Please Help me Configure DNS/Email correctly...

[CHD]

Hi there,

i've recently setup plesk, with a linux server.
im running my own nameservers. for the purpose of this thread i'll call it ns1.server.co.uk and ns2.server.co.uk

the DNS settings of this domain are as follows:
*.webmail.server.co.uk. CNAME server.co.uk.
88.208.195.xx / 24 PTR server.co.uk.
server.co.uk. NS ns1.server.co.uk.
server.co.uk. NS ns2.server.co.uk.
server.co.uk. A 88.208.195.xx
server.co.uk. MX (10) mail.server.co.uk.
server.co.uk. MX (15) mail2.server.co.uk.
server.co.uk. TXT v=spf1 +a +mx -all
ftp.server.co.uk. CNAME server.co.uk.
mail.server.co.uk. A 88.208.195.yy
mail2.server.co.uk. A 88.208.195.xx
ns1.server.co.uk. A 88.208.194.zz
ns2.server.co.uk. A 88.208.194.bb
webmail.server.co.uk. A 88.208.195.xx
www.server.co.uk. CNAME server.co.uk.


then in my domain name provider (fasthosts) i've set all my domains nameservers to ns1.server.co.uk and ns2.server.co.uk. with no glue records or other settings in there.

for my other domains in plesk the DNS settings look like this:

<domain>. NS ns2.server.co.uk.
<domain>. NS ns1.server.co.uk.
<domain>. A <ip>
<domain>. MX (25) mail2.<domain>.
<domain>. MX (10) mail.<domain>.
<domain>. TXT v=spf1 +a +mx -all
<ip> / 24 PTR <domain>.
ftp.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.
mail.<domain>. A <ip>
mail2.<domain>. A <ip>
webmail.<domain>. A <ip>
www.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.

that all seems to be working ok. websites are running fine.

however, all emails from my domains are averaging a score of 5-10 from spam filters. sometimes higher.
have i setup the DNS settings incorrectly?

i havent switched on the SPF Spam protection in the plesk panel (i dont know what it is!)

also, when i use www.squish.net/dnscheck/ all the results look fine for my .co.uk domains, but the .com ones return this error message:

Warning: Server A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET did not provide address of k.root-servers.net - using simple local resolve to fill in the missing information.
Result: k.root-servers.net is 193.0.14.129
Warning: Server A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET did not provide address of l.root-servers.net - using simple local resolve to fill in the missing information.
Result: l.root-servers.net is 199.7.83.42
Warning: Server A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET did not provide address of m.root-servers.net - using simple local resolve to fill in the missing information.
Result: m.root-servers.net is 202.12.27.33

it also says this a lot:
DOMAIN.com. 172800 IN NS ns1.server.co.uk.
DOMAIN.com. 172800 IN NS ns2.server.co.uk. Answer returned from non-authoritative source

is that of any use?



also, when using the webmail, the score is generally much lower.
but from all email clients its high. (on all machines and locations)

for the account settings im using the following:
incoming server: mail.DOMAIN.com
outgoing server(SMTP): mail.DOMAIN.com

where DOMAIN relates to the domain in question, not the nameserver.

i told fast hosts about this all and they said my name servers hadn't been registered with the IP address, but now they should be fine.
so what else do i need to do?

i really hope somebody can help me!

thanks in advance.


heres an example of the spam report: (again, i have replaced my main domain with the word "server" the main domain is also the nameserver domain that i use for all client websites)

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
X-Spam-Flag: YES
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on
server.co.uk
X-Spam-Level: ********
X-Spam-Status: Yes, score=8.9 required=8.0 tests=AWL,DNS_FROM_OPENWHOIS,
FH_DATE_PAST_20XX,HTML_IMAGE_RATIO_08,HTML_MESSAGE ,RCVD_IN_PBL,
RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL,RDNS_NONE autolearn=no version=3.2.5
X-Spam-Report:
* 2.4 DNS_FROM_OPENWHOIS RBL: Envelope sender listed in bl.open-whois.org.
* 3.4 FH_DATE_PAST_20XX The date is grossly in the future.
* 0.0 HTML_IMAGE_RATIO_08 BODY: HTML has a low ratio of text to image area
* 0.0 HTML_MESSAGE BODY: HTML included in message
* 1.6 RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL RBL: SORBS: sent directly from dynamic IP address
* [90.212.111.21 listed in dnsbl.sorbs.net]
* 0.5 RCVD_IN_PBL RBL: Received via a relay in Spamhaus PBL
* [90.212.111.21 listed in zen.spamhaus.org]
* 0.1 RDNS_NONE Delivered to trusted network by a host with no rDNS
* 0.9 AWL AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list
X-Original-To: [email protected]
Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: from server.co.uk (unknown [127.0.0.1])
by server.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3019BFD5F
for <[email protected]>; Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:47:16 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from RyanLaptop (unknown [90.212.111.21])
by server.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP
for <[email protected]>; Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:47:16 +0000 (UTC)
From: "MY NAME" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: 8.9 test
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:47:16 -0000
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0004_01CACCFB.9CD47F70"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0
Thread-Index: AcrM+5xPmAEnM++kR/i4QJbZqrUHAA==
Content-Language: en-gb
X-Spam-Prev-Subject: test

 

[Mark051169]

I am having exactly the same problem!

My hosting provider is Fasthosts. Was this issue ever resolved?

 

[CHD]

This was so long ago, i've changed all my settings a LOT since then.
I can safely say fasthosts had nothing to do with it though.
The issue was mainly down to my dns settings. A big help is to use any online DNS lookup tools, some of them tell you what parts of your DNS settings are failing and why. My DNS still isn't PERFECT, but I don't really have any spam issues anymore.

I also setup SPF records, mail signing and sender IDs etc.
You can send an email to something like [email protected]

And an autoreply will give you a spam report.

Its useful!

Hope this helps.

 

[Mark051169]

Thanks for your prompt response

Yes, I was trying the spf online tools and [email protected] etc., and I have put a request in to support at Fasthosts (though I don't hold out much hope of any help there!). I appreciate your prompt reply. Cheers