Should've merged this with the other response...
On Wed, 16 Aug 2000, Chris Holt wrote:
> This is the message I wrote to Earthlink Tech support, followed by thier
> reply. His analogy sounds fishy to me, but whatever. I have already
> figured out how I can allow DNS lookup and still use SMTP without errors
> returned. <shrug>
>
> (the part about firewalls sounds totally bogus to me)
>
> --Original Message--
>
> Could you guys do me a favor and explain why I have to manually configure
> DNS servers as opposed to allowing them to be looked up?
>
> Everything seems to work on systems where I allow the server to provide DNS
> entries, with the exception of SMTP services. There I get "relaying
> denied". Why would the SMTP server care about the DNS servers that I use?
> Or, is my local POP providing an incorrect hostname when reverse DNS
> lookup is used?
>
> I would think that since my username is prefixed, that the POP could
> provide a correct hostname regardless of the DNS. Or is that just not
> possible?
>
> Thanks for your time.
>
> *** Forwarded message, originally written by [EMAIL PROTECTED] on
> 16-Aug-00 ***
>
> Dear Earthlink Member,
>
> Thank You for contacting Earthlink's Email Support!
>
> The reason we specify the domain numbers instead of letting the server
> assign them, and the prefix is just for authentication, is that we cover
> several platforms and software programs.
Indeed some platforms don't support automatic DNS assignment, but that has
nothing to do with why it shouldn't be used on platforms that do use it,
or why it doesn't work correctly.
I can see where the termserver might not support supplying different DNS
IPs as a function of the account being used, but the "wrong" servers
should still give the same result for a fully-qualified lookup.
> It is kind of like driving a car over long distance, you could specify the
> route or you could have a general idea, by specifying you will shorten
> your travel time tremendously.
Total bogosity in this context.
> Yes you do have to name the mail servers either by name or number, and if
> you use the wrong DNS numbers and you have an issue of getting mail, then
> more than likely those numbers are behind a firewall somewhere.
Completely clueless response, since you wouldn't be able to get the
"relaying denied" message if it were a firewall issue.
Again, I suggest trying
Miami:MiamiTCPDump -nvs 200 -i <interface> udp port 53
in both working and nonworking cases. This will trace the DNS lookups and
tell you what is being looked up and what the result is.
Also try "Echo $HOSTNAME" and "Echo $DOMAIN" in both cases.
Fred Wright
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