How badly have I screwed up?

Re: How badly have I screwed up?

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Time:

At 10:39 PM -0800 1/3/02, Don Morris wrote:
> >officemedic.net. 3600 A 12.39.138.249
>>www.officemedic.net. 3600 A 12.39.138.249
>>officemedic.net. 3600 NS ns1.officemedic.net.
>>officemedic.net. 3600 NS ns2.officemedic.net.
>>
>>ns2 is not responding.
>
>I think that is fixed.
>
>
>>officemedic.net. 3600 MX 10 mail.officemedic.net.
>>
>>... don't use CNAMEs for MX and NS hostnames, only canonical hostnames.
>
>I don't understand your point. (Remember, I'm new at this.) I thought a
>CNAME *is* a canonical hostname? Anyway, I'm *not* using a CNAME here.
>
>>officemedic.net. 3600 MX 20 mail2.officemedic.net.
>>
>>you don't have an A record for mail2
>
>I think I have fixed that as well. I only have one mail server. Is there
>any problem having both MX records point to the same machine, or should I
>do something different?

Just have one MX record per zone. If you get a backup mail server in
the future, you can add another MX record to each zone with relative
ease.

> >I suggest the preceding two be changed to mx1.officemedic.net. and
>>mx2.officemedic.net.
>>
>>then create names for pop, smtp, webmail, imap so you have functional
>>hostnames for various mail functions.
>
>And those names/records would look like what? Perhaps
>
>pop.officemedic.net CNAME mx1.officemedic.net ??

Well, as Len indicated, CNAME records are not for newbies. But
there's no reason that particular record wouldn't work, assuming
you're going to run all mail-related services on one machine for the
moment.

If you really want to use CNAME records, just make sure that whatever
name you use in the data portion (the right side) of an MX record,
that name must have an A record and not a CNAME record. Also, keep in
mind that a CNAME record can't have the same name as any other record.

> >ns1.officemedic.net. 3600 A 12.39.138.244
>>ns2.officemedic.net. 3600 A 12.39.138.144
>>mail.officemedic.net. 3600 A 12.39.138.244
>>mail2.officemedic.net. 3600 A 12.39.138.244
>>lists.officemedic.net. 3600 A 12.39.138.244
>>ftp.officemedic.net. 3600 A 12.39.138.249
>
>I take it these are okay?
>
>
> >>An example of a virtual domain is officemedic.com:
>>
> >that isn't a virutal domain, is it's the officemedic.com zone.
>
>Well, when I create a new domain in QDNS using the Domain Assistant it
>asks me if I want to create a Normal domain, a Virtual Domain or a
>Reverse Domain. I'm just using its terminology. Officemedic.com is based
>on the Master domain (again, QDNS term) officemedic.net.

You're right. Len made an error.

> >>Question 1: How badly have I screwed this up?
>>
>>about typical. :)))
>>
>>>Question 2: What should the reverse domain(s) look like?
>>
> >hostname PTR hostname.
>
>Sorry, I'm so new that I don't even know how to ask the question. What
>should the records look like for the -- I'm assuming --
>138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. domain? Exactly? I have
>
>138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. 3600 NS ns1.officemedic.net.
>138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. 3600 NS ns2.officemedic.net.
>249.138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. PTR fitpchurch.org.
>244.138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. PTR esafelist.com.
>244.138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. PTR officemedic.net.
>144.138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. PTR ns2.officemedic.net.
>135.138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. PTR hl.officemedic.net.
>
>but I assume that this is incorrect, since not all of my other virtual
>domains...excuse me, zones...are appearing here.

Actually, reverse zones are a very common area for newbies to make
mistakes. Here are some guidelines:

- Don't create a reverse zone unless you need one. You need one only
if either (a) you're using a non-routable subnet, or (b) your ISP has
delegated a reverse zone to you.

- Any reverse zone you create for public, routable IP addresses
should have the name that your ISP specifies.

In this particular case, the reverse zone is delegated as follows,
starting from the root servers:

from f.root-servers.net:
12.in-addr.arpa. 1d ns dbru.br.ns.els-gms.att.net.
12.in-addr.arpa. 1d ns dmtu.mt.ns.els-gms.att.net.
12.in-addr.arpa. 1d ns cbru.br.ns.els-gms.att.net.
12.in-addr.arpa. 1d ns cmtu.mt.ns.els-gms.att.net.

from dbru.br.ns.els-gms.att.net:
39.12.in-addr.arpa. 23h3m20s ns cmtu.mt.ns.els-gms.att.net.
39.12.in-addr.arpa. 23h3m20s ns dmtu.mt.ns.els-gms.att.net.
39.12.in-addr.arpa. 23h3m20s ns cbru.br.ns.els-gms.att.net.
39.12.in-addr.arpa. 23h3m20s ns dbru.br.ns.els-gms.att.net.
138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. 23h3m20s ns doc.ponyexpress.net.
138.39.12.in-addr.arpa. 23h3m20s ns snow-white.ponyexpress.net.

(No, those aren't cached records. That's really the default TTL in that zone.)

from both of the ponyexpress.net servers:
- lame response (no authoritative data)

If you're not ponyexpress.net, then you shouldn't have a reverse zone
(yet). Instead, you should talk to your provider about this problem.
If your subnet is smaller than a class C (254 addresses), then you'll
most likely (hopefully) end up needing a classless subnet reverse
zone. The name of this zone is arbitrarily defined by your ISP, so
you'll need to wait for them to set up their end (and hopefully give
you directions) before you can set up your end.

>I'm having a problem where sending email through mail.officemedic.com,
>for example, results in an error returned to EIMS: "Response: 450 Client
>host rejected, cannot find your host name, [12.39.138.244]."

That's a problem that's most likely created by your lack of a hostname.

> >>Question 3: Why would EIMS all of a sudden be telling me "The following
>>>message could not be delivered to list@lists.officemedic.net because the
>>>host lists.officemedic.net does not exist"?
>>
>>probably because EIMS is too dumb to resolve YOUR ERROR of a CNAME into the
> >(exising A record):
>
>Well, sure, but this just started happening. And then it stopped, but I
>don't know why. Anyway, where is _this_ exact error? What CNAME should I
>have entered as an A record? Type slowly using one-syllable words so I
>can understand. :-)

Again, I have to ask: Are the records you posted in your first
message supposed to be the records you currently have in place?
Because they don't agree with the currently available, public version
of your domain.

> >;; ANSWER SECTION:
> >lists.officemedic.net. 1H IN CNAME ns1.officemedic.net.
>
>Oh, this one! Well, my partner in stupidity changed this (and it's
>working now), but it originally *was* an A record (as shown above) when I
>started this thread.

OK, that explains it.

You should replace this CNAME record with the following, for maximum
reliability:

lists.officemedic.net. MX 10 lists.officemedic.net.
lists.officemedic.net. A <IP address of list server>

You should then configure your list server (is that EIMS or something
else?) to accept mail for the name lists.officemedic.net.

> >I suggest in your virgin state of newness that you replace all CNAMEs with
>>A records.
>
>So instead of
>
> mail.officemedic.com. CNAME mail.officemedic.net.
>
>I should have used
>
> mail.officemedic.com. A 12.39.239.244 ??

Yes, that's what Len is suggesting. I can't disagree with him.

CNAME records are useful, sometimes, but only if you know exactly
what they do and how they work - especially, you need to know exactly
what they can't do. See the glossary of DNS terms (on our website, in
the support section) for more information.
____________________________________________________________________
Chris Buxton Men & Mice
support@menandmice.com Making DNS Easy

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