Webmail / Nameservers

[tomyknoker@]

Hi All,

Total newbie here so forgive me if my questions are basic. Ok first of all, I have a (dv) through MediaTemple. They provide a simple control panel of there won but then everything else is done through Plesk. I loaded the Plesk CP and entered in all my details, which it now has, and added my domain.com and associated the IP with this. How do I use webmail? Do I need to host my won account? Meaning do I have to set up hosting?

My next question is how do I set up my namevservers? Like ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com...

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[PlymWS]

By default when you add a domain in Plesk it creates a name server for you which is ns.<domain>

For example, if your domain is domain.com, the nameserver would be ns.domain.com.

Although it's not recommended to have both your name servers on the same computer, it is possible.

On the left hand side, click Server in the system sub-section, then click DNS. Click add new record then enter the following :

Record type : NS
Enter Domain Name : LEAVE BLANK
Enter IP address : ns2.<domain>

Then click OK.

Then click Create Record again. This time create a record as follows :

Record type : A
Enter Domain Name : ns2.<domain>
Enter IP address : <ip>

Click OK. This will then create a new name server for your server. Assuming you're using the default settings ( which you should be ) your nameservers will be

ns.your-domain-name.com and
ns2.your-domain-name.com

You could always change the default nameserver to be ns1 ... if you wanted to follow convention. You should see how that's done when you follow the steps above.

In answer to your webmail question, you have to add mail addresses for your server in the General / Domains / your-domain.com / Mail.

You should have seen a DNS entry for http://webmail.your-domain.com. Plesk installs Horde webmail client which you can access with your web browser.

 

[tomyknoker@]

Hi ok I now have this does it look right? I noticed you said make it A should they be NS instaed of A?

<domain>. NS ns1.mydomain.net.
<domain>. NS ns2.mydomain.net.
<domain>. A <ip>
<domain>. MX (10) mail.<domain>.
<ip> / 24 PTR <domain>.
ftp.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.
mail.<domain>. A <ip>
ns.<domain>. A <ip>
webmail.<domain>. A <ip>

Also my WebMail icon is greyed out... Any ideas?

 

[PlymWS]

It looks right except you haven't made the A record for your second name server, ns2. You need to setup the nameserver with the NS record, and also need to make it resolveable with the A record.

If you follow the instructions above, you will get it right.

As for the webmail it sounds like you haven't installed Horde. To do this goto Server in the systems section on the left hand pane, then click Updater, followed by your installation. Horde webmail is the first updateable application.

 

[tomyknoker@]

So how come the second NS has to be an A record and not an NS?

 

[tomyknoker@]

Also noticed... if you look on the second last line it is ns.<domain> what is that there for?

 

[PlymWS]

You're misunderstanding what you're doing.

A nameserver needs a NS record and an A record. The default nameserver has both which were the ns entrys.

ns.<domain> is the default setting for the single nameserver setup by Plesk. If you have changed this default from ns to ns1 you will also need to change its A record to ns1.<domain>

You should end up with the following :

<domain>. NS ns1.mydomain.net.
<domain>. NS ns2.mydomain.net.
<domain>. A <ip>
<domain>. MX (10) mail.<domain>.
<ip> / 24 PTR <domain>.
ftp.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.
mail.<domain>. A <ip>
ns1.<domain>. A <ip>
ns2.<domain>. A <ip>
webmail.<domain>. A <ip>

 

[tomyknoker@]

Thanks so much! Ok could you just take one more look at what I have?

Record type Value
<domain>. NS ns1.mydomain.net.
<domain>. NS ns2.mydomain.net.
<domain>. A <ip>
<domain>. MX (10) mail.<domain>.
<ip> / 24 PTR <domain>.
ftp.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.
mail.<domain>. A <ip>
ns1.<domain>. A <ip>
ns2.<domain>. A <ip>
webmail.<domain>. A <ip>

I spoke to my host and they said I have to install "UebiMiau" for every domain I add to my server... Does this sound correct? Is it better to use this one or should I get a different?

 

[PlymWS]

No, the webmail part should be installed as described above. This will then install the Horde client which you will be able to access for every domain you add to your server. Also, as you would get Plesk to automatically install it you wouldn't have any setup problems There is also somewhere on here an rpm for Squirrelmail if you don't like Horde.

Your DNS entries look correct now. I would suggest once you have your domain name servers setup at your registrar you goto www.dnsreport.com and do an online DNS check too, just to make sure everything is OK.

Bear in mind though that you will get an error from dnsreport.com because both your nameservers will be located on the same server, something which is not recommended but works fine.

 

[tomyknoker@]

Thanks again Plym! So yes I do install the "UebiMiau"? Sorry it's late!

I will do the dnsreport too!

Do you know anything about the SPF Spam Protection?

 

[tomyknoker@]

Hmm I am in the Application Vault and can see "UebiMiau" but what do I do next?

 

[PlymWS]

I go here :

Server in the System section on the left hand pane.
Updater
Plesk 8.1.0

and then Horde Webmail is the first component in the list.

 

[tomyknoker@]

Oh my Updater is disabled... Am I stuffed??

 

[PlymWS]

Ahh, in that case, I don't know. You could install the other application through the application vault, but as it's not the one I use I wouldn't know any more about it I'm afraid.

You might be able to get the rpm for Horde from here somewhere and add a new application that way.

 

[tomyknoker@]

So if I can see "UebiMiau" in my ApplicationVault does this mean it is installed?

 

[PlymWS]

No, do this :

General - Domains
Click your domain
Click Application Vault
Add New Application
Click the radio button beside the mail client.
Click install at the top of the page.

 

[tomyknoker@]

Ahhhh ok so then I am slightly confused, because MediaTemple have a control panel of their own which I can login to and do things... BUT do I need to set up hosting for my server?

 

[tomyknoker@]

And when I do it do I say "Yes, and make it available for all domains"? What do I say the destination directiry is? Document Root? Or "other" and then do I type in "webmail"?

What would the email preferences be? Can I see these somewhere?

 

[PlymWS]

I'm not sure as I have Horde installed so I don't use this application for webmail.

 

[tomyknoker@]

You don't remember what you put in when you installed Horde do you?