - so I couldn't tell her to do so.

I made the A record point to the DA server.

But she is getting no emails. What could be causing this - can I know how to setup this properly ?

 

[nobaloney]

How about the rest of the records?

pop.example.com
mail.example.com
smtp.example.com

are just some of the ones we use.

And an MX record pointing example.com to one of the above.

Jeff

 

[nappa]

I changed the mail Cname on the server to a A , and then set the remote IP - it seems to be working.

 

[nobaloney]

You should also have an MX record.

While MX records aren't strictly required, many people (perhaps misguidedly) block all email from mail servers not having mx records, as a spam-blocking measure.

Jeff

 

[nappa]

I have a MX record too - but it points to domain.com.

I didn't change it since I don't think I need to. Though - advice about this would be helpful

 

[nobaloney]

An MX record pointing to domain.com will work as long as email and the main domain are on the same system.

It's not really recommended, as a domain name is not the same as a hostname or a service name.

And different services can be set up on different systems.

Traditionally, domain.com is the name of your domain, not any of your services or hosts.

But today we expect people to be able to type http://domain.com or http://www.domain.com, so we generally point both to the same IP# or at least the same system.

And then as long as we're hosting email on the same system (normally we do if we're using DA), pointing the MX record to domain.com will work.

Jeff

 

[nappa]

So the AOL problem with the emails - it can be solved if we set the MX to my hostname ? Well - improved - not solved.

 

[nobaloney]

AOL is very restrictive as to whom it accepts email from.

To get your email accepted from AOL at least these two things have to be true:

You need an MX record for your domain.

You need reverse DNS for the IP# of the hostname or domain name to which the MX record resolves.

The hostname the server uses to send email must resolve.

You need reverse DNS for the IP# to which the hostname resolves.

Further questions on getting AOL to accept mail are best addressed on lists where people who daily resolve these problems hang out; I highly recommend isp-webhosting and isp-linux at http://www.isp-lists.com, and the Moon Group mailhelp list at http://moongroup.com/mailman/listinfo/mailhelp.

Jeff