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timbosan

2159 posts

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#148971 7-Jul-2014 11:00
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I have been with BigPipe for a few months now (on VDSL), no complaints, speed is fast, email support is quick, however I have been trying to setup a couple of servers (2012R2, SBS2011) with a domain from GoDaddy, and whilst most things are working (receiving email, remote connectivity to SBS, etc.) I am struggling with sending emails.  I have researched this and know it is due to (one of two?) things:

PTR Records
Reverse DNS

I have read that the ISP is responsible for setting these up, and without them email will either bounce (like from hotmail) or be marked as SPAM.  I have asked BigPipe to help, but they have come back saying this is "beyond our current support policy", and services such as "mail server, VPN, Game Servers, correct DNS resolution to hosted websites, etc are not current supported".

Does anyone else on BigPipe run a mail server like Exchange?  if so, how did you get around this?  Is there something I can do to set up the PTR and reverse DNS myself?

I do have a public IP.
I do not (yet) have an SSL certificate (but that shouldn't matter).

My knowledge in this area is limited so would appreciate any help :-)


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slingynz
154 posts

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  #1082294 7-Jul-2014 11:14
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You have a dynamic IP, you can't expect them to do rdns or set up ptrs.

Use https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/ to troubleshoot mail issues.

e: also, if hotmail, etc. are rejecting emails, they will usually send an NDR which will indicate the reason for the bounce.



timbosan

2159 posts

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  #1082296 7-Jul-2014 11:16
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Hi,

I know the Public IP is dynamic, but aren't there ways around this?  Isn't is the same kind of thing as DDNS, but in reverse?

And if the public IP is sticky enough, shouldn't it all work?


slingynz
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  #1082308 7-Jul-2014 11:35
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timbosan: Hi,

I know the Public IP is dynamic, but aren't there ways around this?  Isn't is the same kind of thing as DDNS, but in reverse?

And if the public IP is sticky enough, shouldn't it all work?



You could try to convince BigPipe to add a PTR manually, and update it whenever your IP changes - I'd give you 0% chance of this happening.

You could relay through someone / use a smart host.



richms
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  #1082316 7-Jul-2014 11:45
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timbosan: Hi,

I know the Public IP is dynamic, but aren't there ways around this?  Isn't is the same kind of thing as DDNS, but in reverse?

And if the public IP is sticky enough, shouldn't it all work?



No.

You have a dynamic ip.

You have no business directly sending to remote servers on port 25.

Relay thru your mail providers server with the correct records set up.

If you want the mail server in house get a business connection from a provider that can accommodate your needs for a static ip in a pool not in a pbl blocking smtp





Richard rich.ms

timbosan

2159 posts

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  #1082317 7-Jul-2014 11:49
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richms: 

Relay thru your mail providers server with the correct records set up.

If you want the mail server in house get a business connection from a provider that can accommodate your needs for a static ip in a pool not in a pbl blocking smtp



richms - is the 'relay' the SmartHost thing I see in the Exchange setup?  If I did this would it solve the problem?  Or would I have to change ISP's too?

richms
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  #1082318 7-Jul-2014 11:52
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Yes, you will probably be able to relay via your Webhosts server as mail is provided with most hosting. You may not be on a dedicated ip which may prevent a ptr but it will at least let you put it into a spf record and the server may be able to be configured with domainkeys.




Richard rich.ms

timbosan

2159 posts

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  #1082329 7-Jul-2014 12:02
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Cool, thanks, I think this may be a solution.  I found this:

http://www.sbslinks.com/DNS_Smarthost.htm

Which seems to say a SmartHost means there is no need for a PTR, and is the solution to a non-static IP.

Only problem is that BigPipe don't seem to offer SMTP services!  BigPipe people - can you please confirm this?  Otherwise it seems I could do it via GoDaddy.

 
 
 

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richms
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  #1082336 7-Jul-2014 12:07
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Correct bigpipe have no smtp server as they don't provide email. Isp mail servers are usually in some form of blacklist from time to time so are pretty much useless in any case. You wouldn't want to allow an entire isp to mail as you in any case by putting the isp servers in your spf records.




Richard rich.ms

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  #1082345 7-Jul-2014 12:18
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timbosan: Only problem is that BigPipe don't seem to offer SMTP services!  BigPipe people - can you please confirm this?  Otherwise it seems I could do it via GoDaddy.

You could look at relaying emails through http://www.smtp2go.com/ 

We have used them a number of times very successfully for roaming laptops when the client does not have an Exchange server.  There's no reason that I am aware of that you could not have Exchange relay via them as well.  They are a Kiwi company (unless something has changed) and we have had zero hassle using them.




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timbosan

2159 posts

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  #1082382 7-Jul-2014 13:16
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Dynamic:
timbosan: Only problem is that BigPipe don't seem to offer SMTP services!  BigPipe people - can you please confirm this?  Otherwise it seems I could do it via GoDaddy.

You could look at relaying emails through http://www.smtp2go.com/ 

We have used them a number of times very successfully for roaming laptops when the client does not have an Exchange server.  There's no reason that I am aware of that you could not have Exchange relay via them as well.  They are a Kiwi company (unless something has changed) and we have had zero hassle using them.


Cool, thanks for that!  I have emailed them to see if they work with Exchange server.  I will let you know.  And by the way, they still have a NZ contact address.

michaelmurfy
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  #1082385 7-Jul-2014 13:19
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Bigpipe just provide internet, no mail servers etc.

To be honest I'd recommend staying away from hosting a home-based mail server on a residential ISP, it is just never going to be reliable. You're better to go to Office 365 or Zoho (free solution). They won't set PTR records or a static IP required for your mail server, if you want this you'll need to go to an ISP like Telecom.




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Detruire
1771 posts

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  #1082417 7-Jul-2014 13:42
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timbosan: And if the public IP is sticky enough, shouldn't it all work?


It isn't sticky at all. If my connection goes down for a couple of seconds, I get a different address.




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gjm

gjm
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  #1084064 8-Jul-2014 12:43
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I have a similar setup at home running SBS 2011 as a VM. For email I use rollernet.us as a host for inbound and outbound mail. It means that my "consumer" ip address wont be a factor in my email getting successfully delivered and also that if my home server or internet connection goes down, my email will still get queued and be accessible via a webmail client. Sure you could put it all in Office 365 but where is the fun in that ;)




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timbosan

2159 posts

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  #1084075 8-Jul-2014 13:07
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Quick update:

I signed up for smtp2go last night, configured by Exchange Server to use the Smart Host setting (took me a while as I had to figure out how to change the port number), and it all works!  Thanks for all for the help!

And yeah, where is the fun in having it hosted?  Plus I am learning a huge amount about all this.

Next on the list - I have my router setup to access the SBS website (needed for Web Mail) but I also want to be able to access the 2012R2 Essentials page.  This one I can do - I should just be able to open a port on the router (that is not one used for SBS) and point it to port 80 on the 2012R2 server.  Like 8080 or something.

And for anyone interested, using SBS2011 and 2012R2 Standard (joined to the SBS domain PLUS running the Essentials role) is a very nice solution.  I have the 2012R2 server running as the host (on bare metal, I tried using Hyper-V but that's a story for another day) and run SBS2011 in a VM.  I have added the Hyper-V images to the 2012R2 backup process, so it is all safe.

Which reminds me of something else I learnt - that SBS is a resource hog and having the VM image on C: is not good for performance!


BigPipeNZ
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  #1084084 8-Jul-2014 13:25
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timbosan: Quick update:

I signed up for smtp2go last night, configured by Exchange Server to use the Smart Host setting (took me a while as I had to figure out how to change the port number), and it all works!  Thanks for all for the help!

And yeah, where is the fun in having it hosted?  Plus I am learning a huge amount about all this.

Next on the list - I have my router setup to access the SBS website (needed for Web Mail) but I also want to be able to access the 2012R2 Essentials page.  This one I can do - I should just be able to open a port on the router (that is not one used for SBS) and point it to port 80 on the 2012R2 server.  Like 8080 or something.

And for anyone interested, using SBS2011 and 2012R2 Standard (joined to the SBS domain PLUS running the Essentials role) is a very nice solution.  I have the 2012R2 server running as the host (on bare metal, I tried using Hyper-V but that's a story for another day) and run SBS2011 in a VM.  I have added the Hyper-V images to the 2012R2 backup process, so it is all safe.

Which reminds me of something else I learnt - that SBS is a resource hog and having the VM image on C: is not good for performance!



I had to check with the network guys to confirm, but pretty much the other guys in this thread have nailed it, so I don't have anything more to add apart from that it's great you have found a working solution.

Cheers!




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