CNAME, MX, and NS config for email?

I have a domain purchased through Yahoo, and I redirected everything
to my new web & email host, with Yahoo Mail serving as a backup. I
thought, and was told, that once the name servers point to my host,
all the other settings are rendered irrelevant, and it seemed to work,
until recently. Now I'm getting about 90% of my email to my Yahoo
account, and only 10% to my host.

What's going on? Is my configuration to blame, or my host, and what
should I do to fix it?

My domain config:

Name Servers:
Primary: ns1.myhost.net
Secondary: ns2.myhost.net
Additional: yns1.yahoo.com
Additional: yns2.yahoo.com

CNAME: mail.mydomain.com -> "Yahoo! Hostname" (an internal shortcut
that Yahoo puts in)

MX:
Yahoo! Mail Server [priority 20]
Yahoo! Mail Server [priority 20]

Re: CNAME, MX, and NS config for email?

Typo: 2nd MX record is priority 30, not 20.

Re: CNAME, MX, and NS config for email?

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To open this message correctly you will need to install E-mail or Usenet
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Binba writes:

> until recently. Now I'm getting about 90% of my email to my Yahoo
> account, and only 10% to my host.
>
> What's going on? Is my configuration to blame, or my host, and what
> should I do to fix it?
>
> My domain config:
>
> Name Servers:
> Primary: ns1.myhost.net
> Secondary: ns2.myhost.net

It's very unlikely that you own myhost.net, since this domain is
registered to someone in South Korea, and in any case, the NS referes in the
TLD do not look anything like you claim they look.

Asking for help with your DNS configuration, and then instead of providing
the actual DNS data, using made-up domain names you pulled out of your ass
is about as likely to give useful answers as asking for help with fixing
your car, and offering "something with four wheels" for a useful description
of what you have.



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Re: CNAME, MX, and NS config for email?

Of course "myhost" isn't the name of the host. I didn't think it was
relevant, like we don't rush to give away our emails addys in posts
and don't include the license plate no. when we want to fix the car.
I'm sorry it pissed you off so much.
It is ns1.mabushosting.net, and ns2.mabushosting.net

Re: CNAME, MX, and NS config for email?

In article <1182025114.693004.136810@a26g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
Binba wrote:

> Of course "myhost" isn't the name of the host. I didn't think it was
> relevant, like we don't rush to give away our emails addys in posts
> and don't include the license plate no. when we want to fix the car.
> I'm sorry it pissed you off so much.
> It is ns1.mabushosting.net, and ns2.mabushosting.net

One problem is that ns2.mabushosting.net and ns3.mabushosting.net (which
are the same addres?) aren't authoritative for the domain. You need to
talk to the people at mabushosting.net to find out why they're listing
nameservers that don't have the domain loaded onto them.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

Re: CNAME, MX, and NS config for email?

In article <1182025114.693004.136810@a26g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
Binba wrote:

> Of course "myhost" isn't the name of the host. I didn't think it was
> relevant, like we don't rush to give away our emails addys in posts
> and don't include the license plate no. when we want to fix the car.
> I'm sorry it pissed you off so much.
> It is ns1.mabushosting.net, and ns2.mabushosting.net

BTW, I never would have been able to figure out what was wrong from your
original description. That's why we need to know the real domain -- we
often need to query the production servers to see what's going on.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

Re: CNAME, MX, and NS config for email?

What do you mean by "aren't authoritative for the domain"? Servers
without the domain, do you refer to yns[x].yahoo.com? I control these
from Yahoo, not Mabus.
How do "additional name servers" even work? It's a common practice,
but an explanation is nowhere to be found... I thought that they're
accessed *only* if the primary and secondary lookups fail.

But since you mentioned ns3... maybe I'm completely off?

Thanks

Re: CNAME, MX, and NS config for email?

In article <1182108559.900968.188510@j4g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
Binba wrote:

> What do you mean by "aren't authoritative for the domain"? Servers
> without the domain, do you refer to yns[x].yahoo.com? I control these
> from Yahoo, not Mabus.

I don't see any yahoo.com servers listed at all. The domain you're
hosting is mabushosting.net, right? Here's the list of nameservers I
see:

$ dig mabushosting.net ns @a.gtld-servers.net

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> mabushosting.net ns @a.gtld-servers.net
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 20596
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 4

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mabushosting.net. IN NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mabushosting.net. 172800 IN NS ns1.mabushosting.net.
mabushosting.net. 172800 IN NS ns2.mabushosting.net.
mabushosting.net. 172800 IN NS ns3.mabushosting.net.
mabushosting.net. 172800 IN NS ns4.mabushosting.net.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.mabushosting.net. 172800 IN A 75.126.135.236
ns2.mabushosting.net. 172800 IN A 216.240.154.121
ns3.mabushosting.net. 172800 IN A 216.240.154.121
ns4.mabushosting.net. 172800 IN A 75.126.135.236

Then when I query ns2, I get this:

$ dig mabushosting.net any @ns2.mabushosting.net +norec

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> mabushosting.net any @ns2.mabushosting.net +norec
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 3944
;; flags: qr ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 7, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 4

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mabushosting.net. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mabushosting.net. 14384 IN MX 18 mail.backup.internetsecure.org.
mabushosting.net. 14384 IN MX 10 mail.internetsecure.org.
mabushosting.net. 7448 IN A 75.126.135.238
mabushosting.net. 7448 IN NS ns2.mabushosting.net.
mabushosting.net. 7448 IN NS ns3.mabushosting.net.
mabushosting.net. 7448 IN NS ns4.mabushosting.net.
mabushosting.net. 7448 IN NS ns1.mabushosting.net.

Notice that the flags don't include "aa" (Authoritative Answer); the
server is answering from cache, not by performing zone transfers.


> How do "additional name servers" even work? It's a common practice,
> but an explanation is nowhere to be found... I thought that they're
> accessed *only* if the primary and secondary lookups fail.

There's no preference level specified in NS records, so there's no way
to say "only use this nameserver if the others fail." Clients may use
any of them, and will generally prefer the ones that respond fastest.

>
> But since you mentioned ns3... maybe I'm completely off?

Either ns2/ns3 isn't configured as a slave server, or it's getting
errors when trying to perform zone transfers from the master.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***