Can't send email - receive and local only

[countupir]

I have a similar problem where I can send/receive locally. I can receive mail from outside servers but not send out. I don't get problems with connection problems. I see in the in the email log that the email is being deferred because the host is not found. This sounds like a DNS problem to me but I am a newbie and am not sure of the changes to make in order to resolve the sending problem.

#cat /etc/hosts

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
::1 localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6
204.14.162.232 mail.3coffice.com mail

#cat /etc/resolv.conf

search 3coffice.com
nameserver 209.218.130.4
nameserver 209.218.131.4

# host `hostname`

mail.3coffice.com is an alias for 3coffice.com.
3coffice.com has address 204.14.162.232
3coffice.com mail is handled by 10 mail.3coffice.com.

# dig 3coffice.com mx

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4-P1 <<>> 3coffice.com mx
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 59036
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;3coffice.com. IN MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
3coffice.com. 2913 IN MX 10 mail.3coffice.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
3coffice.com. 2977 IN NS ns38.domaincontrol.com.
3coffice.com. 2977 IN NS ns37.domaincontrol.com.

;; Query time: 7 msec
;; SERVER: 209.218.130.4#53(209.218.130.4)
;; WHEN: Sat Jun 20 16:13:50 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 103

# dig 3coffice.com any

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4-P1 <<>> 3coffice.com any
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 61810
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;3coffice.com. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
3coffice.com. 2925 IN A 204.14.162.232
3coffice.com. 2861 IN MX 10 mail.3coffice.com.
3coffice.com. 2925 IN NS ns38.domaincontrol.com.
3coffice.com. 2925 IN NS ns37.domaincontrol.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
3coffice.com. 2925 IN NS ns37.domaincontrol.com.
3coffice.com. 2925 IN NS ns38.domaincontrol.com.

;; Query time: 15 msec
;; SERVER: 209.218.130.4#53(209.218.130.4)
;; WHEN: Sat Jun 20 16:15:01 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 147

[phoenix]

Is this server behind a NAT router or a firewall? If it is you'll need a Split DNS set-up.

BTW, you A record for the mail server should look like this:

mail.3coffice.com. 2925 IN A 204.14.162.232

add that record to your DNS and try to send an email again.

[countupir]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Is this server behind a NAT router or a firewall? If it is you'll need a Split DNS set-up.

BTW, you A record for the mail server should look like this:

mail.3coffice.com. 2925 IN A 204.14.162.232

add that record to your DNS and try to send an email again.

Please let me know where or what command to use in order to edit DNS so I may add/edit the entry you have referred to as I have not added the entries that you see when I typed '# dig 3coffice.com any'

mail.3coffice.com. 2925 IN A 204.14.162.232

I don't use any firewall and had disabled SELinux when I first installed CentOS 5.3

Thank you

[phoenix]

Go to this page and install the webmin package, when it's installed go to the login page and then to the Servers/BIND DNS server page. In there you should see the configuration of your DNS server and defined Zones, go to your Zone then 'edit the records file' and you'll see the DNS records for your Zone. You just need to add the record I gave you earlier save the change and then restart your DNS server and you should see the correct record when you run the dig command again. Who actually set the DNS records for you on this server?

Originally Posted by countupir

I don't use any firewall and had disabled SELinux when I first installed CentOS 5.3

It's not a good idea to have a mail server (or any server) exposed to the internet without a firewall active.

[countupir]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Go to this page and install the webmin package, when it's installed go to the login page and then to the Servers/BIND DNS server page. In there you should see the configuration of your DNS server and defined Zones, go to your Zone then 'edit the records file' and you'll see the DNS records for your Zone. You just need to add the record I gave you earlier save the change and then restart your DNS server and you should see the correct record when you run the dig command again. Who actually set the DNS records for you on this server?


It's not a good idea to have a mail server (or any server) exposed to the internet without a firewall active.

It appears to me that the install of the Zimbra server configured the DNS for the server. I only modified the NS and MX records with my registrar, godaddy. Then when I installed the CentOS I entered the IP, mask, gateway and DNS servers for the network adapter.

I will install Webmin and post results.

Thank you for info

[phoenix]

Zimbra doesn't do anything to your DNS. As you modified yoru DNS records at godaddy then go there and add the record details I gave you earlier in their DNS control panel. I was assuming you had a DNS server installed on your srever, if you don't then you don't really need Webmin installed.

[countupir]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Zimbra doesn't do anything to your DNS. As you modified yoru DNS records at godaddy then go there and add the record details I gave you earlier in their DNS control panel. I was assuming you had a DNS server installed on your srever, if you don't then you don't really need Webmin installed.

I changed the dns at godaddy. I had a CNAME where the host=mail which points to 3coffice.com. Should I remove that to add the A record host=mail.3coffice.com points to 204.14.162.232? Do I keep them both?

[phoenix]

You should remove the CNAME record you shouldn't use a CNAME for a mail server as it may cause you problems.

[countupir]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Zimbra doesn't do anything to your DNS. As you modified yoru DNS records at godaddy then go there and add the record details I gave you earlier in their DNS control panel. I was assuming you had a DNS server installed on your srever, if you don't then you don't really need Webmin installed.

Thank you for your help with those DNS entries. I am trying to take this server to the next level and add more domains. I changed and added mail entires and MX records to attempt to direct http requests to hit a web server and direct mail to the zimbra server that is now working with the 3coffice.com domain.

I will post the godaddy dns pages to help explain what I am attempting to do. Please suggest what is needed to change and also a better way to separate http requests and mail request. I don't have very much luck with bind dns as I have tried to configure in a way to forward MX records to other servers to no success. Windows DNS works fine for me when doing the same thing but when I used bind for the same function it didn't forward MX requests so I have resolved to using the domain registrar for such forwards.

godaddy posts:
Index of /dns

[phoenix]

Do your users connect to the Zimbra webmail via http or https?