[lug] Screwed up inbound email

[Hugh Brown]

Here's how to find out where your mail is going

$ dig mx hardiman.com

; <<>> DiG 9.1.3 <<>> mx hardiman.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 31721
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;hardiman.com.                  IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
hardiman.com.           86400   IN      MX      0 Lab1a.hardiman.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
hardiman.com.           86400   IN      NS      dog.hardiman.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
Lab1a.hardiman.com.     86400   IN      A       192.168.0.4
dog.hardiman.com.       86400   IN      A       192.168.0.2

;; Query time: 275 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.3.105#53(192.168.3.105)
;; WHEN: Fri Jan 11 13:30:41 2002
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 102


So you find out that the mx record for hardiman.com is
Lab1a.hardiman.com which has an ip address of 192.168.0.4 which is not
routed by the Internet at large.  So, all of your email is getting sent
to the bitbucket in the sky.  ditto for your ns lookups.  

What you need is an internet routeable ip address for the ns record and
for the mx record, then configure that machine to do the right thing
with it (forward it to your private lan, ....).

FWIW,

Hugh


On Fri, 2002-01-11 at 13:09, Paul Hardiman wrote:
> Hi,
> As the subject implies, I have a slight problem at hardiman.com.
> I have added a dsl router and updated my dns and MTA (exim).
> I am getting a trickle of inbound email into hardiman.com, but not 
> getting mailing list
> traffic such as from this list (hence the alternate email account in the 
> from line).
> I check the router's port log and I see mostly dns (port 53) traffic, 
> but verly little smtp (25).
> 
> I do have an MX record pointing to the MTA host, with port forwarding 
> (smtp, et al) to the same host. However, the MX record is not visible 
> outside my domain. Is this a problem?
> If so, how does one proceed?
> Is the MX record overkill for a small domain (1 zone)?
> 
> Appreciate any assist.
> 
> Regards,
> Paul Hardiman
> 303-581-0006
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
------------------------------------
System Administrator/Unix Consultant
hugh at vecna.com
Vecna Technologies, Inc
6525 Belcrest Rd, Suite 612
Hyattsville MD, 20782
301.864.7253
http://www.vecna.com