MX Record Problem

[Barry Margolin]

In article <38B2062A.BBA15675 at rnc.net>,
George LaFavor  <glafavor at rnc.net> wrote:
>Hi,
>I am really new to DNS and am trying to get through the O'Reilly
>materials.  I lost my admin so I am stuck with a problem I canot figure
>out yet.  If anyone can point me in a direction I would appreciate it.
>
>Main Server "Alpha", runs Linux and handles authentication, Sendmail,
>FTP, and Web
>
>DNS Server "Omega", runs Linux and just handles DNS
>
>Problem occured when I wanted to split my Sendmail off Jolt onto it's
>own server to be independent
>
>My main server "Alpha" has its IP set to ###.###.14.11
>It has a secondary IP of ###.###.14.29 which is pointing to
>mail.mydomain.com
>
>
>I removed ###.##.14.29 off the main server "Alpha" and gave it to the
>new independent mail machine and called the new machine "Mail" or
>mail.mydomain.com.  This new machine holds the same address and name
>that the mail on "Alpha" use to have.
>
>Problem:
>
>No one can authenticate for mail enven though I transfered all the
>passwd/shadow files over and they work.  I also transfered the mail
>spool over and it spools new mail to the clients.
>
>I get a connection refused when trying to access the mail from the local
>network

Sounds like you're not running a POP3 server on the new mail server.  This
has nothing to do with MX records or DNS.

>I can send mail to it and out but I cannot attach and get mail
>(connection refused)

Again, sounds like you're running an SMTP server (sendmail) but not a POP3
server.

>I have also seen several messages saying MX configuration error. mail is
>pointing back to home.mydomain.com which is what one of my CNAME's is on
>"Alpha

MX records shouldn't point to CNAMEs, but that's not the problem.  It's
complaining that the MX record points to itself, but there's nothing in its
sendmail.cf file that says how to deliver the mail.  You need to add your
domain to the sendmail.cw file.  This is in the FAQ at www.sendmail.org.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at bbnplanet.com
GTE Internetworking, Powered by BBN, Burlington, MA
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