Topic: MX not mail.xxxxxx.com

[Van Gravlee]

My MX record at my ISP is smtp.xxxxx.com, how do I change the qmail config to accept mail for smtp.xxxx.com vs mail.xxxxx.com ?

Thanks

[Joseph Morrison]

Hello!

> My MX record at my ISP is smtp.xxxxx.com, how do I change the
> qmail config to accept mail for smtp.xxxx.com vs mail.xxxxx.com

I'm not sure I completely understand the situation. Is there a DNS address record for smtp.xxxxx.com pointing to the IP address of the e-smith server? If so, then any email to user@xxxxx.com should be accepted by the e-smith server. (The e-smith server would also have to have the domain set to xxxxx.com.)

The e-smith server only needs to know what domain it's receiving mail for. The MX record is not used by the e-smith server at all; it is only used by whoever is sending email to the e-smith site.

Hope this helps; if not, please send a bit more information and I'll see if I can clarify the situation.

Best regards,
- Joe

[Joseph Morrison]

Hello!

> My MX record at my ISP is smtp.xxxxx.com, how do I change the
> qmail config to accept mail for smtp.xxxx.com vs mail.xxxxx.com

I'm not sure I completely understand the situation. Is there a DNS address record for smtp.xxxxx.com pointing to the IP address of the e-smith server? If so, then any email to user@xxxxx.com should be accepted by the e-smith server. (The e-smith server would also have to have the domain set to xxxxx.com.)

The e-smith server only needs to know what domain it's receiving mail for. The MX record is not used by the e-smith server at all; it is only used by whoever is sending email to the e-smith site.

Hope this helps; if not, please send a bit more information and I'll see if I can clarify the situation.

Best regards,
- Joe

[Van Gravlee]

Thanks Joe,

My email is van@cyberjoes.com, however my ISP has my email server record at smtp.cyberjoes.com rather than
mail.cyberjoes.com, if I try to receive mail from mail.cyberjoes.com I am told DNS not found, otherwise if I try to receive from
smtp.cyberjoes.com I am told Error occurred with POP3 server. If I can tell qmail to call itself smtp my problems will be
solved. I think.

Van

[Joseph Morrison]

Hi Van,

Still not sure I understand your situation. Are you running in multi-drop mail mode? (i.e. is your ISP receiving all mail for your domain into a single POP account located at the ISP?) If so, then you should be configuring your e-smith server to retrieve mail from smtp.cyberjoes.com (or whatever system name your ISP has told you to use to access your POP mailbox).

If you're getting an error, it may be that your ISP has limited access to the POP mailbox somehow. I notice that from my machine here at e-smith, I am denied access to that POP server, which suggests that some restrictions are in place. In this case, changing what qmail calls itself will not make any difference. qmail is not involved in the process of fetching mail from your ISP; that is handled by the "fetchmail" program.

If you're not trying to do multi-drop email, but are trying to have the email delivered directly to your e-smith server, then your MX record should point directly to your e-smith server. So if your MX is set to smtp.cyberjoes.com, then smtp.cyberjoes.com should refer to your e-smith machine itself.

Hope this helps,
- Joe

[Van Gravlee]

My ISP tells me when he telnets to my POP3 port it takes a long time to connect connects briefly and then drops the connection -- I am trying a new computer, new v 3 e-smith and will post again if this problem persists.

Thanks

Van

[Charlie Brady]

Van Gravlee wrote:

> My ISP tells me when he telnets to my POP3 port it takes a
> long time to connect connects briefly and then drops the
> connection -- I am trying a new computer, new v 3 e-smith
> and will post again if this problem persists.

You can threaten all you like, it won't bother us

Why is your ISP telnetting to your POP3 port? The standard e-smith configuration does not allow connections to the POP3 port from the Internet, so you should expect to see connections dropped. Long delays in connection are usually due to DNS lookups timing out.

Like Joe, I am having trouble understanding what your porblem is. The e-smith server doesn't care what hostname is used in
your MX records, so you do not have to change your qmail configuration.

We would like to help you, but you will need to describe exactly
what you are trying to do, and what symptoms you see, to be able
to help you.

[Van Gravlee]

I think you are both right that I am not supplying the right information and do not know how to diagnose the situation. Luckily, not knowing what was wrong with all the installations I had done previously, when I instaled v 3.0 the problem went away. The ISP was sending mail and watched the smtp server accept it he suspects that the POP3 service was not allowing that mail to be accessed from outside the server, I was going to try to use pine to see  if I could read the mail from the last few weeks. I have'nt tried to do that yet.

In short, I like the product -- it is still a black box to me. I need to read more to understand how it all works.

Thanks for your efforts,

Van Gravlee

[Charlie Brady]

Van Gravlee wrote:

> The ISP was sending mail and watched the smtp server
> accept it he suspects that the POP3 service was not allowing
> that mail to be accessed from outside the server,

He's quite right. That is a feature, not a bug. There is excellent documentation for the e-smith server - see http://www.e-smith.net/download/ for a list of sites that you can find the PDF file.

You can change the configuration (from the console) to allow Internet access to the POP port if you wish.

> In short, I like the product -- it is still a black box to me.
> I need to read more to understand how it all works.

There is excellent design documentation at www.e-smith.org. And you can always read the source

Charlie