i will be hosting email for domain.com on my server while a different host will be hosting the domain.com web site. the domain name resides at the other host who will set up an MX record to direct mail to my server. i am using tera-byte's DNS servers. what DNS settings do i need on my end to make the email hosting work right?

how i would do it:

- create domain.com on your raq
- have MX records pointed to your server
- your server will just respond to mail inquiries

Just a clarification...

You set up:
host name = www
domainname = domain.com

Enable email alias for domain.com

i sent the below message to the domain name host. does it sound like i have the problem pegged or could it be something on my end?

David, i get the following error whenever i send email to any of the email accounts i have set up for karsnuts.com. i have tested sending from email accounts using 3 different SMTP servers with the same results. please let me know if and when you set up the MX record. if you set it up yesterday please let me know how you have it set up. if you just pointed mail to our IP address (216.234.186.114), this might not work. you may need to point mail to mail.karsnuts.com and assign mail.karsnuts.com our IP address. let me know soon so that Kars Nuts can get their mail back up and running.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem [mailto:MAILER-DAEMON@www.netastic.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 10:18 AM
To: postmaster@www.netastic.net; netastic@mediaone.net
Subject: Returned mail: see transcript for details


The original message was received at Tue, 14 Aug 2001 08:17:45 -0600
from demai05.mw.mediaone.net [24.131.1.56]

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<nuts@karsnuts.com>
(reason: system config error)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
553 5.3.5 www.karsnuts.com.netastic.net. config error: mail loops back to me (MX problem?)
554 5.3.5 <nuts@karsnuts.com>... Local configuration error

this is how i have my DNS set up to just host the email and not the web site. xx.xx.xx.xx is the IP address of the web site at the other host. yy.yy.yy.yy is my IP address for this customer's email.

customer.com has an IP of xx.xx.xx.xx
mail for karsnuts.com is delivered to mail.customer.com with a preference of 5
mail has an IP of yy.yy.yy.yy
mail for mail is delivered to mail.customer.com with a preference of 5
Non-matching DNS requests are not forwarded

does this look right?

Originally posted by netastic
this is how i have my DNS set up to just host the email and not the web site. xx.xx.xx.xx is the IP address of the web site at the other host. yy.yy.yy.yy is my IP address for this customer's email.

customer.com has an IP of xx.xx.xx.xx
mail for karsnuts.com is delivered to mail.customer.com with a preference of 5
mail has an IP of yy.yy.yy.yy
mail for mail is delivered to mail.customer.com with a preference of 5
Non-matching DNS requests are not forwarded

does this look right?
no...
well, if the domain you are providing e-mail services for is karsnuts, you don't need to setup DNS for it. right now, DNS just points to the website, that's it, thus, it's wrong for providing mail services. by offering mail services, it's not your responsibility to setup the dns. ns entered to be responsible for karsnuts.com are NTSERVER.MAILORDERCENTRAL.COM65.200.162.13
UUNS1.DYDACOMP.NET
so their administrator needs to set the MX record to your mailserver.
YOU CAN'T CHANGE IT BECAUSE YOU DON'T SEEM TO HAVE THE RIGHTS...

i get it now. mail traffic pointed by Dydacomp's DNS MX record will never touch my DNS server because it is being pointed directly to my mail server, right?

once the clueless techs at Dydacomp set up their DNS correctly, everything started working. i deleted all DNS records for this domain on my server as advised and everything is still working fine.

last question. do i need to keep mail.karsnuts.com on its own IP address or can i move it back to the main IP address that is shared by all other web sites on my server?

I took a look at the DNS file and you should be able to modify the IP of mail.karsnuts.com without problems, so long as everything goes right on the server with the switch.

um.... I got lost in the discussion...

Could someone clean this up for me?

say im hosting sites on another server. On this server I want to handle the mail for those domains. How does this work? Please layout it out as clear as possible, cause im having a hard time following this discussion.

MX the domain to the 'other' server...

Basically you just set up the domain like you would normally on the 'other' server. Difference is that DNS won't be pointing the visitor to that server for web pages.

In the DNS, MX to subdomain (say mail.domain.com), then A Record: mail.domain.com to IP address (IP of virtual site that you set up the domain on the 'other' server).

I know I'm not explaining this terribly well, but hopefully you get the idea.

heh, well enough for me to figure it out! thanks.