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DNS server problems with remote email

Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
I had a weird bug pop up at work recently. We have a router for our DSL connection and DNS server which doubles as our file server. Pretty simple setup. Our email is remotely hosted on the Internet, along with our website. Recently emails have been arriving ontime, late, or never - it's kind of luck of the draw. I went over the issue with our remote host's tech support and they have me a log snippet that had the name of our DNS server in it, for some odd reason. We have a forwarder setup on the DNS server already, so that shouldn't be an issue. Basically it's saying our mail is unrouteable because it's coming from SERVER.ourcompany.local.

Any idea why the DNS server would tag outgoing email like that? We are predominantly using Thunderbird with all of our remote host's settings inputting correctly and have never had an issue before. Is there an MX setting that I need to change somewhere on the server? It's running Windows Small Business Server 2003.
 
Have you rerun the CEIW? I am not real sure how you using your mail? POP? or are you using exchange? If you are using thunderbird, then you are more than likely not using exchange...SBS 2003 has a pop connector or you can use the smtp connector(forwarder)..if you are mail service is hosted and you are using thunderbird...are you inputting the imap or pop configrations correctly..

a little more info would help...

also...

www.smallbizserver.net

the ultimate gurus

I am a Small Business Specialist...and have my clients using SBS and I use it at home...great product...

jC
 
We are using POP on a Linux server, using Qmail I believe. All of the settings in Thunderbird are correct. I haven't setup a POP or SMTP connector; where would I locate those? I've only been using SBS for a couple months now 🙂

Also thanks for the awesome link, I've been looking for a good resource on it 🙂
 
it is under the server management console...under exchange...pop connector, or just rerun the ceiw and select pop connector..enter the information and routes.

JCoria
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Any idea why the DNS server would tag outgoing email like that?
Click to expand...

DNS won't tag your email at all. Your email server does this.

Your MX record shouldn't really be on your internal DNS at all. That should be external and reflect your external namespace. Internal users looking for the MX record should hit the internal server which forwards that request to your external DNS (all other internal records will be resolved by your internal DNS and not forwarded).

 
Originally posted by: Smilin
DNS won't tag your email at all. Your email server does this.
Click to expand...
Yeah. This isn't and MX record problem, nor is it a DNS problem. Offhand, it appears that, somehow, the OP is sending emails out through the Exchange Server, but he's got his Exchange Default SMTP Virtual Server tagged with the name, "Server.ourcompany.local", rather than his external FQDN.
 
Thank goodness you SBS guys are here 😀

We don't want to use Exchange for a number of reasons. We didn't enable it when we got the server; would it still be running anyway? 😛
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
We don't want to use Exchange for a number of reasons. We didn't enable it when we got the server; would it still be running anyway? 😛
Click to expand...
How did you "not enable it"? It installs automatically and starts up automatically, unless you intentionally disable the various Exchange Services. How do you get your daily performance reports and alerts?
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Kaido
We don't want to use Exchange for a number of reasons. We didn't enable it when we got the server; would it still be running anyway? 😛
Click to expand...
How did you "not enable it"? It installs automatically and starts up automatically, unless you intentionally disable the various Exchange Services. How do you get your daily performance reports and alerts?
Click to expand...

exchange 2003 is very stable..great product...stupid not to use it on that box...

jC
 
Originally posted by: Chunkee
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Kaido
We don't want to use Exchange for a number of reasons. We didn't enable it when we got the server; would it still be running anyway? 😛
Click to expand...
How did you "not enable it"? It installs automatically and starts up automatically, unless you intentionally disable the various Exchange Services. How do you get your daily performance reports and alerts?
Click to expand...

exchange 2003 is very stable..great product...stupid not to use it on that box...

jC
Click to expand...

We have a single online host for our various offices and only DSL connections at each branch. It didn't make sense to use Exchange. There are less than 30 users on the email system and almost all user Thunderbird. Very easy to maintain and does absolutely everything we want it to.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Kaido
We don't want to use Exchange for a number of reasons. We didn't enable it when we got the server; would it still be running anyway? 😛
Click to expand...
How did you "not enable it"? It installs automatically and starts up automatically, unless you intentionally disable the various Exchange Services. How do you get your daily performance reports and alerts?
Click to expand...

Didn't realize it starts up automatically, I'll have to have the on-site tech look into that. We don't get daily performance reports and alerts; it's a small business. We are mainly using it as a file server and will add some SQL functionality down the road.
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Kaido
We don't want to use Exchange for a number of reasons. We didn't enable it when we got the server; would it still be running anyway? 😛
Click to expand...
How did you "not enable it"? It installs automatically and starts up automatically, unless you intentionally disable the various Exchange Services. How do you get your daily performance reports and alerts?
Click to expand...

Didn't realize it starts up automatically, I'll have to have the on-site tech look into that. We don't get daily performance reports and alerts; it's a small business. We are mainly using it as a file server and will add some SQL functionality down the road.
Click to expand...

actually a waste for that OS...exchange is easy to setup and manage on it...and very stable...plus all of the collaboration, webmail etc...

but whatever...

jC
 
If your Thunderbird clients are connecting directly to your external POP server, then your problems aren't coming from SBS or Exchange. You must have some misconfigured Thunderbird clients or a misconfigured external mail server. Or, you've misconfigured your internal DNS server, if you are using one. Normally, you'd use SBS as your internal DNS server, and set a DNS Forwarder for external name resolution. Or use Root Hints for the external name resolution (generally my preferred mode).
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
We don't get daily performance reports and alerts; it's a small business. We are mainly using it as a file server and will add some SQL functionality down the road.
Click to expand...
The Performance Reports, Usage Reports, and Alerts are key to keeping SBS running properly and avoiding downtime.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
If your Thunderbird clients are connecting directly to your external POP server, then your problems aren't coming from SBS or Exchange. You must have some misconfigured Thunderbird clients or a misconfigured external mail server. Or, you've misconfigured your internal DNS server, if you are using one. Normally, you'd use SBS as your internal DNS server, and set a DNS Forwarder for external name resolution. Or use Root Hints for the external name resolution (generally my preferred mode).
Click to expand...

Yup, that's how we have the DNS server setup. The Thunderbird settings are correct, we have a forwarder on the server, and the remote mail host is setup correctly. That's what's bugging me, it's going through the DNS server and getting "tagged" somehow but I'm not sure how/why...
 
Quick question, the only Exchange service I haven't disabled is "Microsoft Exchange System Attendant", which has this description:

"Provides monitoring, maintenance, and Active Directory lookup services, for example, monitoring of services and connectors, defragmenting the Exchange store, and forwarding Active Directory lookups to a Global Catalog server. If this service is stopped, monitoring, maintenance, and lookup services are unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will start to fail."

So...if I disable this service, will it affect Active Directory lookups for things related the file server, logins, dns, etc., or just Exchange-related AD lookups?
 
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