Setting up SMTP e-mail with Cable Modem

[David]

Hi There - we have recently upgraded our internet connectivity to a cable
modem. Everything is up and running great however, we would like to have
our "own" e-mail handled on the Exchange Server as opposed to using pop3 -
downling from our web host.

Our cable modem company does not lease static IP addresses. We have signed
up for a service, DYNDNS.org and created a "virtual" address. We orginally
signed up for this service so that we could have OWA. When someone accesses
our dyndns address (domain.homeip.net), the service routes the visitor to
our server computer and lets the person access our OWA.

We are wondering if we can still host our own e-mail on our Exchange Server
with the dyndns service? I can update my own DNS records within the web
hosting company. In the DNS settings at the web hosting company, there are
two different e-mail DNS entries. The first one is an MX record and the
second one is mail.domain.com. In order to re-point all our incoming
internet e-mail to our server (Exchange Server), which record should I
update?

I asked the web hosting company about this a couple of months ago, and they
said I need to update the mail.domain.com DNS to point to the static IP
address. However, when I attempt to update the mail.domain.com IP address
to point to domain.homeip.net, it gives me an error message, Invalid IP
address. It will only accept a valid numeric IP (i.e. 200.45.54.123)

Does anyone have knowledge on this issue regarding dyndns.org and setting up
a mail server? If anyone has info on this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
David

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Yes, I do it all the time. All that has to happen is -

1. Have your DNS host point the primary MX record to domain.homeip.net (or
whatever your account specifies)
2. Make sure port 25 is open in your firewall and forwarded to your Exchange
server's internal IP.
3. Have someone else doing store and forward for you (ISP or
www.zoneedit.com) so that your secondary MX record points to their server;
when your server is unavailable they'll store the mail and retry sending it
periodically, so you don't lose any.

[Vinh Q. Nguyen]

It appears? that your main issue is your inability to register a MX Record
using a FQDN with your web hosting company. This should not matter (apples &
oranges). When I send an email to Som...@YourDomain.com, my SMTP service
will do a name server lookup for YourDomain.com and use the MX record
returned by your name server. Since you are using a dymanic DNS service and
you have those name servers registered as your primary name servers for
YourDomain.com, my SMTP server will receive the IP address that your DDNS
client (Exchange Server) is registering and send the email to your server.
Perhaps I misread your post when you stated that your web hosting company
will not let you register a FQDN as a mail record. Are they hosting your
email as well? If they are, I can see why they are giving you a hard time:
loss of revenue. It is good to have a secondary MX server on the Internet
incase your cable connection goes down. To make this work, the following
requirements need to be meet:
1. Your Dynamic DNS server(s) need to be registerd as the name server(s) for
YourDomain.com (get list from DDNS provider)
2. Your MX record for YourDomain.com should point to a FQDN
(mail.YourDoamin.com). Drop DYNDNS.org if you can not do this (check out
no-ip.com).
3. Your Exchange Server needs to have the DDNS Client installed and
configured to update the host record mail.YourDomain.com.
4. Follow instructions on how to protect your SMTP server from relaying
(Microsoft document search, very, very important)

Vinh Q. Nguyen, MCSE 2000/NT4.0, MCSA

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanw...@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:OkNqB5wvCHA.2596@TK2MSFTNGP12...

[David]

I just signed up for noip.com free service. If I change my MX record on my
webhost to point to my new noip.com address (i.e. myname.no-ip.com), my
e-mail will not route to my exchange server, right????

I do not understand what you are saying when you are talking about "DDNS".
Are you talking about the client software you install on your PC to
automatically update your dynamic IP address to no-ip.com????

As I mentioned, my web hosting company allows me to change my DNS info.
There are two seperate DNS entries for e-mail. The first points to
mail.domain.com. The second on is the actual MX record and points to 10
mail.domain.com (this is exactly what it reads right now). I'm not sure
which one to update to my new domain.noip.com address.

Thanks,
David

"Vinh Q. Nguyen" <Vinh....@TrademarkQ.net> wrote in message
news:eghKyjyvCHA.2476@TK2MSFTNGP10...

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

<snip>

David wrote:
> I just signed up for noip.com free service. If I change my MX record
> on my webhost to point to my new noip.com address (i.e.
> myname.no-ip.com), my e-mail will not route to my exchange server,
> right????

Wrong - myname.no-ip.com is updated with your IP address via the software,
right?

> I do not understand what you are saying when you are talking about
> "DDNS". Are you talking about the client software you install on your
> PC to automatically update your dynamic IP address to no-ip.com????

DDNS is dynamic DNS.

> As I mentioned, my web hosting company allows me to change my DNS
> info. There are two seperate DNS entries for e-mail. The first points
> to mail.domain.com. The second on is the actual MX record and points
> to 10 mail.domain.com (this is exactly what it reads right now). I'm
> not sure which one to update to my new domain.noip.com address.

Dunno what you mean by mail.domain.com being the 'first one' - you should
have 2 MX records - primary one should be myname.no-ip.com and secondary
should be your ISP's or some other kindly soul's mail server who will do
store and forward for you.