[Box-Admins] Problems sending email to some domains

Ken Causey ken at kencausey.com
Sat Nov 9 18:52:08 UTC 2013


I've just sent the below email to Hetzner.de support:

I'm one of the administrators of the hetzner.de server used to host
numerous services supporting the squeak.org project.  Our server is
85.10.195.197.  Lately we've been having trouble sending email to some
users and it appears that the problem is with the DNS servers we are
using, checking the wiki these still seem to be the preferred servers
(http://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/Hetzner_Standard_Name_Server/en):

$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 213.133.98.98
nameserver 213.133.99.99
nameserver 213.133.100.100

As a test I try my own domain name:

$ dig @213.133.99.99 kencausey.com mx

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> @213.133.99.99 kencausey.com mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 48963
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;kencausey.com.                 IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
kencausey.com.          3600    IN      MX      0 smtp.secureserver.net.
kencausey.com.          3600    IN      MX      10
mailstore1.secureserver.net.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
kencausey.com.          3600    IN      NS      ns42.domaincontrol.com.
kencausey.com.          3600    IN      NS      ns41.domaincontrol.com.

;; Query time: 330 msec
;; SERVER: 213.133.99.99#53(213.133.99.99)
;; WHEN: Sat Nov  9 18:42:46 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 147

It works fine.  Yet for two other domain names we know of it does not
work:

$ dig @213.133.99.99 mindspring.com mx

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> @213.133.99.99 mindspring.com mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 25532
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mindspring.com.                        IN      MX

;; Query time: 3 msec
;; SERVER: 213.133.99.99#53(213.133.99.99)
;; WHEN: Sat Nov  9 18:43:32 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 32

$ dig @213.133.100.100 mypacks.net mx

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> @213.133.100.100 mypacks.net mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 52906
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mypacks.net.                   IN      MX

;; Query time: 3 msec
;; SERVER: 213.133.100.100#53(213.133.100.100)
;; WHEN: Sat Nov  9 18:44:53 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 29

And yet it works elsewhere:

$ dig @8.8.8.8 mypacks.net mx

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> @8.8.8.8 mypacks.net mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 2192
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mypacks.net.                   IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mypacks.net.            2       IN      MX      5 mx3.earthlink.net.
mypacks.net.            2       IN      MX      5 mx4.earthlink.net.
mypacks.net.            2       IN      MX      5 mx1.earthlink.net.
mypacks.net.            2       IN      MX      5 mx2.earthlink.net.

;; Query time: 5 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Sat Nov  9 18:45:32 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 119

$ dig @8.8.8.8 mindspring.com mx

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> @8.8.8.8 mindspring.com mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 53905
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mindspring.com.                        IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mindspring.com.         13      IN      MX      5 mx4.mindspring.com.
mindspring.com.         13      IN      MX      5 mx1.mindspring.com.
mindspring.com.         13      IN      MX      5 mx2.mindspring.com.
mindspring.com.         13      IN      MX      5 mx3.mindspring.com.

;; Query time: 6 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Sat Nov  9 18:46:02 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 112

Please advise us if we should be using alternate DNS servers.



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