Re: [cobalt-users] very basic email setup

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

James Dory wrote:

> Under Control panel/Network, the email raq's domain name is
> nomecity.org, host name is www. The primary and secondary DNS servers
> point to GCI's DNS servers.

> The domain name nomecity.org is hosted on
> register.com

What do you mean?  Do you mean the domain is registered there?  Or that
the DNS is hosted there?  Or that the entire site is hosted there?

> and I have the DNS there pointing to register.com's DNS
> servers. I have mx records pointing to nomecity.org and
> mail.nomecity.org.

Sounds like you mean the DNS is hosted there.  Have you set up zone
records, including MX records and A records, at register.com, to point
to your RaQ?  Is mail.nomecity.org hosted on your RaQ?  Is 24.237.254.24
on your RaQ?

> Mail seems to be working here ok except that
> www.dnsreport.com has a warning about mail.nomecity.org claiming to be
> an smtp server.

Not quite.  The warning is that the response isn't correct.  It's not a
standard smtp response.

Here's what one of our RaQ4s returns when someone tries to connect to it
to send email:

<snip>
220 ns1.ns-one.net ESMTP Sendmail 8.10.2/8.10.2; Tue, 28 Jan 2003
01:08:34 -0800
</snip>

and here's what your RaQ returns:

<snip>
220 SMTP service ready
</snip>

That's NOT a standard response.  If it's coming from your RaQ then your
RaQ is responding in a non-standard way.

> Now I add a virtual site under the name of www.nomealaska.org. This is
> what I really want to use for our email. Here is where I get more
> confused. Under Control Panel/Email parameters, there  is a place to add
> Host/Domain Aliases,

Don't put anything there; if you have, then take it out <smile>.  Let
the RaQ handle this field unless you have a specific need and you know
what you're doing.

> and under the Site Management/Site Settings there
> is a place to add email server aliases. I'm not clear on which gets
> what. (This domain is also hosted on register.com and has mx records
> pointing to nomealaska.org and mail.nomealaska.org there.)

Host:        www
domain:      nomealaska.org
email alias: nomealaska.org
web alias:   nomealaska.org

> Back to control panel/email parameters, would I need to use the 'Relay
> for following Hosts/Domains' for the virtual site nomealaska.org and
> other domains/ip numbers? Do I add nomealaska.org and
> mail.nomealaska.org under the Host/Domain Aliases here or just under the
> Site Management/site settings page. (You can't do both.)

Just under site management.

> I've tried
> several combinations. But my brain just isn't clicking on what actually
> is going on here.
> 
> Here's what's happening:  I set up an 8 letter username and then a full
> name email alias for a user. I couldn't get it to work with the alias
> until I added it in the virtualusertable. It seems to be working. Then I
> added a second user same way and can't get it to work at all. Here's a
> couple excerpts from the maillog with the usernames/ip addresses changed:

You shouldn't be making manual changes to virtusertable for something
this simple; the RaQ gui should handle it properly.

> I've got our outgoing SMTP server set to use smtp.gci.net on our PC
> email programs.

This is for outgoing email, and means you're sending mail through your
ISPs smtp server.  So far, so good.

> (I've got all these right now set up for testing on my
> own pc using Mozilla.) Our GCI hosted email is the ci.nome.ak.us domain.
> We are using pop.

Are you saying that ci.nome.ak.us is your domain and that your ISP is
hosting it for you, or only that you've got a mailbox at ci.nome.ak.us
and that your ISP is hosting that?

> So if starting with clean slate and I want the Raq server to be
> nomecity.org and a virtual site with all the users and their email
> coming to/from the domain nomealaska.org, with internet connectivity
> from GCI and our domains hosted on register.com, what do I use under the
> relay hosts/domains, the email hosts/domains, and the sitesettings email
> domain aliases?

Relay hosts/domains and email hosts/domains should be managed by the RaQ
when you set up the domains, and you should put your settings only into
the sitesettings part of the gui.

> (I would rename the raq from nomecity.org to nomealaska.org as
> nomecity was just for testing purposes, but I've got our webpage
> setup already and don't want to risk screwing all that up..)

Try following the suggestions I've given for what goes where.  I'd
recommend deleting the domain, deleting the stuff you put into the
sendmail relay boxes, and starting over, but you say you don't want to
do that.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman, nobaloney.net, P. O. Box 52672, Riverside, CA  92517 US
Internet & Unix/Linux/Sun/Cobalt Consulting +1 909 778-9980
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