Email Issues (Ubuntu 14.04 perfect server setup)

Discussion in 'Server Operation' started by profm2, May 21, 2017.

  1. profm2

    profm2 New Member

    Hi all,
    I'm having issues receiving emails on one of the three domains I have setup on my server. I'm currently on 14.04.5, setup using the Perfect Server (https://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-...2-php-mysql-pureftpd-bind-dovecot-ispconfig-3) a couple of years ago.

    I have 3 domains on it, 2 of which are completely normal, and everything works well on those.

    The third I have setup for my wifes' travel agent site. With this, I host the email and DNS, however, the actual website is hosted by the company she's under. So, the WWW goes to their 34.x.x.x site, however, the email goes to my 75.x.x.x site.

    Every test that I can think of, from mail-tester.com to mxtoolbox.com to dnsstuff.com to network-tools.com claims that email should be working ok. But my wife has been receiving notes from her clients that their emails are bouncing, or getting delayed (and cancelled eventually).

    I've been pounding my head for the last month attempting to figure out either a fix, or a workaround for her problem. Attached is a screenshot of the DNS configuration in ISPConfig.

    website.com.png

    Any ideas?
     
  2. Tekati

    Tekati ISPConfig Developer ISPConfig Developer

    Sent you a PM give me a call.

    For others these would be my suggestions....

    Do a whois on the domain in question. This may seem like a non issue but if you are using your own DNS server for your client computer your registered DNS servers could be pointing to different servers and you would never know because your DNS server would answer if the zone is setup.

    If you are doing DNS for the domain and you are using your own DNS server from your client use a third party tool to verify DNS. It may seem like it works for you but outside your network there could be many issues. From recursion issues and so on.

    Mail server logs are your friend! Well all server logs really are but in this case mail logs are a must.
    tail -f /var/log/mail.log
    If your server is not handling 1000's of email accounts this is usually a good option. Try sending email to the troubled account through services like gmail, yahoo, live, etc. If you have contact with the person stating they are having issues sending you email have them send you (to a different email of course) a copy of the bounce message. You can learn a lot via that as well.

    Running an email server correctly is no easy task. Quite frankly it is a nightmare. SPAM is not your friend and the punks that send spam figure out new and different ways to annoy email server admins everyday. Sure you can use things like amavis, spamassassin, grey lists, RBL lists etc but for email admins it is a never ending nightmarish battle that also can contribute to email delivery issues as well. So check those LOGS!

    Most likely not your issue but use a tool like mxtoolbox.com and make sure you are not on SPAM lists yourself. Again unless your server or and email has been hacked you are most likely not on any lists but it is good practice to check anyway. Just a side note but I can not stress the importance of making your users choose secure passwords for emails. There is nothing worse than not catching a hacked account in a timely manner and finding out they sent out a million spam messages through your server :-0
     
  3. profm2

    profm2 New Member

    Well, turns out it this problem was client related.

    Instead of using [email protected] for her email address, it was [email protected] ... which caused her to email ok, but any replies were rejected.

    Thanks for the help.
     

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