No subject

to MX (check the man pages or from an nslookup prompt on windoze, type ? or
something to get help). To check different nameservers, you can specify the
nameserver IP at the command prompt in "host" and in nslookup on windoze it is
something like "server 1.1.1.1" from the nslookup prompt (type nslookup without
any arguments and you are at the nslookup prompt).

The above test gives you answers about DNS related problems.  To test the
actual mail routing, the mail headers show what mail servers were talked to
while the mail was routing.  Check the headers on a "broken" mail route and a
correct mail route.  You will see something like

local server talked to isp server
isp server talked to mydomain mail server
domain server delivered to "mailserver"

and a broken one will have a different path, possibly bypassing "mydomain
mailserver"

Feel free to forward mail headers to me, at least 1 good route and 1 bad.

"Liz S." wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am looking for some information/explanation as to why aliased email does
> not get to the correct
> mailbox after switching webhosters. The latest reason given is that there is
> a zone file that needs to
> be deleted from someone's server. I don't know anything about how this
> works.
>
> I am not a mail administrator and consider myself a raw newbie here; I'm the
> one with the most computer knowledge in our small business who is stuck with
> resolving this problem. I apologize in advance if this isn't the correct
> newsgroup, but I found it after looking for information about zone files.
>
> Here is the problem...
>
> We are a small business with one ISP dialup connection [ex.
> soandso at isp.com]. This ISP was also our webhoster and we received all our
> business mail through one alias [info at ourdomain.com] for the account email
> address. Earlier this year we changed webhosters for our site, but retained
> the dialup account.
>
> With that switch to a new webhosting company, we went from the one email
> address with one 'alias' to one main mailbox [ex. soandso at webhost.net] with
> 9 pop boxes [ex. 1to9 at webhost.net] each with its own forward/alias [ex.
> sosandso at ourdomain.com] One of these forwards is info at ourdomain.com which we
> wanted to retain since we have used it for some time for most of our
> business mail.
>
> We did not have any problem a few years ago when we switched ISPs and took
> the info alias with us to the current ISP.
>
> However, this address does not work correctly now on a consistent basis.
> Some of the other forwards also do not work on a consistent basis. When
> sending employee to employee mail using the aliased address [ex.
> nancy at ourdomain.com to lizz at ourdomain.com] through the business dialup
> account, mail loops back and ends up in the dialup account [isp.com] instead
> of going out to the intended recipient through the webhost POP server. This
> does not happen when I test it through another ISP.
>
> Also other mail sent to us using that particular ISP ends up being put in
> the isp.com mail account instead of the webhoster's mail service. It doesn't
> route thorugh the webhost's servers at all.
>
> Another thing that is happening is that some mail that does go through the
> webhost mail routing ends up in the isp.com account. I have spoken with the
> webhoster tech folks [who has been very helpful] and they say there is a
> zone file somewhere on our ISP's server that is causing the mail delivery to
> fail. The ISP, though, has been very unhelpful and says its all the fault of
> the new webhoster or our Eudora mail client.
>
> When I test all these pop accounts from my home office using an ISP
> connection other than the business one, nothing fails. I have a web-based
> app that accesses the webhosts mail server and I can see all that gets there
> in all our accounts, before downloading it.
>
> Can someone help me tell who is telling the correct story? If the new hoster
> with our nine mailboxes is correct how do I get the former
> webhoster/unhelpful ISP to fix this? Also, if we go to a new ISP will this
> trouble continue if the old ISP doesn't find/fix the described problem?
>
> I'm sorry if I am not clear; I tried the best I could with the little
> knowledge I have about email to
> explain this complicated problem. If someone who answers would like see a
> sample mail header I have some saved and could post it/them.
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> Liz S.

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