[SOLVED] cannot receive outside mail with split DNS setup

[jant0y]

hello guys,

i am very new to setting up mail server.. actually this is my first one
so i really don't have any knowledge about this stuff.

my problem is that i am not able to receive mail from other mail servers
i am able to send outside mails. i can also send/receive local mails (w/in zimbra)
i am using the split DNS setup since i cannot get a public ip address for this server (not allowed)

what could be wrong with my setup?

result from cat /etc/hosts

[zimbra@mailhost ~]$ 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
192.36.253.120  mailhost.alliance.com.ph        mailhost
[zimbra@mailhost ~]$

result from cat /etc/resolv.conf

[zimbra@mailhost ~]$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
; generated by /sbin/dhclient-script
search mail.alliance.com.ph
nameserver 192.36.253.120
[zimbra@mailhost ~]$

result from dig mailhost.alliance.com.ph mx

; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> mailhost.alliance.com.ph mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 55999
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mailhost.alliance.com.ph.      IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mailhost.alliance.com.ph. 3600  IN      MX      10 mailhost.alliance.com.ph.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
mailhost.alliance.com.ph. 3600  IN      NS      192.36.253.120.mailhost.alliance.com.ph.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mailhost.alliance.com.ph. 3600  IN      A       192.36.253.120

;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 192.36.253.120#53(192.36.253.120)
;; WHEN: Wed Apr 15 16:03:59 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 103

[zimbra@mailhost ~]$

result from dig mailhost.alliance.com.ph any

; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> mailhost.alliance.com.ph any
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 64398
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mailhost.alliance.com.ph.      IN      ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mailhost.alliance.com.ph. 3600  IN      SOA     mailhost.alliance.com.ph. admin.mailhost.alliance.com.ph. 2 10800 3600 604800 3600
mailhost.alliance.com.ph. 3600  IN      NS      192.36.253.120.mailhost.alliance.com.ph.
mailhost.alliance.com.ph. 3600  IN      A       192.36.253.120
mailhost.alliance.com.ph. 3600  IN      MX      10 mailhost.alliance.com.ph.

;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 192.36.253.120#53(192.36.253.120)
;; WHEN: Wed Apr 15 16:05:08 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 145

[zimbra@mailhost ~]$

what is wrong with it? pls help.

sorry for the mispost in the zimbra desktop section

thanks,
jantoy

[uxbod]

Welcome to the forums

Have you updated your external DNS MX records as they are actually pointing at Lotus Notes servers ?

[jant0y]

hi uxbod,

thanks for the welcome and thanks for the fast reply

i changed the search value in /etc/resolv.conf from mail.alliance.com.ph to mailhost.alliance.com.ph

is that what u meant?

[uxbod]

; <<>> DiG 9.5.0-P2 <<>> alliance.com.ph mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 26909
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;alliance.com.ph.		IN	MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
alliance.com.ph.	2274	IN	MX	5 mail3.alliance.com.ph.
alliance.com.ph.	2274	IN	MX	10 mail2.alliance.com.ph.
alliance.com.ph.	2274	IN	MX	0 mail.alliance.com.ph.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.alliance.com.ph.	2312	IN	A	203.177.158.147

That server when you telnet to port 25 says its a Lotus Notes server.

[jant0y]

ic.. i'm using mailhost.alliance.com.ph
not alliance.com.ph

will that result in conflict?

[uxbod]

I am making the assumption you wish to receive email for the domain alliance.com.ph ? If so, then the external MX record is not pointing to your ZCS server.

[jant0y]

the domain of ZCS is mailhost.alliance.com.ph
so, what i have to do is make the mx record in the external dns point to the zcs domain, am i right?
i'll ask the admin if that can be done tomorrow.
i'll just give an update by then

[Dirk]

Yes, the MX record for mailhost.alliance.com.ph should point to your publix IP which will likely hit your router, so you set the router to sent port 25 traffic to the zimbra server and that's how mail is delivered to you.

[jant0y]

i have spoken with the sys admin, unfortunately, we don't have an extra public ip address available.