Change domain address

[snotty54]

Dear MVP's:

I run a small business and decided to go from peer to peer to SBS 2008. Consider myself a user but not afraid to tackle anything and I'm determined to learn sbs 2008 well enough to take care of it myself. An IT friend loaded sbs 2008 on a new machine I purchased for the server, but since he doesn't specialize in this area, got stuck trying to set up the pop email. Since then I began researching on the net and from this forum I purchased sbs 2008 unleashed and read it slowly from one end to the other. Great book , thank you Dave. I've discovered several things initially, the machine I purchased for a server is totally inadequate other than running sbs 2008 for the short term to learn, all the client computers I plan to connect to the server (4) all had os's that don't work with sbs2008 which is why my IT friend got stuck.
I don't want to waste anyone's time so I've read through every post and thread on this forum back to 2008 when it started, and learned more. I'm excited about making sbs 2008 work for me, and hope I can have the patience to work through all the problems I'm sure I'll encounter. I hope my effort to find the answer any way I can first before querying everyone on here will encourage you to answer me and put me out of my misery, or at least steer me in the right direction.

Since my IT friend loaded the sbs2008 on my box, I have changed the domain of my website. I used the wizard to change the domain and lost the internet. I ended up being late for work but changed the domain back and ran the fix network wizard then finally rebooted the router and got the net back, whew!

The present state of sbs2008 is I have two users installed but no clients yet. I have one laptop with a new os (Win 7 Pro) which I will be installing on all the clients over the next few days.

I apologize for this long post, and if you've made it this far, my question is, what effect will using the set up internet address wizard to change my hosted web site domain address have on the system, OK to change it now before I begin installing clients and actually trying to get email and everything running?

Lastly, if this is an inappropriate post on this forum because of my lack of experience, please let me know.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[snotty54]

Hi Mark:

Interesting. When I run the Best Practices Analyzer, it shows I only have SP1 and instructs to download SP3. When I check it shows I have SBS2008 SP2 installed.

I guess this means I should download SP2 and re-install it? Don't know if my IT friend downloaded and installed it or not.

Autodiscover has not come up in the Best Practices as an issue. I will research Autodiscover though, and try to check to see if it is setup right.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[markdmac]

There is a difference between Windows SP2 and Exchange SP2.

I have checked your MX records per our offline discussion. I sent details to the email you provided since you wanted to keep the domain name private.

I have confirmed that your A record is not pointing to your public IP. You currently have 3 MX records, none of which are pointing to your server.

Download and install Exchange SP2 from Microsoft.com. Do the registry edit in my FAQ on this forum first. Then download and install SP3.

Resolve the MX & A record issues and you will have email flowing to your server.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[snotty54]

Hi Mark:

Thank you again for going offline and offering critical advice. I'm ready to go with changes but my internet service is still basically not working. I had to call the regional VP for the Caribbean tonight, a personal friend, to get some action from the ISP, and we have two techs coming out in the morning, hopefully this issue will be finally resolved as I've not had functional internet since last Friday night.

In the meantime, one question on the "A" records. There seems to be an "A" record for a number of things, should I only change the one for "mail" at this time, to point to my domain?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[markdmac]

Yes, just change MAIL for now. If you later wish to bring

http://WWW in

house then you could change that. I would advise you do the least bit of changes first and get to a stable state before making further changes.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[snotty54]

Thanks Mark. All in hiatus, until I get net back.

 

[snotty54]

Hi Mark:

Nervous little me has finally "crossed the Rubicon" and I backed up my office machine, loaded win7 ultimate and have almost completed the reloading of all applications. All my data is always kept on a separate hard drive so its not an issue. I have tried to apply for my ssl certificate but then realized I needed to make all the changes at my hosting service first so I've reconfigured all the "a" records and "mx" records. As a little insurance, I did add an mx record pointing to my hosting service with a 100 priority and my server domain with a 10 priority in case my server isn't configured properly for a while. It instructs me to wait 24 to 48 hours for the propagation of those changes, I hope they're done sooner! I will log on again tonight. Once I see those, I'll enable the certificate and then spread it out to the clients and run whatever wizards will help me reconnect the email boxes. Should I disable the pop3 connector to get my email directly?

Just got off the phone with my isp's internet help desk and they didn't know what an "RDNS" record was. I'll have to try and contact technical sources here but they don't publish those numbers.

Any particular wizards I should run to get the email on track?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[markdmac]

You can do the SSL cert at any time. It is independent of everything else.

The POP 3 connector can stay, it wont' get anything to download once mail starts flowing to your server.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[snotty54]

Hi Mark:

I believe I've done everything you've suggested so far, but no mail flowing anywhere. At least I have my internet back and can check web mail on my hosting service. Can you suggest some things for me to check to see what the problem is?

Also, I managed to get the ssl cert loaded tonight, yea! Course, now its giving me big warnings that the cert is for the wrong address and advising me not to use the web site!! Here is my post on the Exchange forum, no answers so far, also had asked about FQDN, which is obviously the problem with the cert. I think my server thinks the fqdn is "remote.domain.com" while I put in the cert the fqdn is "mail.domain.com".

Anyway...

Well, I've compounded my error due to my lack of knowledge. I pointed my "a" records at my hosting service to static ip and pointed my mx records at mail.domain.com and after 24 hours it was showing up properly on

http://www.iptools.com

so I used Exchange Powershell to get the certificate request and used "mail.domain.com" as the fqdn and godaddy took it. Downloaded the the two ssl cert files and tried to use the add a certificate wizard but it didn't like the files. A godaddy tech told me I had to use exchange powershell because that is how I got the request in so I used that and managed to get both files installed. Now I have an error when trying to use remote web workplace where its saying the cert has the wrong address in big red dialogs. Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[markdmac]

That is an easy fix. Re-run the connect to the internet wizard. You have to say you have a domain and want to manage it yourself. When you see remote.domain.com click the link below it and change to mail.domain.com.

I'll check the MX records etc for you and get back to you.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[markdmac]

OK, I checked the MX records. They look good. What I cannot confirm is if the A record the MX record points to is pointing to the right IP address.

I used telnet to hit that IP at pot 25 and it failed. So you need to validate the right IP is used and if it is then check your firewall since it is blocking port 25.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[snotty54]

Hi Mark:

Thanks, as stated, heading home for lunch and will check. Researching linksys port update procedure now.

Rgds,

Scott

 

[snotty54]

Hi Mark:

The "a" records are definitely pointing to the correct static ip. I did some more research with Linksys and have discovered another way to open ports and perhaps the correct way, rather than the way I had been doing it, although it worked for some email ssl ports (995 and 465), that I had opened for my isp email accounts and that worked but I'll try the other way this evening when I get home.

Thanks for your thoughtful assistance, hope the vacation is going well. Did you travel or StayCation?

Rgds,

Scott

 

[markdmac]

Sounds good. Hopefully you will get those ports opened up right.

My family and I are enjoying Santa Fe (we live near Phoenix). Not my normal vacation to Cancun for SCUBA diving, my wife started a new job and couldn't get the time off so we are just doing a mini vacation. I MISS MY SCUBA DIVING! The Georia O'Keefe museum just doesn't compare.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[snotty54]

Well, at least you're taking a vacation, they are so important. I love diving too, it is what brought me to where I live originally, and then I fell in love with the place and that was 30 years ago.

Working on my stuff tonight, ever forward.

Update as I achieve any milestones, like email. Heh-heh