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

[Xn Nooby]

On Thu, Dec 25, 2008 at 12:26 AM, Xn Nooby <xnooby at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>

I created an A record dedicated to email, and my mail is working
again. I guess that is the way to do it.

My A records are:
@   1.2.3.4
mail.mydomain.com   1.2.3.4

My MX record is:
0   @   mail.mydomain.com

I didn't change anything on my linux server, I guess it doesn't try to
match the machine name to the MX record. It is configured to answer
all email sent to mydomain.com, so that musty be good enough.

I assume the tech at GoDaddy was mistaken about me having to use my
own DNS, as another poster here mentioned. I guess I'm not going to
use a CNAME for email, I thought I would need to.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will leave it like this, unless
someone has a better idea.