Newbie: Internal Domain and External Domain

Kevin Darcy kcd at daimlerchrysler.com
Fri Jun 22 00:59:43 UTC 2001


So, if I understand you correctly, you're sending mail to one of your own
internal domains (domain1.com) and you want it to go to your ISP's servers
because that's where the mailboxes actually reside. So what version -- internal
or external -- of that domain is your mail server using, and where do the
MX records point in that version of the domain? If it's using the internal
version, and the MX records in that version aren't pointed to your ISP's
servers, then that's a problem. (Presumably, the MX records in the external
version *are* pointed at your ISP's servers, otherwise you wouldn't be getting
any incoming mail either). If this is the case, you'd have to either get your
box to use the external version of the domain, or if that's not possible, use
some other method of routing mail besides MX records. How you would do this
depends on what mail server software you're using, and is basically OT for this
list anyway.

Since I prefer to use DNS for as much mail routing as possible, I actually have
a "special" DNS universe for my mail relays, complete with its own internal
root zone, where I can control routing without having to mess with
sendmail.cf's, mailertables and the like. But then, I have the luxury of boxes
which are dedicated to mail relaying; if I were running other functions on the
same boxes, then they might be allergic to the special DNS configuration.

In any case, "disappears off the face of the earth" is rather troubling. If
it's a DNS issue and you're running any kind of reasonable mail software, there
should have at least been a bounce message.


- Kevin

Aaron Slepecky wrote:

> I have an interesting situation.  We have three domains hosted by our ISP
> for mail and dial up connectivity.  One of these domains, domain1.com, is
> also listed as our internal domain.  Our server is getting confused when
> sending mail out to our ISP (since that is where it resides and who controls
> it).  This mail never is delivered locally and just disappears off the face
> of the earth.  Does anyone have any ideas concerning this odd problem?  I
> have all MX records and everything appears to be correct so I just don't
> know.
>
> Any ideas/help would be great!  Thanks again.
>
> PS Our ISP CoreComm does some DNS stuff, and our T1 ISP does some DNS stuff
> for us too...I have my box as the primary and the CoreComm box as the
> secondary and it still is not working....weird.





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