Resolved Trying to set up email

[AliBali]

I have been trying to set up email for my domain (for the first time).
I have set up one email address, and from this I can launch the roundcube webmail site - but it doesn't receive emails I try to send.
When I select the 'Email Config Check' in Plesk (under 'Mail' within my domain in 'Websites & Domains') I get the following message:
'The hostname is not valid. Current value is "crazy-banzai". Plesk Email Security only works with a valid hostname. Please set a hierarchical, dot-separated domain as the hostname!'.
How do I fix this?
Also, under 'SSL/TLS Certificate ...' I get: 'Webmail access, webmail.[mydomain] Not Secured, even though I think I have set up a Lets Encrypt wildcard certificate for the domain.
Any help much appreciated.
Alistair.

 

[Nik G]

hello @AliBali ,

to receive mail your domain should be resolvable (at least A record should exists).

so, if you create domain crazy-banzai.tld (for example), it should be resolvable, something like

> nslookup crazy-banzai.tld

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    crazy-banzai.tld
Address:  1.2.3.42

where 1.2.3.4 - is your server IP address

 

[AliBali]

Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately I don't really understand this.
I have a valid domain name managed with Plesk and it appears to have valid DNS records (including 'A') as I can access the website.
I manage the domain with Plesk and I set up an email address for the domain using Plesk. I thought Plesk would do everything required.
Is there a way I can check what is incorrect using Plesk?
I'm afraid I would need step by step instructions as I am not very proficient at these things.
Thank you.

 

[Monty]

Start with the DNS and check the following:

1. What is the MX record of your domain?
2. To which IP does your MX record resolve?
3. Is this IP the IP of your server?

You can check this on MX Lookup Tool - Check your DNS MX Records online - MxToolbox

 

[AliBali]

If I key mydomain.com into the MX Lookup Tool I get:

Hostname: mail.mydomain.com
IP Address: [my correct IP address]
This is as set on my host (Ionos).

If I look on Plesk I have the following 'MX(10)' record:
Host: webmail.mydomain.com
Record Type: MX(10)
Value: mail.mydomain.com

Whilst setting up the email address on Plesk I got the following message:
'Do you want to connect mailservice of [mydomain].com to Plesk automatically? Connect using Domain Connect'

I answered yes to the above - not sure if this is anything to do with the problem?
Note: I am always unsure which parameters should be managed on Plesk and which I should use the Ionos panel for. I've probably got a mix of the two at the moment.

 

[Nik G]

@AliBali ,
first of all I'd recommend you to execute

plesk repair mail
plesk repair dns

could you please provide a screenshot of page with controls below
'Email Config Check' in Plesk (under 'Mail' within my domain in 'Websites & Domains')

an error message 'The hostname is not valid. Current value is "crazy-banzai" ' hints
that there is some misconfiguration (for example your domain called exactly "crazy-banzai",

but this is wrong domain name and it can't be resolvable.
and Plesk mustn't allow to create such domains..

 

[AliBali]

Is there a command line in Plesk where I can key the above commands?

Sorry but I can't share the screen you mention on a public forum as it has actual website and email address info which I can't share on a public forum at the moment, but I can confirm that the message I get on that screen is:

"The hostname is not valid. Current value is "crazy-banzai". Plesk Email Security only works with a valid hostname. Please set a hierarchical, dot-separated domain as the hostname!"

This is the only information on that screen, but if you need any further info please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[fonorola]

Hello AliBali, first I apologize for my bad English.
Did I see that your hosting is IONOS? And I don't know if you have a normal contract for a basic hosting or you have a VPS hosting? I am not a computer scientist, but I have a VPS hosting contracted in Spain and Ionos has a special email configuration system, they have disabled port 25 and from the plesk panel you cannot send or receive email directly, that is, even if you configure your mail in plesk will not work for you.
You have to configure the Ionos email in the initial ionos panel, I'll send you a screenshot to see if it helps.

 

[AliBali]

Hi fonorola,
Thanks for your reply. My Ionos account is for a virtual server - I'm not sure if this means that I may have the same issue as you.
I'm hoping I can continue on a diagnosis route as started above, which maybe will lead me to changing something within my Ionos account, but I don't know yet.
I seem to have an ongoing problem about what I should be setting up in Plesk, and what in Ionos. I thought I could manage everything with Plesk, but this may not be the case!

 

[fonorola]

Hello again, the problem of Ionos in Spain and I imagine that also in your country is that Ionos does not support VPS servers and if you want to configure the mail in Plesk it will be a bit complicated in fact I am also looking for information about how to do the mail configuration in my plesk panel.
If you only want your VPS to use your own web pages and your email accounts and you don't care how to do it, as I already told you, you can do it perfectly through the Ionos panel, if you don't know how to do it? Tell me an email and I will send you a video of how it is configured, I will continue to listen to this thread in case someone helps us and if I find out how it is configured in plesk I would tell you.
Greetings

 

[AliBali]

I will follow your advice and look at setting it up in Ionos.
Unfortunately I'm now going to be away for a couple of days, so can't do it until later in the week, but I will report back here after I've tried.
Thanks for your help.
Learning all the time!

 

[tenriak]

Hello! I'm having the same problem.
I have a domain purchased through godaddy and I have been able to set nameservers to the plesk nameservers.

The website does resolve correctly.

I have attached the requested config check screenshot.

I've run both of the repair commands on the plesk server
plesk repair mail
plesk repair dns

both ran without any errors and were [OK]

When using nslookup:

The name and IP address are correct.

If I set type=MX

I get the correct A record of mail.mycorrectdomain.com

if I then immediately type in mail.mycorrectdomain.com
I get an improper nameserver. This is the old nameserver of ns17.domaincontrol.com (godaddy's)

and a responsible mail addr of dns.jomax.net (something something godaddy.)

Do I just need to wait for more propagation?

I have also attached a screenshot of the mxtool showing all of the correct information and not the old nameserver from godaddy.

 

[tenriak]

Here is also a screenshot of my MX record from plesk.
Does this seem correct?



Does the mail domain field need to have "mail" in it for mail.mycorrectdomain.com?

 

[tenriak]

C:\Users\iarna>nslookup
Default Server: www.myrouter.com
Address: 192.168.RouterLocalIP

> mycorrectdomain.com
Server: www.myrouter.com
Address: 192.168.RouterLocalIP

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: mycorrectdomain.com
Address: correctIP

> set type=MX
> mycorrectdomain.com
Server: www.myrouter.com
Address: 192.168.RouterLocalIP

Non-authoritative answer:
mycorrectdomain.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.mycorrectdomain.com
> mail.mycorrectdomain.com
Server: www.myrouter.com
Address: 192.168.RouterLocalIP
mycorrectdomain.com
primary name server = ns17.domaincontrol.com
responsible mail addr = dns.jomax.net
serial = 2021120417
refresh = 28800 (8 hours)
retry = 7200 (2 hours)
expire = 604800 (7 days)
default TTL = 600 (10 mins)
>

 

[AliBali]

Hi tenriak,
I am the original poster.
For what it's worth I never managed to get my email working via Plesk.
I called my hosting provider, Ionos, and they set up the email for me on their platform very quickly - I think it was to do with the website DNS being set up with them (although I assumed Plesk was handling it).
I always get confused as to what should be managed via Plesk, and what via the Host's panel.
I recently also decided set up backups using the Ionos facility rather than through Plesk.
Plesk is clearly great for many things, but given I don't always understand this stuff, I've decided my rule of thumb is to do things directly on the host's system when possible/easy - why use a third party if the first party provides a good service?.
Hope that helps.

 

[tenriak]

Hey AliBali!

DNS can be very complicated. Not only is it just confusing in general, but the way DNS settings propagate over a period of time can become frustrating as well. Can't tell if your settings are incorrect or if the new settings have even taken effect. Also I'm not very good at DNS. I'm not sure any one really is. I'm glad you got your email working eventually!

Here is my short take on DNS with plesk.

When you purchase a domain name the company you purchased from is handling DNS for that domain name. Each company has a separate process for modifying this information. For me, it was godaddy.

Nameservers. Nameservers must be managed at the domain level. You must modify them at the registrar (godaddy for me) to point to your plesk environment instead of godaddy's default servers. ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com. Once that is done, godaddy has control of the domain name, but it just points to plesks nameservers. Plesk will handle the rest. This is not a requirement, you could simply leave the default nameservers that came with the domain you purchased, but many of plesks automated features become more complicated. Switching your nameservers over to the plesk environment lets plesk pretty much handle everything. But don't fix it if it isn't broken. If you have it working now, I wouldn't change anything.

nslookup is a good windows tool to use to test DNS information on a domain. google it!

As far as email goes, as it turns out I had everything set up correctly. My hosting is through Amazon AWS. Amazon itself has it's own firewall blocking the ports plesk needs to operate email. You have access to your own firewall, but email won't work until they unlock it on their end. This is a security feature to prevent spam emails and protect the AWS network from getting blacklisted at various places. It is not advertised very well that they are doing this.

I opened a ticket, and the support team corrected my problem. Email works!


If there is anything I can help you with please reach out to me! I love networking and making contacts.

Have a good one!

 

[tenriak]

Also, today, when using nslookup, my mail subdomain nameservers are reported correctly instead of the old godaddy nameservers. This must have been a propagation issue and just needed more time.

Oh as far as email goes. I take it back. My emails will now send correctly from my domain but I still seem to be having trouble receiving email at my domain. I will troubleshoot this more.

 

[tenriak]

I can't seem to get anything to connect to the plesk SMTP server. It must be running because outbound mails do get received on the other end.

I can't telnet into it on any of the ports. (25, 587, 465) I'm not really sure which port is correct. I can see a process listening on all three of those ports. Why can nothing connect to the server? I have assurance that amazon has lifted their restrictions, as confirmed by my ability to send an outgoing email.

 

[tenriak]

Success!! It was the freaking firewall. When I was looking at the firewall through the console it seemed to me that the correct ports were open, but I guess I was confused. I was able to configure the firewall correctly in the web interface for lightsail and bang! The emails started rolling in. Hopefully my little story will help some one along the way in the future.

 

[stonekgraff]

Success!! It was the freaking firewall. When I was looking at the firewall through the console it seemed to me that the correct ports were open, but I guess I was confused. I was able to configure the firewall correctly in the web interface for lightsail and bang! The emails started rolling in. Hopefully my little story will help some one along the way in the future.

it is possible to show us how you do that?
Im new to plesk and I have the same problem
thank you