Trying to run a server on a static IP from my house, DNS questions

[Xn Nooby]

On Thu, Dec 25, 2008 at 12:07 AM, Chris Mohler <cr33dog at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 25, 2008 at 10:01 PM, Xn Nooby <xnooby at gmail.com> wrote:
> [...]
>> Any suggestions?
>
> Yes - I suggest using GD's nameservers - they're fast and likely to be
> up most of the time.  If you want to learn DNS by all means go ahead -
> but what the GD person told you was a bit misleading - they do in fact
> host your DNS at this point.
>
> GD is bad about hiding things - but there should be a link somewhere
> to "Total DNS Control" or similar - it's a HTML form that will let you
> modify all DNS entries directly.
>
> I suggest deleting *all* CNAME entries, making A records for server,
> www.server, mail.server, etc - and most importantly (in your case)
> setting the MX to an A record (eg, mail.server).  I do not argue that
> what I suggest is the best all-around approach - it's just a simple
> one that will work. (Also add a SPF entry to make sure you can send
> mail without it being rejected or flagged as spam).
>
> Here's what I use to query my MX record (test server):
> dig XXXX at XXXX:~/Desktop$ dig MX cr33k.com
>
> ; <<>> DiG 9.5.0-P2 <<>> MX cr33k.com
> ;; global options:  printcmd
> ;; Got answer:
> ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 55932
> ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
>
> ;; QUESTION SECTION:
> ;cr33k.com.                     IN      MX
>
> ;; ANSWER SECTION:
> cr33k.com.              3600    IN      MX      0 mail.cr33k.com.
>
> ;; Query time: 108 msec
> ;; SERVER: 192.168.2.1#53(192.168.2.1)
> ;; WHEN: Wed Dec 24 22:49:07 2008
> ;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 48
>
> XXXX at XXXX:~/Desktop$ dig mail.cr33k.com
>
> ; <<>> DiG 9.5.0-P2 <<>> mail.cr33k.com
> ;; global options:  printcmd
> ;; Got answer:
> ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 47471
> ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
>
> ;; QUESTION SECTION:
> ;mail.cr33k.com.                        IN      A
>
> ;; ANSWER SECTION:
> mail.cr33k.com.         3600    IN      A       75.127.119.217
>
> ;; Query time: 77 msec
> ;; SERVER: 192.168.2.1#53(192.168.2.1)
> ;; WHEN: Wed Dec 24 22:49:19 2008
> ;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 48
>
> So you should be able to "dig MX server" and then "dig" whatever
> record is returned and get an IP - if that's not working, you will not
> get mail .
>
> There are some useful suggestions posted already - and I do not
> pretend to be an expert.  Hopefully I've helped you out though, and
> Good Luck ;)
>
> Chris
>
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When my mail was working, I had created an "A" record called
myserver.mydomain.com, in addition to goDaddy's default "@" record
(which points to my IP address).  I also had my MX record "@" point to
"myserver.mydomain.com". My linux box's name was also "myserver".

It sounds like that was the right set up. If I create an "A" record to
"mail.mydomain.com", and point the MX record to it, does it matter if
my linux box has a different name than "mail"? I didn't want to name
my actual server "mail", or maybe that can be just another name listed
in the hosts file. Or is the name "mail" in "mail.mydomain.com" not
really used for anything, other than semantics?

I'm not sure I like this "@" thing GoDaddy's uses, it seems to deviate
from what everyone else does.