This (internet name for this system, and local domains) has unfortunately always been rather confusing. Mercury uses the internet name for this system to shape outbound system messages. That fact often creates a "conflict" in response to the answer if MercuryS host (announce myself as) is not entered. The help file is also quite vague here, since the help for MercuryS announce myself as refers to "value in the Mercury My Name field" - that field doesn't exist - but I guess David refers to the Internet name.

What we have done is the following:

Internet name is: mail.praktit.se
MercuryS announce myself is: mail.praktit.se

DNS domain is praktit.se
Host is mail.praktit.se
MX pointer is set to incoming gateway (currently another host)

Domains section therefore read:
mail    praktit.se
mail    mail.praktit.se

The problem is, the bounce messages, that will not return unless the domains section has both entries.

I would have preferred if Internet Name was split into a global setting of Host name, and, server domain be specified separately - but it works the way it is, though ... not clear enough.

Hi,

We just recently placed MecuryMail (v4.52) into service to process our membership email via phplist.

Our list is in dire need of cleaning and our 'shared-host' provider had no method for us to receive returned mail (bounces) from phplist script generated mail.

So we decided to use our own hardware and software for 'just' this purpose.

Mercury has generated plenty of error messages for the admin (over 8000 so far). But I had to take Mercury offline when I realized it was trying to 'relay' these messages.

I have the server setup to be a second mail server for the main domain (A record and IP listed in spf/txt record) and I have the admin account created in Mercury ... so why are the messages being relayed when they are already 'at' there destination? What additional settings would be necessary to keep the messages on Mercury? I really don't need 8000+ messages being relayed to our shared-host!

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Regards,

dasanco
 

Your local domains section must be wrong, and/or the internet name for this system can also be wrong.

I have the server setup to be a second mail server for the main domain

(A record and IP listed in spf/txt record) and I have the admin account

created in Mercury ... so why are the messages being relayed when they

are already 'at' there destination?

I suspect there is a problem with the sending address being non-local or the domain not being in the domains list.  We need to see the headers of one of the bounced messages and the [Domains] section of the mercury.ini.  Host names and IP addresses would also be useful.

Thanks guys for the response.

Here is the current DOMAIN section in my mercury.ini (anonymized, of course) 

 [Domains]

MX2: MX2

MX2: MX2.MYDOMAIN.COM

MX2: [222.222.222.222]

I'm not quite sure if this the an example of the bounced message header you're looking for or not. I found this in the queue folder after I halted the SMTP service (again, anonymized) ...

To: Electronic Postmaster <Admin@MYDOMAIN.COM>
From: Electronic Postmaster <postmaster@MYDOMAIN.COM>
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:48:25 -0400
Subject: Postmaster Notify: Delivery Failure.
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Disposition: Inline
Content-Description: Reason for delivery failure.

The attached message has failed delivery and has been referred
to you as postmaster. The following error report or reports
were given to explain the problem:

   *** Admin@MYDOMAIN.COM
   Temporary error 249 (temporary MX resolution error) resolving 'MYDOMAIN.COM'.
   Temporary error 249 (temporary MX resolution error) resolving 'MYDOMAIN.COM'.
   Temporary error 249 (temporary MX resolution error) resolving 'MYDOMAIN.COM'.

Here's the general info you requested; 

HOST name: MX2

HOST IP (VALID): 222.222.222.222

HOST IP (INVALID): 10.10.10.10 

DOMAIN name: MYDOMAIN.COM

Pertinent DNS;

MYDOMAIN.COM.    TXT    "v=spf1 ip4:66.66.66.66 ip4:222.222.222.222 a mx ptr include:<sharedHostName>.com ?all"

MX2    A    222.222.222.222

There is no MX record for this IP since it is not in place to serve external STMP clients. This 'may' create rejection issues when sending to some STMP servers, but that is another issue for another day.

The overall intention is;

Send mail to our members.

Through the return address in the message, allow them to reply to the main (shared-host) SMTP server

But keep all 'Mercury-generated' mail within Mercury.

Use the Mercury's POP3 service just for retrieving those admin/postmaster messages with a local mail client.

I'm I close?

Thanks again for the help!
 

[quote user="dasanco"] [Domains]

MX2: MX2

MX2: MX2.MYDOMAIN.COM

MX2: [222.222.222.222][/quote]

Somewhere on the RHS you have to have the domain you are handling mail for.  In your case probably 'mydomain.com' .  Without that, it's going to try to forward on any mail it gets for that domain.

Thank you for the post Paul,

You are probably very close (if not right on) the source of the issue.

Although, I do have the following setting CHECKED;

Mercury SMTP Server --> Connection control --> Relaying control --> Do not permit SMTP relaying of non-local mail 

Relaying is the same as forwarding, I think? And should/would prevent Mercury from trying to forward, no?

The HELP file for and the note within the "Mercury Core Module Configuration" indicate that the setup of the "Local Domains" section is EXTREMELY important to proper operation. And I think this section is the source of the [Domains] section of the Mercury.ini file? However, it FAILS miserably to describe exactly what it is that is required. I used the example as best I could to provide that info.

 
But I agree, Mercury needs to be aware of the domain(s) it is servicing as 'local'. It just is not clear now that information needs to be conveyed?

 
BTW: Although I grasp the general idea of your message, I have no idea what the abbreviation "RHS" stands for. If it significant to the meaning of your message, please let me know.

Thanks again ... and I welcome any other input that might clear my confusion!
 

[quote user="dasanco"]

Thank you for the post Paul,

You are probably very close (if not right on) the source of the issue.

Although, I do have the following setting CHECKED;

Mercury SMTP Server --> Connection control --> Relaying control --> Do not permit SMTP relaying of non-local mail 

Relaying is the same as forwarding, I think? And should/would prevent Mercury from trying to forward, no?[/quote]No. Relaying is accepting (via SMTP server) and passing on (via SMTP client) mail for NON-LOCAL addresses.[quote]

The HELP file for and the note within the "Mercury Core Module Configuration" indicate that the setup of the "Local Domains" section is EXTREMELY important to proper operation. And I think this section is the source of the [Domains] section of the Mercury.ini file? However, it FAILS miserably to describe exactly what it is that is required. I used the example as best I could to provide that info.

 
But I agree, Mercury needs to be aware of the domain(s) it is servicing as 'local'. It just is not clear now that information needs to be conveyed?

 
BTW: Although I grasp the general idea of your message, I have no idea what the abbreviation "RHS" stands for. If it significant to the meaning of your message, please let me know.[/quote]Right Hand Side [:)][quote]

Thanks again ... and I welcome any other input that might clear my confusion!
 

[/quote]

You have an inherent problem in your setup, in that you are trying to have your Mercury server handle mail for a domain that is *actually* handled elsewhere.

If you ONLY send to external (i.e. NOT *@mydomain.com) addresses via mercury this should be workable, with any bounces coming back via your registered MX host.

Any mail that Mercury sees addressed to user@mydomain.com, it will attempt to deliver locally, and fail if that user does not exist.

[quote user="dasanco"]But I agree, Mercury needs to be aware of the domain(s) it is servicing as 'local'. It just is not clear now that information needs to be conveyed?[/quote]

mx2:   mydomain.com  is the one single entry you must have.

You won't need the mx2.mydomain.com entry unless you are receiving mail for that domain.