How do I PING mailserver 1

[ElijahBaley]

Hi, I am having trouble emailing a few people at the same domain name eg "john@domain.com, fred@domain.com" etc

The problem is that I am not receiving a NDR to indicate what the problem is, and "John and Fred" insist that they are not receiving my mail?

I do not really understand PING and tracrt or WHOIS enquiries, it seems to me that these always relate to a web server (WWW) - how can I test a connection to the mail server, if I do not know its name or address?

Graham
"r tape loading error"

 

[ChrisAC]

Do an nslookup on the domain and look for the primary MX record. This will tell you the address of the mail server.

Hers's an example:

Let's look up the domain microsoft.com!

C:\>nslookup
Default Server: bison.kingston-internet.co.uk
Address: 212.50.161.28

> set q=mx
> microsoft.com
Server: bison.kingston-internet.co.uk
Address: 212.50.161.28

Non-authoritative answer:
microsoft.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail5.microsoft.com
microsoft.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail6.microsoft.com
microsoft.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail1.microsoft.com
microsoft.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail2.microsoft.com
microsoft.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail3.microsoft.com
microsoft.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail4.microsoft.com

microsoft.com nameserver = DNS2.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS1.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS1.TK.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS2.TK.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS3.UK.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS4.UK.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS3.JP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS4.JP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS1.DC.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS2.DC.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS1.SJ.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS2.SJ.MSFT.NET
mail5.microsoft.com internet address = 131.107.3.121
mail6.microsoft.com internet address = 131.107.3.126
mail1.microsoft.com internet address = 131.107.3.125
mail2.microsoft.com internet address = 131.107.3.124
mail3.microsoft.com internet address = 131.107.3.123
>

You can see that there are a number of mailservers with the MX priority 10. At the bottom of the output you can also see the IP addresses for each mail server.

You can then test the connection to the mail server in two ways. First you could ping it:

C:\>ping mail5.microsoft.com

Pinging mail5.microsoft.com [131.107.3.121] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 131.107.3.121: bytes=32 time=180ms TTL=36
Reply from 131.107.3.121: bytes=32 time=180ms TTL=36
Reply from 131.107.3.121: bytes=32 time=230ms TTL=36
Reply from 131.107.3.121: bytes=32 time=180ms TTL=36

C:\>

Or, you could telnet to it directly ..


C:\>telnet mail5.microsoft.com 25

220 inet-imc-05.redmond.corp.microsoft.com Microsoft.com ESMTP Server Tue, 29 Ja
n 2002 01:36:02 -0800


Hope this helps!

Chris.

************************
Chris Andrew, CCNA
chrisac@gmx.co.uk
************************

 

[ElijahBaley]

Thanks Chris

I have not yet worked out the syntax of nslookup - but it looks just what I need,

Regards

Graham
"r tape loading error"

 

[ChrisAC]

No problem! Try this web site .

http://www.port53.co.uk

On the front page click on "Tools and stuff" and then click on "DNS Query Tool". Enter a domain like cisco.com and hit enter:

DNS lookup for the domain [cisco.com]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Authoritative Name Servers - This indicates which name servers hold answers with authoritative inf ormation regarding this domain.


cisco.com name server NS2.cisco.com
cisco.com name server NS1.cisco.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start of Authority - The SOA record indicates that this server is the best source of information for the data within this zone.

cisco.com start of authority dns-sj11.cisco.com postmaster.cisco.com(
2023024 ;serial (version)
7200 ;refresh period
1800 ;retry refresh this often
864000 ;expiration period
86400 ;minimum TTL
)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MX Record - The MX record specifies a mail exchanger for the domain name, this mail exch anger will either process or forward mail for this domain.

cisco.com mail is handled (pri=10) by proxy1.cisco.com
cisco.com mail is handled (pri=10) by proxy2.cisco.com
cisco.com mail is handled (pri=10) by proxy3.cisco.com
cisco.com mail is handled (pri=20) by proxy5.cisco.com
cisco.com mail is handled (pri=20) by proxy6.cisco.com
cisco.com mail is handled (pri=20) by proxy9.cisco.com
cisco.com mail is handled (pri=10) by proxy0.cisco.com

I like to use nslookup from WinNT or 2k but you could use this web site for the same thing!

Chris.


************************
Chris Andrew, CCNA
chrisac@gmx.co.uk
************************

 

[ElijahBaley]

Thanks Chris

Thats a great utility, I am sure I will use it in the future,

It seems that the domain name that I am interested in does not return any MX record information?

I do know that the domain name that I am interested in is handled by a MS Exchange server in another domain.

Does this mean that the information required to pass the mail from domain "a" to "b" (where the Exchange server is hosted) is missing?

Graham
"r tape loading error"

 

[ChrisAC]

Graham,

If you e-mail me with the domain I will have a look for you! Mail me at chrisac@gmx.co.uk

Chris.
************************
Chris Andrew, CCNA
chrisac@gmx.co.uk
************************

 

[ElijahBaley]

Thanks for all your help Chris,

Graham
"r tape loading error"