How to set up reverse dns on exchange server - help needed - Knowledgebase

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How to set up reverse dns on exchange server - help needed

Posted by chilli, 10-02-2008, 01:27 PM
Ok so here's the problem. I registered a domain for a client and then set the nameservers to my hosting. I then set the mail mx records to point to their own mail server at their office. This worked well for a while but now some mail is being bounced because there is no reverse dns set up for their mail server ip address. Is this something that needs to be done at their end, on their exchange server or is it something that should be done at the domain control panel end ? I know at the moment I cannot do it because I asked my hosting provider. They said it had to be done at the clients end. So thought I would check with you guys as their is a lot of experienced people out there on these forums who are sure to be able to point me in the right direction Many thanks.
Posted by 040Hosting, 10-02-2008, 01:34 PM
To be completely safe you should set at least Reverse DNS on your IP (just any name is fine as long it doesnt return an IP only) and obviously also a reverse DNS needs to be set on the IP your MX records point too. In theory only the Reverse DNS of the MX records should be set (so your customers IP); but who knows there are also mail-servers which are stupid enough to check the other records instead of the MX record.
Posted by chilli, 10-02-2008, 06:12 PM
Apologies for seeming a bit dim here but, I am still not sure "who" sets the reverse dns. Do they make these changes at their mail server in their office or does it have to be done at the actual domain control panel? If at the domain control panel I have no way of doing that because they are using their own mail server, my control panel simply points the mail to their server ip address. Perhaps if the domain is set back to the default nameservers at americaregistry.com I would then be able to set reverse dns on their mail server ip address?
Posted by lamerfreak, 10-02-2008, 10:04 PM
Done at the provider's end. Unless you have a /24 or they do classless DNS for it, but then I think you'd know.
Posted by foobic, 10-02-2008, 11:06 PM
Just to be clear, that's your client's provider. Whoever's responsible for their office IP address - their ISP, typically. Run a whois on the IP address if you're still in doubt about who that is.
Posted by txspaderz, 10-02-2008, 11:38 PM
You will need to contact the Internet Service Provider of the Office Exchange Server. If it's static, they should have no problem doing it. This is because your Zone File tells the rest of the internet that it's pointing to that office IP. Therefore your web hosting provider doesn't need to make the rDNS setting.
Posted by arun_kris, 10-03-2008, 07:31 AM
Yes, the rDNS should be set at provider of your customer's Exchange server. There's nothing you need to setup in the DNS server at your end as you already stated that you have pointed MX record of their Exchange server. Thanks, Arun
Posted by albunix, 10-03-2008, 09:59 AM
Chilli, you can look up who is the NS record for your domain. The following assumes you do own the actual connectivity line are not leasing from an ISP (such as DSL line etc). If you do, than you would have to contact your ISP in order to setup RDNS. You can Google out there for any potential sites that report on DNS or do DNS lookups. Being I would not want to commercialize my post I will use the NS utility which is freely available on any Windows box. 1)Start-->run--> type 'command' and than hit enter 2)once the black screen comes up type 'nslookup' and that hit enter. 3)Once you at the point where it will display 'Default Server:xxxx' type 'set q=NS' and hit enter finally simply type the domain name your exchange server domain name, not the server name. For example, if you receive emails for 'mytestdomain.com' than simply enter that. Also, I don't think privacy would be an issue, so feel free to post what your host name or your domain name is, and I'd be in a better position to help you out. Thanks.

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