Tutorial for setting up mail.mydomain.org

[thetechnaddict]

Hi there,

I'm too ignorant to ask good questions at the moment so can some kind person please point me to the right place in the manual or to a tutorial..

I wish to set up email for a domain using a subdomain such as: mail.mydomain.org

Is there a tutorial anywhere - I can't see anything about setting up mail in the manuals and I have been googling for hours.

I realise that pop works out of the box and I can see at the user level how to do this, but...

I don't see how to set up a mail subdomain to handle mail. I've seen posts by people who sort of know what they are doing asking specific questions, but nothing for a ignoramus to start learning.

I have been using 'localhost' , port 25 with no authentication to send mail from a web based crm but am running into problems and think I need to set up email properly -

I'm on a CentOS 5 VPS with root access should I need it.

Many thanks for any pointers.

 

[scsi]

http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=92

 

[thetechnaddict]

Thanks that answers the next question!

Thanks, that's an interesting article that would answer the next question if I could get the mail server working at all.

When I look at the 'download outlook settings' (not that I use outlook) on an email address that I create I can see that mail.mydomain.org is given as the pop and smtp servers - so perhaps DA creates the mail. subdomain in the background - hence there are no instructions anywhere.

Problem is the mail system isn't working. I can't send mail or receive it.

I'm exploring using google apps instead.

 

[nobaloney]

You're having the type of problem that end users often have when they attempt to manage their own server (even a VPS) which require skills far and above what they (you?) have.

The correct IP# for mail.mydomain.org is: 67.215.66.132

If that's not the IP# of your email server, fix it. If it is, then you may want to check your firewall, as mail.mydomain.org isn't answering on smtp, pop or email ports.

If mail.mydomain.org isn't your domain name, then all I can say is please don't intentionally mislead us. It makes it impossible for us to help you because we're ending up troubleshooting someone else's server.

Note that even Google Apps has it's problems: See the Information Week editorial I've posted here.

Jeff

 

[thetechnaddict]

misleading unintentional

Please forgive me - my intention was not to mislead but rather to give a generic term that I've seen elsewhere on the forums.

the actual domain is ablazepartners.org

The mail sub domain is mail.ablazepartners.org

And yes, I do need to learn which is why I am asking to be pointed to a tutorial on setting up mail servers with DirectAdmin

I hadn't expected you to be troubleshooting my server; I asked to be given the information that would help me to learn. thank you for going that extra mile.

 

[nobaloney]

The DirectAdmin knowledgebase has a section on mail issues; it can be found here.

I'm not sure what you mean by setting up a mailserver, but that section of the knowledgebase should help you.

Here are some important issues to keep in mind:

Your server needs a hostname. Do you have one? What is it? If you're not sure, then post the output of this command:

$ hostname

Note you do NOT type the "$" sign; it's simply there to let you know you can do this from a standard shell prompt; you do not have to log in as root.

The knowledgebase includes some important information on how to use a hostname; it cannot be the same as your domain name, but it can include your domain name.

For example, it cannot be ablazepartners.org or www.ablazepartners.org, but it can be server.ablazepartners.org or even (though generally you won't do this unless the physical server only handles email) mail.ablazepartners.org.

You have to have both DNS and Reverse DNS (often called rDNS or a pointer record) for your hostname. If you use a subdomain of ablazepartners.org, then you should set up your A record for your hostname in your zonefile for ablazepartners.org.

You should ask your hosting company (ukservers.com?) how to set up your rDNS. Generally your hosting company does that for you.

Jeff

 

[thetechnaddict]

Step 1 host?

Thanks for your reply and please forgive me for not replying sooner. We have had to migrate to a new server (Virtuozzo VPS) - set up from scratch with DirectAdmin.

We are still having problems with SMTP.

Various reports of errors from "data not accepted" to webmail (roundcube) reporting it is not sent - but then sending it anyway, but taking a very long time over it.

The hostname of the server is server.ablazepartners.org

I could of course change the hostname, but from your post I get the impression I should have a seperate host for mail which is called
mail.ablazepartners.org - Does that mean I have to set up another host? How do I do that?

 

[thetechnaddict]

following this knowledge base article:

http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=16

1) hostname is server.ablazepartners.org (good)
2) hostname is in the /etc/virtual/domains file (good)
3) hostname is not in the /etc/virtual/domainowners file.
4) The hostname must resolve. If not, add the required A records to the dns zone such that it does. - How do I check this - In the admin level I've gone to dns admin, two domains are listed - ablazepartners.org and server.ablazepartners.org - in the record for the later there is an A record with the correct ip address, name servers etc.. all looks good.
5) The directory /etc/virtual/server.ablazepartners.org does exist. It does not contain any files. (good)
6) The domain I want to use for email (eg: ablazepartners.org) is in both the /etc/virtual/domains file and the /etc/virtual/domainowners file. The directory /etc/virtual/domain.com does exist and the files /etc/virtual/domain.com/passwd and /etc/virtual/domain.com/aliases do exist (good).
7) File permissions not yet checked
8) no uppercase (good)
9) rDNS not yet setup (dunno how to, but I've asked vps provider for help) - I understand it is needed so that servers that do a look up can do so before accepting incoming mail.

Anything in there that suggests smtp will not work? I've started a new thread since this seems to answer the original question -