e mail problems with new account

[jimgriff]

I have recently had to open an account with a big host/provider firm who have a good reputation due to being unhosted by the local authority for admin reasons with .gov domains.

I am using MS outlook as my mail programme and am happy that it is all setup correctly.
I can use the e mail no problem but a number of people are telephoning me and advising me that their mail to me is bouncing back to them.
I also get a few bounced mack to me from my address book. The message below is what I am getting back.
I have changed the e mail addresses for confidentiality but am sure that someone out there can make sense of what is being said-
Can anyone advise what needs to be done please?

<[email protected]>: host
hermes.hosts.co.uk[85.233.160.21] said: 550-Verification failed for
<[email protected]> 550-It appears that the DNS operator for
XXX.gov.uk 550-has installed an invalid MX record with an IP
address 550-instead of a domain name on the right hand side. 550 Sender
could not be verified, please check your from address (in reply to RCPT TO
command)

<[email protected]>: host punt-2.mail.demon.net[194.217.242.75] said:
550-Verification failed for <[email protected]> 550-It appears
that the DNS operator for XXX.gov.uk 550-has installed an invalid
MX record with an IP address 550-instead of a domain name on the right hand
side. 550 Sender verify failed (in reply to RCPT TO command)

<[email protected]>: host mx0.123-reg.co.uk[94.136.40.154] said:
550-Verification failed for YYY.gov.uk> 550-It appears
that the DNS operator for YYY.gov.uk 550-has installed an invalid
MX record with an IP address 550-instead of a domain name on the right hand
side. 550 ATLAS(2503): Sender verification failed (in reply to MAIL FROM
command)

[mad_jock]

You need to speak to your hosting compnany and get them to sort it out.

There is nothing you can do about it from your end.

They seem to have cocked up your DNS entry.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Yep, as it says, they've cocked up by putting in an IP address into the MX record.

What they should have done is put a FQDN into the MX record which pointed to a valid A-record, rather than an IP address.

i.e. your DNS now looks like:

aberystwyth.gov.uk MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = 213.171.216.114

and that "mail exchanger" bit at the end should NEVER be an IP address, it should be the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of a mailserver.

Hope that helps.
Mike.

[Briscoe]

Hello guys,
jimgriff, almost same thing happens to me few months back and then i should have called to my web hosting company and in three to four days they resolved all the issues. so my humble advise for you is not to do anything on your own as it might get you in trouble, it is better to call your hosting company they could do best. specially if you are not aware with the technicalities..

[jimgriff]

Ok - I think I understand!!
They have replied to me and said-
"Thanks for contacting us with your support enquiry.

Because you just point the mx-record of aberystwyth.gov.uk to an IP address, the emails are bouncing back to you. Other mail providers will consider this as invalid mx-record. To rectify the issue, you need to create a glue domain ( e.g mail.aberystwyth.gov.uk ) in your current provider and have it pointed to 213.171.216.114. Once done, you need to set the glue domain as the mx-record of aberystwyth.gov.uk. This should resolve the issue.

Normally, change in DNS will take 24-48 hours to take effect."

Is this right?:8

What I dont understand is that some mail gets in and out some not! I dont understand why its different!
Thanks for the help so far.

[mixture]

jimgriff,

You should reallly sort out an A record and point your MX to that.

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;aberystwyth.gov.uk. IN MX
;; ANSWER SECTION:
aberystwyth.gov.uk. 3600 IN MX 5 213.171.216.114.

What might possibly also need to be addressed is your reverse record which should really match the hostname provided by your server in its HELO, which should also match the A record that you will define in response to the previous point. Otherwise some strict anti-spam software might filter you out.

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;114.216.171.213.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR
;; ANSWER SECTION:
114.216.171.213.in-addr.arpa. 86400 IN PTR smtp-in-114.livemail.co.uk.

I also see that your IP address is listed on 3 anti-spam blacklists, which might be a contributory matter to your problem

At the time of writing, these were :
Backscatter.org
SORBS
UCEPROTECTL