Unable to send e-mail / login to webmail

[SAttraction]

Hi all,

I'm a new user to Plesk and am experiencing real difficulties in sending e-mail ...

I am running one domain on a dedicated server. I have had to create my own Name Server (oh, the nightmare ...) and have several e-mail accounts under my domain, accessed using my e-mail client (Outlook Express).

Having configured the relaying options (authorised SMTP) in Plesk, *most* of the e-mails that I send are sent and delivered without any problems, however, I still have 30 or so on the e-mail queue.

The only consistency I can see is the recipients domain. E-mails sent to both comcast.net and aol.com are simply sitting on the queue, going nowhere. There are a few others but these two domains make up the bulk of unsent e-mails.

What is it that I am doing wrong here ?

I haven't touched either the white or black lists - only the default localhost address of 127.0.0.0 / 8 is in the white list. I'm not using any spam settings and have virus settings off.

Lastly, I'm unable to login to webmail (Horde) at all. The error message that I receive is "Error connecting to IMAP server: [111] Connection refused."

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated !!

Many thanks in advance.

Darran

 

[phoenixisp]

Do you have a PTR record in your DNS setup? How about a text SPF? Without these usually AOL and others will block your emails. Can you post your DNS entries here?

 

[SAttraction]

Many thanks for the reply phoenixisp,

Indeed, I corrected my PTR record almost immediately after posting - realising that it wasn't set-up correctly. I'm still uncertain as to whether this has corrected the issue though.

My DNS settings are :-

111.222.333.444 / 8 PTR 444.333.222.111.in-addr.arpa
ftp.mydomain.com CNAME mydomain.com
mail.mydomain.com A 111.222.333.444
ns.mydomain.com A 111.222.333.444
mydomain.com NS ns.mydomain.com
mydomain.com A 111.222.333.444
mydomain.com MX (10) mail.mydomain.com
www [dot] mydomain.com CNAME mydomain.com

These settings are active and identical at both 'Server' and 'Domain' level.

I have built my DNS settings around the Plesk default and what I have learned through reading online as I've never had to create this myself before, having always relied on my webhost for NS details.

Lastly, I haven't created a SPF record of any kind. Should I do this ?

Any help will be greatly appreciated !!

Thanks in advance.

Darran

 

[phoenixisp]

OK, I see a couple of mistakes that more than likely are causing your issues. One thing is that your PTR is wrong and another is that you have no record for webmail. Here's how I would set it up:

domain.com A 111.222.333.444
www.domain.com A 111.222.333.444
ftp.domain.com A 111.222.333.444 (guess you can tell I hate cnames)
webmail.domain.com A 111.222.333.444
mail.domain.com A 111.222.333.444
ns1.domain.com A 111.222.333.444
domain.com NS ns1.domain.com
domain.com MX(10) mail.domain.com
111.222.333.444/8 PTR domain.com
domain.com txt v=spf1 ip4:111.222.333.444/8 mx ~all

You should also have another ns setting, maybe through an outside concern. Once you have made the changes restart named:

# /etc/init.d/named restart

Wait a few hours for propagation and all should be well.

Hope this helps.

 

[SAttraction]

Many thanks for the reply phoenixisp,

Apologies, I had a 'webmail record' set up as follows :-

webmail.mydomain.com A 111.222.333.444

Anyway, I shall follow your suggestions

Just to clarify - what does your last entry refer to ?

domain.com txt v=spf1 ip4:111.222.333.444/8 mx ~all

Should that be entered as a TXT DNS setting ?

Lastly, should named be restarted via SSH or will a Plesk reboot restart this service ?

Thanks in advance.

Darran

 

[phoenixisp]

Yes sir, that is a txt record. This forum does not allow for spacing or it would have been easier for you to figure it out. As far as restarting named, you can do it as I outlined in SSH or in the Plesk control panel go to "Server" -> "Service Management" and restart the "DNS Server (bind)"

 

[j0ney3]

comcast and aol won't accept mail from servers w/out a proper rDNS record, you'll need to have your ISP/hosting provider to implement it for you I believe.

see: http://www.postmaster.aol.com/tools/rdns.html

 

[SAttraction]

My thanks for the reply and very helpful information, phoenixisp.

I've made the DNS changes based on your suggestions and am now waiting to see if they have acheived the desired results - shall report back to let you know

One final question - do you know why my webmail isn't working ? Is this due to my incorrect DNS settings as well ? The error message in Horde is :-

"Error connecting to IMAP server: [111] Connection refused."

Thanks again !!

Darran

 

[SAttraction]

comcast and aol won't accept mail from servers w/out a proper rDNS record, you'll need to have your ISP/hosting provider to implement it for you I believe.

see: http://www.postmaster.aol.com/tools/rdns.html

Hi there j0ney3,

I'm responsible for my own DNS settings and have had to create my own Name Server for my dedicated box. As such, there isn't any ISP involvement at all.

Having amended my DNS settings as above, I'm hoping that this will resolve the issue.

Thanks for the link though

Darran

 

[j0ney3]

Darran,

I run my own ns as well, I don't believe it's possible to provide records for your own rDNS entries. If you find otherwise please let me know. Check the article below. I only mention rDNS because I had the exact same problem w/ Comcast & AOL (Road Runner will sometimes kick your mail as well).

http://www.crucialp.com/resources/tutorials/web-hosting/how-reverse-dns-works-rdns.php

Also, that other link will tell you if you've got proper rDNS delegation as far as AOL is concerned, if it says no, then you'll be out of luck w/ AOL addresses until you fix that.

 

[SAttraction]

Hi there J0ney3,

Thanks for the reply. I have to confess to being new to setting-up my own NS. I have followed phoenixisp's advice above and will take a look at the link you've attached.

How did you go about setting-up your own reverse DNS entries if you have your own and run your own NS ? Did you contact your name registrar to acheive this ?

Thanks !

Darran

 

[SAttraction]

Hello again guys,

I've set-up my DNS settings in line with phonenixisp's instructions and still have e-mai's on my queue to the same domain names and am unable to send new e-mails (they simply sit on the queue) to these domains.

Any advice ?

This is obviously very frustrating stuff ...

Many thanks !!

Darran

 

[j0ney3]

Darran,

AOL & Comcast will not accept mail from servers w/o proper rDNS! You need to call your ISP or hosting provider and have them put in rDNS entries, I don't believe you can do that on your own server (that would kinda defeat the validity I believe). I promise you that if you take this step, your queue will clear out a few days after that and you'll have no more problems (I went thru this exact issue already).

 

[SAttraction]

Hi j0ney3,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I understand the requirements here (setting up reverse DNS settings) it's just that as I have had to create my own Name Server, there isn't any involvement with either an ISP or Hosting Provider.

I am going to contact my Name Registrar to see if they can assist.

I was hoping that phonenixisp's suggestion would work.

Many thanks.

Darran

 

[SAttraction]

Hello all,

My WebHost (who own the block of IPs that I am under) have confirmed that they can make settings against the IP addresses that I have.

The obvious question (as I would like to get this right first time) is what exactly do I ask them to do ?

According to the AOL 'guide' the .arpa ... configurations aren't acceptable.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated !!

Many thanks.

Darran

 

[SAttraction]

This has now been sorted. I asked my webhost to set-up reverse DNS on the IP address and all is now well.

Again, thanks for the replies and advice - much appreciated !!

Darran