hello all, is there a way to put in the address for a mail server for a computer on my network so that it doesnt have to be changed when the PC is on another connection...i.e.

Home network
192.168.0.254=mail server(FC3), Qmail mail.mydomain.net
192.1680.# (windows XP PC's/laptops connecting to mailserver...)
192.1680.#
192.1680.#

now in the email program for these PC's/laptops i have to put 192.168.0.254 to access the email, cause if you try to access something hosted on ur own network that is on the internet, it wont respond,
so my question is how do i setup the PC/laptop so that when i am on the internal network it will get it from 192.168.0.254, but when i am out of home, it will look for the mail at mail.mydomain.net...

so really i want to know if there is a way to doit?
cause its an inconvinence having to change it every time im away from home...
thanx

It sounds like the easy answer is to get your dns corrected so that it WILL work from home on your router. That way you can specify mail.yourdomain.com in your mail client and leave it that way forever.

Do you have port forwarding setup on your router so that ports 110 and 25 are forwarded to your mail server?

Is your public IP static or dynamic?

Are you using a 3rd party dns service, like zoneedit.com or dyndns.org? How did you create your dns records and who manages them?

ok i have a static IP, my ports are forwarded, and i use www.godaddy.com (my domain host) for DNS, and i am quite sure DNS is setup correctly, its just that cause its on the same network as the host, it wont resolve the name...

thanx

I think it should be working. I've done this before and never had problems. When you run a telnet command to mail.yourdomain.com, what happens?

telnet mail.yourdomain.com 25

This should at least give you a greeting banner for your server. If not, then maybe your router sucks. What model is it? Last time I had a problem like this, I ended up having to update the firmware which fixed my problem.

if i put in mail.mydomain.net in the tenet it will goto my router login, if i go mail.mydomain.net:25 it says
C:\Documents and Settings\User>telnet mail.thisspace.net:25
Connecting To mail.thisspace.net:25...Could not open connection to the host, on
port 23: Connect failed

C:\Documents and Settings\User>telnet mail.thisspace.net:110
Connecting To mail.thisspace.net:110...Could not open connection to the host, on
port 23: Connect failed

and my router is a dynalink RTA 230 with the latest firmware

thanx

>> mail.thisspace.net:25

Don't use a colon here... just put a whitespace instead and see what that does for you.

ok now i get this

C:\Documents and Settings\User>telnet mail.thisspace.net 25
Connecting To mail.thisspace.net...Could not open connection to the host, on por
t 25: Connect failed

?
and if i do port 110
then it takes me to a new screen thats just black and has nothing there, then if i try to type it takes me back to command prompt

Hmm.... this could be a problem...

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/lookup...ce.net&type=NS

There are no NS records for your domain. I don't know if Godaddy will allow you to make NS records for your domain or not. If they don't, you have 2 options. You can install and configure your own DNS or you can use a 3rd party DNS service like Zoneedit.com or dyndns.org. There are actually several more that are free and you may find them to be more user friendly than these... shop around if you're going to use a free one, but I've found Zoneedit.com to be pretty easy to configure.

**Edit... When you're done, go here and make sure your server passes as many of these tests as possible...

http://www.dnsreport.com/

By the way... I noticed you have a port open...

1666/tcp open netview-aix-6

I dont' know what this program is, but I hope it is very secure! This is exactly the sort of thing a hacker will look for when trying to break into your box. If "netview-aix-6" is really that important to you, I would definitely make sure you have all the latest updates... otherwise, you should think about closing this port.

While you're at it, you may want to think about closing some other ports that aren't so important. LIke if you dont have anyone using your IMAP or IMAPS services, I would close these ports until you're ready to start using them.

ok thanx and i do have an NS record for www.thisspace.net or thisspace.net
but it doesnt come up with one for mail.thisspace.net...
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/lookup...ce.net&type=NS

In that case, maybe in your mail client, you need to just put "thisspace.net" instead of "mail.thisspace.net". I just checked your domain on dnsreport.com and it looked pretty good for "thisspace.net".

The main warning that was shown at dnsreport was you have no reverse DNS. Sometimes your ISP will allow you to setup reverse DNS records for your IP address. You can call them and ask. If they won't do it, I would be very disappointed. If they are giving you a static IP and if you're on a "business" type account that allows servers, then you SHOULD be able to get reverse dns records created for your IP.

ok i will try just thisspace.net

nope just says the connection was refused...

Hmmm, well then I'm running out of good ideas. I know this can be done because I've done it before myself with a cheap d-link router. Maybe if your router supports VPN, you could setup a VPN tunnel so that when you're away from home, you can still access the machines in your house using 192.168 IP addresses. Basically with VPN, the router assigns you an IP as if you were part of the LAN, even though traffic from you happens to be coming from a public (external) IP address. This would solve your problem. You could put in the LAN ips into your mail client and even when you're away from home, you'll still be able to connect to your servers. Just an idea.... cause I'm not sure what else to check.

You may want to search this site for recent posts by me. I was just talking to someone else about possibly getting a new router that is more sophisticated. I'm using a SonicWALL TZ170 which supports 1-to1 NAT and also has excellent VPN abilities. Either one of these solutions would solve your problem, and it would make adding more servers in the future a breeze. You'd just need an ISP that will allow you to have multiple static IPs coming down the same line.

ok thanx, i will try out vpn, and i will prob get a new router in around a month or so, unless this works