The mx record ip (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) is a local ip.

Question asked by Simon Collingridge - 5/21/2015 at 3:46 AM

Unanswered

We're having a very strange issue with sending email from a new SmaterMail server we've set up to a customer hosted on an old SmarterMail server we set up.

However we can send email to everyone else ok, and they can receive email from anyone else ok too.

We've set up the new SmarterMail server as a smarthost for our office Exchange (which works fine), and when we send an email to logs indicate is has been received o,, but when we check the Delivery log we see this line:

[2015.05.21] 11:01:11 [39055] The mx record ip '78.129.217.67' is a local ip. All ip's of a lower preference have been tried.

The IP address is the correct IP addres for the OLD mailserver, so that's ok, but I can;t see why it thinks it's a local IP address.

If I run a trace route (tracert) from the NEW server to 78.129.217.67 it routes out through to the old server so tracert sees the IP as a remote IP.

Is there anywhere that Smatermail may be configured to list this IP as a local IP? We are in the process of migrating email accounts from the old server to the new, so perhaps something has come across that the new Smartermail has picked up?

11 Replies

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Bruce Barnes Replied

5/21/2015 at 5:34 AM

As you have described this, it is an extremely convoluted situation.

The "local IP" -- for the "old" mail server -- must be directly mapped to a PUBLIC IP address which can be seen directly from the Internet.

The public IP address must be mapped to the FQDN of the server in the IP to HOSTNAME mapping table. [CNAMES are NOT legal for any purpose in e-mail and should not be used for any other purpose either.]

All of the domains hosted on the server must have an "A" or "HOST" record which points directly to the PUBLIC IP ADDRESS which is mapped to the server's PRIVATE IP address.

Bruce Barnes ChicagoNetTech Inc brucecnt@comcast.net Phonr: (773) 491-9019 Phone: (224) 444-0169 E-Mail and DNS Security Specialist Network Security Specialist Customer Service Portal: https://portal.chicagonettech.com Website: https://www.ChicagoNetTech.com Security Blog: http://networkbastion.blogspot.com/ Web and E-Mail Hosting, E-Mail Security and Consulting

Simon Collingridge Replied

5/21/2015 at 6:11 AM

Hi Bruce

Thanks for responding so quick;y.

I don't think I did a very good job explaining everything, in essence the domain we're sending email to is rvastley.co.uk and their domain email is hosted on an old server we manage that's running Smartermail 5.1. Everything for this server and their email account is set up fine, the MX record, DNS records, Smartermail settings, everything are all fine. They Send and Receive email all day without any issues.

We're setting up a new Server running Smartermail 13.2 and this is all up and running for the accounts hosted on this server, and that all works ok. This has also been set up as a smarthost for our Exchange server so our office email is routed through the new Smartermail server and everything is fine doing that. We can send and receive emails quite happily.

The issue comes when we try to send an email to the old server - for some reason the new Smartermail server thinks the IP address thsat the MX resolves to is a local ip - however the actual Windows Server that Smartermail sits on does NOT think it's a local ip, and it pings, TraceRTs just fine.

So what I am unclear about is why the new Smartermail would see this ip address as local when the rest of the world sees it is on the old server and the MX, DNS records correctly resolve to that server.

Bruce Barnes Replied

5/21/2015 at 6:23 AM

Thanks for the clarifications - that explanation makes this a completely different situation.

SmarterMail "plays by the rules" and always sends to the local server.

Some newer versions of Exchange, IMail, and other MX servers, can be set to check DNS and send to the MX server listed in DNS, but, as a general rule of thumb, an MX server will always attempt to deliver to the local server. If the domain is found on the local server, no attempt to deliver to the external MX server will be made.

Short story, move the entire domain to the new server and shut it down on the old server - don't try to keep a domain active on both the new and old servers.

Simon Collingridge Replied

5/21/2015 at 8:09 AM

It's not on the new server at all. Not in Smartermail, not in the Domainlist.xml, no folder exists for it - nothing. There's no reference to the rvsatley.co.uk domain on the new server. No MX record points to the new server - nothing related to email at all

Simon Collingridge Replied

5/21/2015 at 8:11 AM

I would think that that is why it's finding the external ip Address or 78.129.217.67' - because it's looked up the MX record, but that IP address is not local to the Server - but Smartermail says it is.

I can't figure it out at all.

Bruce Barnes Replied

5/21/2015 at 9:48 AM

This is one of several things:

- blocked traffic at firewall

- server not seeing DNS

- DNS not properly setup for the domain

- any of a number of other issues

From the server on which the NEW SmarterMail is installed, try going to a DOS prompt, and run NSLOOKUP.

DO NOT SET AN MX server, leave NSLOOKUP to use the server's default DNS setting.

enter SET TYPE=ALL

then enter the DOMAIN NAME of the domain which you are having problems sending e-mail to and see what it returns for the MX server in the NSLOOKUP response.

Simon Collingridge Replied

5/22/2015 at 12:55 AM

Hi Bruce

Firstly, many thanks for your continued input with this issue, it's very much appreciated. Below are the results from the NSLOOKUP as suggested, and also the results from IPCONFIG /ALL just so you can see the IPs for the server itself, and lastly I've added the Trace Route results for the mail server DNS A record mail.rvastley.co.uk which is the mail exchanger record pointed to by the domain's MX record:

Hope this gives some insight for you.

NSLOOKUP Results

C:\Users\Simon>nslookup
Default Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8

> set type=all
> rvastley.co.uk
Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
rvastley.co.uk  internet address = 109.169.42.104
rvastley.co.uk  nameserver = ns1.e64.com
rvastley.co.uk  nameserver = ns2.e64.com
rvastley.co.uk
        primary name server = ns1.e64.com
        responsible mail addr = hostmaster.rvastley.co.uk
        serial  = 2014101738
        refresh = 3600 (1 hour)
        retry   = 600 (10 mins)
        expire  = 1209600 (14 days)
        default TTL = 7200 (2 hours)
rvastley.co.uk  MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.rvastley.co.uk
rvastley.co.uk  text =

        "v=spf1 mx a ip4:78.129.217.67/32 a:mail.e64.co.uk -all"
> exit

IPCONFIG /ALL Results

C:\Users\Simon>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : E64-Red
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

PPP adapter RAS (Dial In) Interface:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : RAS (Dial In) Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . :
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.168.120(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-15-5D-00-2D-04
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3585:e6f2:a1e8:909e%12(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.168.5(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.168.7(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.168.168
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 301995357
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-C4-A9-31-00-15-5D-00-2D-04

   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8
                                       8.8.4.4
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{0CAA8620-06F7-489A-95C4-BB064043A8E8}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{6E06F030-7526-11D2-BAF4-00600815A4BD}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:9d38:6ab8:804:b370:9256:d59b(Preferred)
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::804:b370:9256:d59b%14(Preferred)
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 402653184
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-C4-A9-31-00-15-5D-00-2D-04

   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

C:\Users\Simon>

TraceRT mail.rvastley.co.uk Results

C:\Users\Simon>tracert mail.rvastley.co.uk

Tracing route to mail.rvastley.co.uk [78.129.217.67]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.168.168
  2    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  109.169.42.98
  3     4 ms     4 ms     4 ms  320.core2.dc3.as20860.net [62.233.118.222]
  4     5 ms     4 ms     4 ms  340.core2.dc4.as20860.net [62.233.127.245]
  5     8 ms     5 ms     4 ms  300.core1.dc4.as20860.net [62.233.118.229]
  6     4 ms     4 ms     4 ms  330.core1.thn.as20860.net [62.233.127.241]
  7     4 ms     4 ms     4 ms  593.net1.north.dc5.as20860.net [62.233.127.174]
  8     5 ms     5 ms     5 ms  87.117.211.38
  9     4 ms     4 ms     4 ms  redmail.netsposure.co.uk [78.129.217.67]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Simon>

Tejas Acharya Replied

5/5/2016 at 2:08 AM

Hi,

I have the same issue.

Mail Server 1 - Smartermail 7.x (Public IP: abc.abc.abc.191)

Mail Server 2 - Smartermail 12.x (Public IP: abc.abc.abc.181)

from MS1 to MS2 mails are received successfully.

but while sending mails from MS2 to MS1 it gives error.

The mx record ip 'abc.abc.abc.191' is a local ip. All ip's of a lower preference have been tried.

and bounce back.

Please help.

Regards,

Tejas Acharya

DJ Won Replied

5/5/2016 at 7:10 PM

Hi,

You may check on your New SmarterMail Setting > Bindings > IP Addresses, whether got your old server ip address is bindings there. I do have same issue before when perform migrate old email server domain to new email server. After deleted the IP address, you may restart the SmarterMail Service. After restarted, all working fine.

Simon Collingridge Replied

5/6/2016 at 1:09 AM

Hi, Thanks for the suggestion. That is something I had checked, but recheck just in case however it wasn't bound to that IP - it's was very strange.

I was "was" strange because ultimately I migrated the offending domain from the old SmaterMail server to the new one and the problem has of course now gone away.

I've still no idea what it was though, so can;t offer any insights in case someone finds this thread with the same issue.

CLEBER SAAD Replied

5/7/2016 at 6:02 AM

Try to make upgrade to 14.x. I have the same issue in 12.x version. Sometimes the MX lookup return correct IP and the SM try to delivery local.

Try to disable the DNS cache too

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NSLOOKUP Results

IPCONFIG /ALL Results

TraceRT mail.rvastley.co.uk Results

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