i think it is best for me to review my situation in view of the long post i have created. with this in mind i would like to begin again. watch for another NEWBIE post.
thanks in advance
gjc
If I can describe my set up perhaps someone can advise if Mercury is for me or not. I am genuinely a newbie & not at all au fait with setting up emails at all.
here goes:
I have a pc at home running on windows xp & outlook. 2 accounts i have set up are working well on most days. send & recieve no problem.
Recently i registered my family name as a domain & i would like to send & recieve email with this account set up in outlook along side the other two without paying any fees.
my reg. company "do no offer an SMTP as part of its email service" - this is where i get a bit lost. I assumed i needed to install a mail server myself? i found mercury/32 & read some.
before i jump in can anyone suggest my best solution. mercury seems to be the answer but obviously will require work on my side to set up. can i achieve my objective with mercury
thanks in advance
gjc
most likely yes - your domain needs to have an MX (mail exchange) pointer to your mercury installation IP. Thus, this IP needs either be fixed, or dynamically updated so that sending servers knows where to find your email server.
If the first hurdle is passed, install mercury as a stand alon installation with local mailboxes. Use protocol MerucuryP for POP3 fetching of emails, and MercuryE for sending your emails off to the internet.
peter thanks for the super quick reply.
mercury installation IP. fixed, or dynamically updated
this is where you are losing me? the mx record i can change - do i change it to point to my domain e.g. mx0.xxxxxxxxx.net & my outlook settings would be www.xxxxxxxx.net right?
thanks in advance
[quote user="nijinski"]
peter thanks for the super quick reply.
mercury installation IP. fixed, or dynamically updated
this is where you are losing me? the mx record i can change - do i change it to point to my domain e.g. mx0.xxxxxxxxx.net & my outlook settings would be www.xxxxxxxx.net right?
thanks in advance
[/quote]
Mercury/32 can do this and if you want some real help give us something to work with. The fixed IP address you are using. Your domain name. With this we can lookup and see how this is setup and provide answers. For example here's the data from my domain.
Answer Section:
Hope this is what you requested: domain = conneally.net
mx1.123-reg.co.uk. - 20
mx0.conneally.net.- 10
194.154.164.82 A
ns.123-reg.co.uk and ns2.123-reg.co.ukFirst you need to configure your domain properly. Test it with any dns report tool to verify. F.ex. http://www.dnscolos.com/dnsreport.php
peter, thanks for the reply. i have provided the information previously directly from control panel of the domain reg. company. in what way do i need to configure the domain. i think i understand that there are 3 items to deal with (but please remember i am not fully understanding these)
Thanks in advance once again
gjc
[quote user="nijinski"]
Hope this is what you requested: domain = conneally.net
mx1.123-reg.co.uk. - 20
mx0.conneally.net.- 10
194.154.164.82 A
ns.123-reg.co.uk and ns2.123-reg.co.uk[/quote]
Neither MX host is valid since there is no A record for either. T he conneally.net looks good since there is a IP address there. MX 10 probably should be conneally.net in any case if you are going to receive mail via mercuryS.
The Answer Section:
conneally.net, A, 194.154.164.82
conneally.net, MX, 20, mx1.conneally.net
conneally.net, MX, 10, mx0.conneally.net
conneally.net, NS, ns.hosteurope.com
conneally.net, NS, ns2.hosteurope.com
[quote user="nijinski"] mx record - i configure to mx0.conneally.net. & mx1.conneally.net.???
You have your primary mx-record set to mx0.conneally.net
but you also need an A record for mx0.conneally.net: ie: like this:
mx0.conneally.net A 10.11.12.13
peter, for this mx0 setting i'm not sure where this ip address comes from,related to your example of 10.11.12.13
tks in advance
gjc
settings now:
mx0.conneally.net 10
mx1.conneally.net 20
@ A 194.154.164.82
mx0.conneally.net A 194.154.164.82
www A 194.154.164.82
is this correct?
tks in advance
gjc
[quote user="nijinski"]
settings now:
mx0.conneally.net 10
mx1.conneally.net 20
@ A 194.154.164.82
mx0.conneally.net A 194.154.164.82
www A 194.154.164.82
is this correct?
tks in advance
gjc
[/quote]
No, since this page says there are a number of problems, specifically the MX hosts do not seem to exist. http://www.checkdns.net/quickcheck.aspx?domain=conneally.net&detailed=1
CheckDNS.NET is testing conneally.net
| CheckDNS.NET is asking root servers about authoritative NS for domain |
 Got DNS list for 'conneally.net' from a.gtld-servers.net |
 Found NS record: ns.123-reg.co.uk[212.67.202.2], was resolved to IP address by ns2.webfusion.co.uk  |
| Found NS record: ns2.123-reg.co.uk[212.67.203.246], was resolved to IP address by ns2.webfusion.co.uk |
 Domain has 2 DNS server(s) |
| CheckDNS.NET is verifying if NS are alive |
| DNS server ns.123-reg.co.uk[212.67.202.2] is alive and authoritative for domain conneally.net |
 Error fetching SOA from ns2.123-reg.co.uk [212.67.203.246], request timed out. Probably DNS server is offline. |
| 1 server(s) are alive |
| CheckDNS.NET checks if all NS have the same version |
 Master DNS defined by SOA (ns.hosteurope.com) was not found among NS records. |
| CheckDNS.NET is verifying if NS are alive |
| DNS server ns2.123-reg.co.uk failed and will be dropped from other tests |
| CheckDNS.NET checks if all NS have the same version |
| Your server has zone version 2007111606 |
| CheckDNS.NET is verifying if NS are alive |
| Error fetching NS list from ns.123-reg.co.uk[212.67.202.2], request timed out. Probably DNS server is offline. |
| NS
list mismatch: registration authority reports that domain is hosted on the following servers: 'ns.123-reg.co.uk; ns2.123-reg.co.uk', but DNS server ns.123-reg.co.uk reports domain to be hosted on '[parameter not found]'. Please make sure that you configure the same DNS servers in registrar database and on your DNS |
| CheckDNS.NET verifies www servers |
| Checking HTTP server www.conneally.net [194.154.164.82] |
| HTTP server www.conneally.net[194.154.164.82] answers on port 80 |
| Received: HTTP/1.1 302 Found (Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0) Location: http://194.154.164.90/?domain=conneally.net
|
| Your main page redirects to another location. Several search engines will be unable to index your site. |
| CheckDNS.NET tests mail-servers |
| Error fetching MX list from DNS server ns.123-reg.co.uk (error Connection timed out) |
| Domain conneally.net has no MX records, but it has A record for domain. This configuration is not recommended |
| Domain conneally.net has only one mail-server |
| Checking mail server (A record for domain) 194.154.164.82 [194.154.164.82] |
| Error connecting to mail server 194.154.164.82[194.154.164.82] port 25 : Connection refused. |
| Some of your MX do not work properly |
Enter the domain name here
Assuming 194.154.164.82 is the IP that you intend to run Mercury on that's the right idea. Make sure to enter the A records the same way, though (mx0.conneally.net A 194.154.164.82, www A 194.154.164.82). For mx1 you should either define an A record if you intend to have a secondary mail server, or simply remove the MX record.
/Rolf
i don't have any idea what this ip address is. it is the one already in the A record table at my control panel with the reg. company. is this what i should "run mercury on"?
my settings now:
@ A 194.154.164.82
mx0.conneally.net A 194.154.164.82
www A 194.154.164.82
mx0.conneally.net. 10
is this good?
thanks in advance
gjc
There is no reply from either of your name servers at the moment, so it's difficult to say if the data is correctly entered:
CheckDNS.NET is testing conneally.net
CheckDNS.NET is asking root servers about authoritative NS for domain
CheckDNS.NET is verifying if NS are alive
Judging only by the text you provided I'd say that the mx0.conneally.net A record should be similar to the www record, i.e. "mx0 A 194.154.164.82". It could be that the page you copied treats the www record in a special way, though.
As neither web server or mail server is running on 194.154.164.82 I can't verify if that's the correct IP number.
/Rolf
CheckDNS.NET tests mail-servers
Domain conneally.net has only one mail-server
Answer from ns.123-reg.co.uk: host mx0.conneally.net not found.
Some of your MX do not work properly
with the setting from the previous post i get the above result!
thanks in advance
gjc
[quote user="nijinski"] my settings now:
@ A 194.154.164.82
mx0.conneally.net A 194.154.164.82
www A 194.154.164.82
mx0.conneally.net. 10
is this good?[/quote]
Normally yes, this is a proper setup. But when surfing to www.conneally.net, the 123-reg.co.uk answers, doesn't seem like your actual machine. The dns name, resolves to an IP-number - this shall be the same IP-number that you are using. Judging from your posting IP number, (which is 220.112.192.xyz) I'd say you're using the wrong IP, unless you are renting a web-host somewhere else. So right now we can't help you much more without knowing the actual IP-locations of your hardware.
"So right now we can't help you much more without knowing the actual IP-locations of your hardware."
you have probably guessed by now that my knowledge of things IP is very poor however still willing to crack on if you guys are!
do you mean the ip address given out by my isp (remember i an in china - greatwall is the provider). I've asked them & the answer is that one address is given out each connection time - dynamic ip is my understanding.
where to from here?
thanks in advance
gjc
Yes you should use the ip that your DSL connection gets.
Now if your DSL connection utilizes NAT or similar firewall behaiour, you need to be able to let the traffic through the DSL modem to your inside computers.
