Softpanorama (slightly skeptical) Open Source Software Educational Society

May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)

MX Records Checking for for Users of Web Hosting

What is e-mail forwarding?

E-mail forwarding allows you to have all e-mail sent to your domain to be forwarded to a private e-mail address that you specify. For example, mail sent to anything@customerdomain.com, could be configured to go to customermail@hotmail.com.

To do this, we set up your MX Record to point to one of our mail servers, then configure the server to forward mail to your account. Not any cost for Email forwarding, it is totally free for you.

URL forwarding will automatically send visitors to a URL that you specify whenever they type your domain name in their browser. The URL (in the form http://www.otherdomain.com/directory/file.html) can be cloaked or uncloaked. A cloaked URL will not show up in the browser's location bar. Instead, your domain, www.yourdomain.com, will appear in the browser location bar. An uncloaked URL will be visible in the location bar instead of your domain. There is no any cost for URL forwarding either, it is totally free.  

- How do I set up email forwarding?

- How long will it be before I can see my changes?

- Simple email forwarding doesn't work. Why?

- What is MX Forwarding?

- How do I set up my MX for use with everyone.net?

- What are priority levels? (Pref)

- How do I forward all mail forwarding accounts to one destination address?

How long will it be before I can see my changes?

Allow 48 hours for external networks to update. It is important to remember that DNS information about your domain be retained by other networks across the Internet for a period longer then 48 hours.

Simple email forwarding doesn't work. Why?

If you have only set up this type of email forwarding within the last 3 days it is being returned to you because the DNS has not propagated yet. Please allow about 5 days for this forwarding to start working properly.

What is MX Forwarding?

An MX record controls which mail server deals with the email sent to your domain and hostnames. With access to the MX record for your domain you can ensure email is routed to a mail server you are running or the mail server of another company providing this service to you.

How do I set up my MX for use with everyone.net?

Your MX should look like this,

HOST NAME------------RECORD TYPE------Pref-----ADDRESS

mydomainname.com--------Address-----------5------sitemail.everyone.net.

*------------------------------------Address-----------5------sitemail.everyone.net.

@----------------------------------Address-----------5------sitemail.everyone.net.

What are priority levels? (Pref)

You can include the hostnames of multiple mail servers and assign different priority levels for each one, allowing you to set primary and backup mail servers. The hostname with the lowest priority will be used first. If the mail server with the highest priority (0, 5) fails for any reason, the server with the next highest priority is tried next (10, 15).

How do I forward all mail forwarding accounts to one destination address?

In order to forward anythingyoucanthinkof@yourdomain.com to your real mail account, just add the * wildcard symbol as the host name into one of the empty fields located at your email forwarding control panel.

This way, you will have virtually unlimited number of email accounts all forwarded to the same location. james@yourdomain.com, george@yourdomain.com, sales, info, etc. ALL of the messages sent to these unlimited number of accounts will be received from your real mail account.

Notes: Those pages are written by people for whom English is not a native language. Some amount of grammar and spelling errors should be expected. This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site. It cannot replace the best teachers and the best books. The site contain some obsolete pages as it develops like a living tree... Some links on older pages are broken. Please try to use Google, Open directory, etc. to find a replacement link (see HOWTO search the WEB for details). We would appreciate if you can mail us a correct link. Search Amazon by keywords:     Open directory Research Index

Old News ;-)

If you are having problems where you have created a $HOME/.forward file in your home directory to forward e-mails from one account to another and it just won't forward them?

Set correct Permissions

First make sure the file isn't group or world writable.

-rwxrwxr-x 1 zahn dba 0 Jan 9 12:17 .forward   # wrong
-rwxr-xr-x 1 zahn dba 0 Jan 9 12:17 .forward   # OK

Lastly, make sure your home directory isn't group or world writable.

drwxrwxr-x 14 zahn dba 4096 Jan 9 12:20 zahn   # wrong
drwxr-xr-x 14 zahn dba 4096 Jan 9 12:20 zahn   # OK

KETNAR.ORG - Content

Mx-filtering, mx-forwarding, whatever you want to call it - There are several terms for this used, and we can do it for you.

This type of account is specifically suited for those who already have a domain, and already have web hosting someplace else that provides no-frill email, but are still looking for more aggressive spam and email attachment control.

It is a fairly simple process for this to be done, the basic idea is this:

Setting it up:

• Specific MX-record made on your domain DNS pointed at our filtering server.
• Our mail server gets configured to acknowledge and respond to mail for your domain.

How it works:

• When a e-mail is sent to @yourdomain.com, the domain DNS record is looked up, and the mail server in question sends it to the IP listed in the MX record.
• Our servers receive the email first, runs it through the paces of spam and virus checking,throwing out the obvious candidates and flagging the questionable ones.
• After our server is finished processing your incoming mail, it is then next handed over to your existing mail server.
• No operational difference is seen or noticed, your email works just like it did before, but now with an added layer of protection before it gets to your inbox.

It really is that simple. Scary not more companies offer this, isn't it?

There is nothing else to it, This does require a few things however:

1. That you own your domain name! Why? because you will have to...
2. Have the ability to manage the records in it. ( Don't worry, if you are in a real pinch at this point, we can do [DNS Hosting] too!)

The mx-filtering account type is rather new to the ketnar.org service portfolio, but it is a service we have been doing over at [Servercave] for several colo and non colo hosting customers, which have all given it rave reviews. And due to its simplicity of setup and its simply staggering effectiveness at combating SPAM and making email virus a laughable joke, it is only logical that we adopt it into our systems over here.

You can find out how to sign up for this type of account over in the [Get Hosted] section.

Care and Feeding of Your E-mail Alias

Here are some steps to make the e-mail aliasing process simple and complete. Your e-mail alias, which is your username@montana.edu, is generated automatically if you have an account on any ITC-managed host.

All examples below use a username and an alias of mmouse and a mail host of gemini. Remember to substitute your own username, alias, and host.

Step 1.

Make sure your alias has been established and is sending your mail to the correct host. The way to check is with the finger command from a UNIX or VMS host.

   $ finger mmouse@mail1.msu.montana.edu
   [mail1.msu.montana.edu]
   Aliased-to: mmouse@gemini.oscs.montana.edu

Step 2.

Make sure if you are using a PC-based POP mail client (Netscape, Eudora, etc.) that you enter your new aliased address (mmouse@montana.edu) as your E-mail and/or Reply-To address. This causes the alias to be used in your message headers on outgoing mail from your SMTP server and message recipients will see this as your address. You may use mixed case to change the appearance of your address to the recipient (i.e. MMouse@montana.edu).

Step 3.

If you ever use any MX-based product (VMS Mail, PathWorks Mail, or DECwindows Mail) define the following logical in your login.com file. This causes the alias to be used in your message headers for outgoing mail from MX via SMTP.

   $ define MX_REPLY_TO "mmouse@montana.edu"

   or

   $ define MX_REPLY_TO "MMouse@montana.edu"

Step 4.

Modify any local mail forwarding that you have to reference the new alias. This would include SET FORWARD in VMS Mail, and the .forward file on UNIX. This step is optional, but if you do this then you can reroute mail to a new server simply by changing your alias. If you are receiving a heavy volume of locally sent mail you may want to set the forwarding directly to your e-mail host to avoid the extra hop, but this is usually not an issue.

   VMS Forwarding

      $ MAIL
      MAIL> SET FORWARD "MX%""mmouse@montana.edu"""
      MAIL> EXIT

   UNIX Forwarding

      % cat > .forward
      mmouse@montana.edu
      

In a few days, after the WHEREIS database has been updated, you can and should check your forwarding by running WHEREIS on any VMS node.

   $ WHEREIS/FORWARD U=mmouse

Step 7.

Send yourself some test mail and enjoy your new alias!

Recommended Links

DNS Troubleshooting

Dig It

Online dig from Men & Mice. Here is a non-DNS link. (checked 08-Sep-2004)

Dig Gateway

Online dig from SpaceReg. Here is a non-DNS link. (checked 11-Apr-2004)

Internet Query Tools

General Internet directory lookup from Demon Internet, including DNS and integrated access to WHOIS servers worldwide. Here is a non-DNS link. (checked 11-Apr-2004)

Sleuth

Online tool, checks DNS zones for errors, by Martin Mares. A downloadable version of Sleuth is also available. (version 1.4-pre1 of 30-Mar-2003, checked 08-Sep-2004)

ZoneCheck

Online zone checking tool from NIC France. Source code is available. (checked 08-Sep-2004)

Created May 16, 1996; Last modified: June 02, 2008