Topic: DNS for SMTP email

[russs]

Hi all,
look I know this is probably known by everybody except me but here goes!...
I am replacing my Microsod based Mailserver with SME, I have been using SME on and off to send our company mail for about 6 months now and it seems to work fine (I have been switching to SME when our ISP's SMTP server goes belly up which is quite often!
I know wish to use SME exclusively as our mailserver recieving mail directly through SMTP and am fine with setting this up, however I am a little unsure about the DNS settings of this.
What I mean is, when you set up SME and it asks you which DNS server to use, I leave it blank. Monitoring the Mail log within the server panel everything seems alright, of the 700 mails so far sent, only 47 have failed and we have had no complaints from customers. But should I be pointing the DNS to my ISP's DNS server for example, what is the SME server referring to when deciding where to send mails?

I hope this all makes sense, if you can understand, please put my mind at rest that our mail is probably reaching the correct recipient and not just dissapearing into the ether!
SME version 6.0.1

Thanks

[treyh]

Russ,

If you are sending/receiving email then you shouldn't have any problems.

 The dns option on the SME setup is an optional field and is more than likely obtained automatically from your ISP.

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Here is another thing to think about :

Lets pretend your domain is www.russ.com, email server is mail.russ.com, and the ip of your sme box is 5.5.5.5

For anyone, outside of your lan, to be able to send email to *@ross.com then the following must be done.

1. you have to register russ.com
2. you have to have dns setup to point russ.com (a record) and mail.russ.com (mx record) to 5.5.5.5

Otherwise no one outside your lan would be able to email you. This is only an example, and I'm assuming that you own/host your own domain.
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[russs]

Thankyou treyh for your prompt and helpful reply.
You have put my mind at rest, if the SME automatically uses the ISP's DNS then that is exactly what I expected, I just couldn't find anywhere that said it!

And as for your additional advice, thanks again, but I have already set up the other settings.

[treyh]

Thankyou treyh for your prompt and helpful reply.
You have put my mind at rest, if the SME automatically uses the ISP's DNS then that is exactly what I expected, I just couldn't find anywhere that said it!

And as for your additional advice, thanks again, but I have already set up the other settings.

Russs,

I figured that you already had the dns records for your mail server, but it never hurts to make sure.

[CharlieBrady]

 The dns option on the SME setup is an optional field and is more than likely obtained automatically from your ISP.

No, that is not so. The ISP provided DNS server addresses are ignore by SME server, as, unlike workstations, SME server has a fully capable DNS resolver of its own, and can do for itself the same job that the ISP's DNS servers do for less capable clients.

The rest of what you said is correct.

[treyh]

 The dns option on the SME setup is an optional field and is more than likely obtained automatically from your ISP.

No, that is not so. The ISP provided DNS server addresses are ignore by SME server, as, unlike workstations, SME server has a fully capable DNS resolver of its own, and can do for itself the same job that the ISP's DNS servers do for less capable clients.

The rest of what you said is correct.

I did not know that Charlie Brady, thank you for the information.