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Thread: Mail server, A, MX, PTR, FPS

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Beans
    10

    Mail server, A, MX, PTR, FPS

    Greetings,

    I'd greatly appreciate your help here, I'm a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information I've been reading recently.

    I've setup a postfix server (ubuntu 10.4) and everything is working, smtp and pop3 are ok, and I'm able to send and receive mail. However, gmail and hotmail are receiving mail from my server as spam.

    As I understand it, I need to setup an A, MX and PTR record for my domain, and this is where I get lost, set this where? on the domain admin page?.

    Same with the FPS record, I've generated my TXT line with the wizard at openspf.org, but where am I supposed to put it?.

    The server has a dedicated IP address, my provider handles everything, including the domain, so I need to know if there's something they need to set on their end, or if I have to set it up on the server itself.

    Thank you so much for any help you could provide.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Indiana
    Beans
    85
    Distro
    Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus

    Re: Mail server, A, MX, PTR, FPS

    You will need to have whomever handles your DNS entries set those up for you. Once that is done, it may take up to 24hrs for all changes to be propagated around the world, you should be okay. However depending on who your provider is your mail may continue to be marked as SPAM since most blacklists mark anything from consumer ISP's as SPAM.
    =========================================

    We are drowning in information, but starved for knowledge....

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Beans
    10

    Re: Mail server, A, MX, PTR, FPS

    Thank you for your quick reply.

    My confusion lies in the fact that I requested this records to be setup with my server and the provider replied with a link to openspf.org telling me I have to setup it there.

    I suppose they want me to send the output of the wizard? (I'll contact them again of course, I just wanted to have things clearer in my mind first).

    The provider in question is iWeb.com, in case it's relevant at all.

    So there's nothing I have to do in my end except to setup the mail server to use SPF correct?

    If it is, I can put pressure on my providers regarding this issue.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Indiana
    Beans
    85
    Distro
    Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus

    Re: Mail server, A, MX, PTR, FPS

    If you are not handling your own DNS, then no you don't have to do anything.

    I am assuming that your hosting company has a way of submitting a request for your DNS changes, ie via email, web portal, etc.

    Hope this helps.
    =========================================

    We are drowning in information, but starved for knowledge....

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Beans
    10

    Re: Mail server, A, MX, PTR, FPS

    It does, thank you for your help.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Boston MetroWest
    Beans
    16,326

    Re: Mail server, A, MX, PTR, FPS

    SPF records are added as a "TXT" record in the DNS for a given domain. So your provider would need to add that for you if you don't have control over your own DNS. (Personally I can't imagine not being able to maintain my own DNS records even on a hosted account, but there are a lot of ISPs out there.)

    Time to do some tests, I think. If you have another Linux computer besides your server, try the following commands:

    Code:
    host -t ns yourdomain.com
    host -t mx yourdomain.com
    host -t txt yourdomain.com
    host -t a hostname.yourdomain.com
    host -t ptr your.server's.ip.address
    All of these should resolve correctly. The "txt" request may not return anything. If you have SPF records, you'll see something like

    Code:
    IN TXT "v=spf1 a=hostname.yourdomain.com ~all"
    The most important thing is for the PTR record to match the A record for the machine sending mail. So if you have an A record for "www.mydomain.com" that points to 10.10.10.10, you'd need a PTR record for 10.10.10.10.in-addr.arpa that points to www.mydomain.com. Only your ISP can create a PTR record for your IP address. The other records are contained in the DNS "zone file" for your domain, which it sounds like your provider maintains as well.

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