Why does this happen with DNS and Mail?

[tekmage]

Folks,

Since I've moved to plesk from Ensim the one thing that strikes me as totally goofy and I haven't seen anyone mention this and it doesn't seem to get fixed in the various patches. So...why does this happen?

If you read mail headers coming from my server you'll see that the mail server can say it's any random domain from the list of hundreds of configured domains on my server. Every other message you look at will have yet another random pick, or maybe it's actually keeping a list and just round-robin picking the next one. I don't understand why this is a good thing. In fact I want it to stop. I want it to simply say that email coming into or out of whatever domain that customer is using is from that customer, not one of the hundreds of other clients I have. Nobody seems to notice because thankfully nobody else reads mail heards much any more.

Why does Plesk's version of qmail do this? It also happens when you ask dns for something. It comes back with saying it's some random domain in the list.


Here's an example:

C:\Documents and Settings\TekMage>nslookup wildcat.eidogen.com
Server: lascuatro.com <---
Address: 67.15.76.46

Name: wildcat.eidogen.com
Address: 66.229.88.147


C:\Documents and Settings\TekMage>nslookup wildcat.eidogen.com
Server: waco93.org <---
Address: 67.15.76.46

Name: wildcat.eidogen.com
Address: 66.229.88.147


Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: (qmail 24646 invoked from network); 18 Feb 2005 05:04:18 -0000
Received: from mta10.adelphia.net (68.168.78.202)
by wizardstower.com with SMTP; 18 Feb 2005 05:04:17 -0000 <-------

Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: (qmail 24374 invoked from network); 18 Feb 2005 05:00:50 -0000
Received: from mta13.mail.adelphia.net (HELO mta13.adelphia.net) (68.168.78.44)
by insighttv.org with SMTP; 18 Feb 2005 05:00:49 -0000 <---

Why doesn't simply reply that it's mail.TekMage.Net instead of gawd knows what other domain in the list of hundreds? Am I doing something wrong? Does everyone have this? If not, how did you fix it, or did you ever have it?

Thanks!

-=Dave

 

[Cranky]

You should remove PTR DNS records from every domain you don't want to show up in there.

 

[Dangerous]

Remove PTR records from all but one domain on the IP address.

 

[wmgilligan]

I have the same problem, but nslookup appears correct.

Emails from one domain say 'received from' a different domain on the same server.

I have the following in each dns:

name_based_IP PTR domainname.com

No PTR records point to a different domain....

Whats happening??

 

[hardweb]

Setup in /etc/resolv.conf an external DNS server, not the local Plesk server.

 

[jamesyeeoc]

Originally posted by wmgilligan
I have the same problem, but nslookup appears correct.

Emails from one domain say 'received from' a different domain on the same server.

I have the following in each dns:

name_based_IP PTR domainname.com

No PTR records point to a different domain....

Whats happening??

I think you have mis-understood the earlier advice about removing PTR records.

You want only a SINGLE domain on the server to have a PTR record, not one PTR per domain. In other words, pick ONE domain and leave the PTR in that domain's DNS, then in ALL OTHER domains, remove ALL PTR records. Therefore, you will have no ptr records in your hosted domain's DNS files, except (presumably) your main domain's DNS.

 

[faris]

Just to amplify on everybody's comments:

Basically, or no reason anybody can remember, the default DNS template in Plesk adds a PRT record for every domain added via the CP.

Similarly, it adds ns.domains.com -> IP which isn't really of any use.

You are expected to modify these settings to match your needs.

But if I remember correctly, in the manual for Plesk 2.0, it said that you needed the PTR record, so I left it. It would seem that a lot of people have done the same.

Similarly, the default config has a cname for mail.domain.com, which many DNS testing facilities complain about. Again I left it as it was, assuming that the Plesk guys knew best. Maybe they do. It has never done any harm, and since I'll shortly be changing IP addresses on the server, it will (potentially) reduce the number of changes that will be required.

Interestingly for me, I have never had the problems reported here, and always wondered why. So thanks to Hardweb for explaining that having an external DNS server in resolv.conf (which I do) is the solution.

Faris.