DNS/MX record trouble

[Eternal-student]

Hi all, this is my first post here. I'm struggling with getting the DNS settings correct for the Zimbra install. It's not helped by having a UKReg account which you can only set the ip address for the MX record and you're not sure what the FQDN name is. Well I think it's mailserver.zapgun.net as I did a pingability.com test on the domain name.

But I keep getting this problem whether I set the domain to mailserver.zapgun.net or zapgun.net.

Setting defaults...

DNS ERROR resolving MX for mailserver.zapgun.net
It is suggested that the domain name have an MX record configured in DNS
Change domain name? [Yes]
Create Domain: [mailserver.zapgun.net] zapgun.net
MX: mailserver.zapgun.net (82.45.191.223)

Interface: 192.168.1.3
Interface: 127.0.0.1


DNS ERROR - none of the MX records for zapgun.net
resolve to this host
It is suggested that the MX record resolve to this host
Re-Enter domain name? [Yes] n

What does the Interface address actually mean. Is that the places it's looking for the DNS records?


The software still installs and I can send mail from it but it doesn't receive mail. As far as I can tell it rejects all the mail. Do you know what I'm doing wrong?

Many thanks for any help you can provide.

Stephen

[jholder]

Hi Stephen, and welcome to the Zimbra Forums.

You need to have an MX record for domain.com that points to mail.domain.com.

Both domain.com and mail.domain.com should have host A records that resolve to their respective IPs.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Eternal-student

I'm struggling with getting the DNS settings correct for the Zimbra install.

Is this the domestic service from Blueyonder that you're on? If it is, you'll need to do something about your dynamic IP address, I'd suggest using the services of a a DNS provider such as easyDNS (it's not free) but it will give you complete control over your DNS records and you can update your IP in their records when it changes. Obviously if Blueyonder provide fixed IPs these days you can ignore what I've just said.

[Eternal-student]

Thanks for responses and sorry about posting in the wrong place.

I'm going to change domain name administrator company. I'm currently with UKReg who have been really good but in their user admin web interface you can only specify the IP address of one A record and one MX record. So it looks roughly like this;

Manage DNS for: zapgun.net
Web (A): (enter here)
Mail server (MX): (enter here)


And that is all you can do. The (enter here) values default to the IP number if you specify the domain name of the A record and you can't tell what the name of the MX record is called.. which I think is mailserver.thenthedomainname.whatever ! Does that sound right to you? I'm a bit of a novice with DNS and MX records.

Thanks for the tips about the IP address. You're right I'm with VirginMedia (used to be Telewest) and they use blueyonder as I quite often get that as a registered IP address when I log on to stuff. But it's cable and my link is constantly up so hardly ever changes. In fact, it only changes if I get a power cut so I decided to use the not-so-dynamic IP address I get assigened. Although that wouldn't really be suitable for a business type application, this is a home network so not so critical and I can put up with the 24 or 48 hours it takes to change IP addresses.

[Eternal-student]

In fact, I have set it up at the moment and again you can send e-mail from the account but it won't accept any incoming connections. For the incoming e-mails (from a gmail account) and internal to internal mails there is an error in the admin console of Zimbra that says

"connect to mailserver.zapgun.org [82.45.191.223]: connection refused"

It's as if the server isn't letting the mail connection through because it thinks it shouldn't be receiving the mail for this host. Am I thinking about this in the right way?

[Eternal-student]

@mailserver%host `hostname`
Host mailserver.zapgun.net not found: 2(SERVFAIL)

Does this message mean that it can't find the mailserver.zapgun.net IP address?

[Eternal-student]

All the following seem right to me, except the host `hostname`?

root@mailserver:/etc# host `hostname`
Host mailserver.zapgun.net not found: 2(SERVFAIL)
root@mailserver:/etc#
root@mailserver:/etc# su - zimbra
zimbra@mailserver:~$ host zapgun.net
zapgun.net has address 82.45.191.223
zapgun.net mail is handled by 5 mailserver.zapgun.net.
zimbra@mailserver:~$ hostname
mailserver.zapgun.net
zimbra@mailserver:~$ zmhostname
mailserver.zapgun.net
zimbra@mailserver:~$ ifconfig
-su: ifconfig: command not found
zimbra@mailserver:~$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.3 mailserver.zapgun.net mailserver

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts
zimbra@mailserver:~$

[Eternal-student]

Sorry to bump. I know that there is the Split DNS wiki but I'm trying to understand some networking knowledge that I don't know about yet.

Is anyone able to help me with this error message? I'm trying to work out what I've got wrong in the MX/A record settings. I get this error with this command.

@mailserver%host `hostname`
Host mailserver.zapgun.net not found: 2(SERVFAIL)

Does this message mean that it can't find the mailserver.zapgun.net IP address?

[Bevan Bennett]

Does this message mean that it can't find the mailserver.zapgun.net IP address?

It means that there is no DNS A record for mailserver.zapgun.net.
You need to make a change on the DNS server for zapgun.net, in the zone file for zapgun.net.

Add the following:

mailserver     IN      A      192.168.1.3
               IN      MX     mailserver.zapgun.net.

Then increase your serial number in the file and restart named.

[Eternal-student]

Hi, thank you very much for your post. You were absolutely right about the bind configuration file needing what you posted.

I think partly the problem I've had understanding this is the DNS record with the company that hosts the domain name, is a bit confusing. The only entries you can enter are an A record and an MX record for the domain zapgun.net .

Imajr.com Free Online Image Community

With the interface you can't put names in without it converting it to a numbered IP address.

It seems to me that this makes an MX record for zapgun.net that points to mailserver.zapgun.net which has the same IP address. Can anyone tell me if this is correct?

Any help is gratefully appreciated (and hopefully other people that use the forums can get some better ideas about DNS records needed for Zimbra).