Mail with DNS

shipon_97 · 05-03-2006, 12:06 AM

Friends ,

I have a Linux Enterprise 4 Server . Here i want to configure just postfix mail server , so that user can easily check their mail from my server using Outlook Express . Now i am littlebit confused that is it necessary to install DNS CONFIGURATION in my Linux Machine ? i.e, can i configure any mail server without using DNS ?

acid_kewpie · 05-03-2006, 01:37 AM

how do you propose to send email to gmail.com if you can not find out what the address of gmail.com is? i'm just just using /etc/resolv.conf will satisfy postfix.

num_one · 05-03-2006, 03:59 AM

It depends on whether there is a dedicated DNS server configured in your network to resolve the hostname of your server (in case that you have a domain, but in case you just connect all your machines to the network and use the /etc/hosts to resolve the hostnames to IPs, in this last case you will not need to configure a DNS server in your sever or in any other server in your network, you will need just have an entry of the mail server hostnamein /etc/hosts that translates its hostname to an IP address, but take care that your users will be able to send mail to your server hostname example : (user@serverhostname.hotmail.com)and not send mail to the DomainName example : (user@hotmail.com), if you want users to be able to send mail to (user@DomainName) like (user@hotmail.com) you will need to configure your Domain DNS server to take care of resolving Hostnames to Ips and to allow users to send mail to DomainName as (user@hotmail.com)by having an MX resource recored in your data zone file.

num_one · 05-03-2006, 04:32 AM

any new ideas.........
please

billymayday · 05-03-2006, 04:45 AM

Asuming the machines with outlook are on the local network, you should be able to connect by defining the servier with it's IP address rather than by name. Note that you'll need aomething like dovecot or courier serving mail clients like outlook.

On the external DNS, you should be able to use your ISP's name servers rather than setting one up yourself - it's much easier unless you really need to resolve local names (see above).

Do note that (I assume the outlook Exp users are on windows), that windows also has a hosts files - do a search of your hard drive (c)