[swinter]

hi all, having some obvious dns issues from launching a new website hosted outside of our local domain that has the same url address as our local domain. (http://ourdomain.com vs mailto someone @ ourdomian.com) I just want to isolate the BES not being an issue. (i'm not convinced it was setup correctly to begin with) I did a simple MX record lookup and retreived the following results:

Banner: besserver.somedomain.com ESMTP ready at Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:47:43 -0800 [109 ms]
Connect Time: 0.109 seconds - Good
Transaction Time: 0.781 seconds - Good
Relay Check: OK - This server is not an open relay.
Rev DNS Check: OK - xx.xxx.xxx.xx resolves to adsl-xx-xxx-xxx-xx.dsl.scrm01.pacbell.net
GeoCode Info: Geocoding server is unavailable
Session Transcript: HELO mxtoolbox.com - DIAGNOSTIC TEST - See MxToolbox - Managed IT Services for Small Business
250 besserver.somedomain.com Hello Unknown, ready to receive from - mxtoolbox.com - DIAGNOSTIC TEST - See MxToolbox - Managed IT Services for Small Business [125 ms]
HELO mxtoolbox.com
250 besserver.somedomain.com Hello Unknown, ready to receive from - mxtoolbox.com [109 ms]
MAIL FROM: <test@mxtoolbox.com>
250 <test@mxtoolbox.com> Sender OK [109 ms]
RCPT TO: <test@mxtoolbox.com>
551 This is not a relay host - mail must be to or from host domain. [109 ms]
QUIT
221 closing connection. Goodbye! [109 ms

In addition, looking up dnsstuff informs me that the BES is advertising itself as a mail server.

I'm trying to resolve the MX record vs. the DNS record (URL) and then this came up.

To clarify:
there exists a website called mydomain.com (hosted by an external server NOT in the internal domain)
we have an EXCHANGE server that hosts an MX record (somebody @ mydomain.com)
And apparently, the BES is advertising itself as a host?

I am trying to become competent in the area of DNS (study, learn, study)
I more or less understand the implication of the reverse lookup record (PTR)
(please clarify the implication, it would be good for my understanding in a "real world" application)

The thing(s) I forgot to mention! (perhaps not the only thing(s)?) The BES resides on it's own box. The exchange server is also the PDC (1 BDC), the only DNS server. (no backup dns, no secondary dns, no replication....not a good scenario from what i've learned in my studies)

wisdom is awaited with eagerness....

[x14]

Not sure what DNS you are looking at (internal vs external).

As far as BES having a DNS record. In Active Directory by default all servers and workstations are registered in DNS.

Is your Exchange server not able to receive mail?

[mahoward]

First of all it should be no problem to host your website externally vs. receiving mail internally. For resolution and web browsing all you need is an A record. For mail routing you need an MX record.

As for the BES / Exchange MX, is BES running on the Exchange server? BES does not run it's own SMTP server so if you are connecting to the same box you are talking to the Exchange SMTP service.