Question CNAME issue

[Daniel Slyman]

Hey guys,

first time posting here!

So usually I do not have any issues resolving problems or questions due to the huge collection of KB articles and forum posts.

However, either I am totally misunderstanding something or what I am trying to accomplish it simply not possible.

I want to setup autoconfig and autodiscovery for my hosting clients. So far I managed to get autoconfig working via autoconfig.skylayer.eu. This means when someone enters any email address associated with skylayer.eu into Thunderbird, the connection settings are being filled out correctly. I achieved this following several tutorials from which I pieced together bits and pieces.

Now I would like to have every domain hosting on my plesk instance to call upon http://autoconfig.skylayer.eu/mail/config-v1.1.xml

As far as I understood this is achievable by entering a CNAME record, e.g. autoconfig.slyman.eu. However, when visiting autoconfig.slyman.eu one is redirected to skylayer.eu and I can't figure out why. Obviously Thunderbird is then unable to get the correct file.

I also tried to test a different CNAME: webmail.sebastian-tschamler.de which is supposed to go webmail.skylayer.eu but also redirects to skylayer.eu.

So I believe I am doing something entirely wrong but can't figure out what.

What am I missing? Any hint into the right direction is greatly appreciated. If you need any more info please do ask.


Thanks,
Daniel

 

[UFHH01]

Hi Daniel Slyman,

a "CNAME" - record is used to redirect a specific name to another one.

At the moment, you redirect "autoconfig.slyman.eu" to "autoconfig.slyman.eu" which is a pretty useless redirect.


On the other side, you actually redirect "webmail.sebastian-tschamler.de" to "sebastian-tschamler.de" with a "CNAME" entry ( => DNS Lookup for webmail.sebastian-tschamler.de ) which certainly serves the the content of "sebastian-tschamler.de", if you try to open the URL "webmail.sebastian-tschamler.de" with a browser.

 

[Daniel Slyman]

Dear UFHH01,

thanks for your reply, you're somewhat of a celebrity for me since I've seen your profile picture quite a few times when googling for answers!

1. Why do you say I am redirecting "autoconfig.slyman.eu" to "autoconfig.slyman.eu"? Please see attached image

2. I have done DNS lookups and they turn up fine but for some reason I am still seeing content from skylayer.eu, which is the website displayed upon visiting the server IP 5.9.225.41 - even from different devices so it's user machine cache.

So do you have any idea whether what I want to do is actually even achievable via CNAMEs and why for example the sebastian-tschamler.de CNAME is displaying the wrong content? The way I see it there should be no different from the www CNAME. This is of course just to test whether CNAMEs as such are even working properly.

Thank you so much,
Daniel

 

[UFHH01]

Hi Daniel Slyman,

did you recently changed your entries? If not, I must have had a big board in front of my eyes, when I stated, that you redirect "autoconfig.slyman.eu" to "autoconfig.slyman.eu"... ... sorry for my mistake.

2. I have done DNS lookups and they turn up fine but for some reason I am still seeing content from skylayer.eu, which is the website displayed upon visiting the server IP 5.9.225.41 - even from different devices so it's user machine cache.

Sorry, but could you pls. specify your statement? What URL are you trying to open and what do you expect to see?

and why for example the sebastian-tschamler.de CNAME is displaying the wrong content?

Again, when do you experience that the "wrong" content is being displayed, when you open WHICH URL ?

When I tested your "sebastian-tschamler.de" - URLs, the content of "sebastian-tschamler.de" has been served, just as you redirected it with your CNAME - entries => "www" and as well "webmail" redirect to "sebastian-tschamler.de", which can't be your desire, as "webmail" should serve the content from your webmail - software... or am I wrong?


You might want to read the difference between "CNAME" - entries ( which is nothing more than an ALIAS ) and "A" - entries again at for example:

=> https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1912.txt​