Help with reverse DNS

[NightFalcon]

Well I'm kind of in a bad position right now (as in I have no idea what to do ), so would greatly appreciate some help...

I just finished setting up a server for a small local company. It's Windows 2003 running Exchange 2003 for e-mail. E-Mail is the only use for this server besides being a domain controller, but that's not the point. E-Mail works fine, all users can send and receive. But we have problems with AOL. And please don't comment on AOL's policies, I'm not here to debate that, I'm here to get this working.

Basically after talking to AOL tech support today I find out that the IP of our server has no reverse DNS records which are required now to send e-mail to @aol.com addresses. While I have some experience with forward DNS, I have never dealt with reverse DNS.

What makes this worse is that I have no control over the DNS server which is somewhere outside of the main organization. I can only talk to their tech guys by e-mail. Currently all we have is a forward DNS with an MX record which points to the right IP. The router forwards all the e-mail to the right internal IP and everybody is happy. Sending on the other hand is a big problem, especially since many of their customers have an @aol.com account.

Please tell me what I need to do or who do I need to contact in order to have reverse DNS information updated. I'm currently trying to get the number of the ISP since I think it's something to do with them based on what I've read so far, and as I've said before I can talk to the DNS host through e-mail and have them make any changes we need. Please let me know asap and thanks for any help.

 

[spidey07]

you need to talk to whoever has authority of the domain. They can create the reverse lookup record you require.

The record will have to be added to the DNS server for the domain in a special zone. Since this is internet DNS you'll need access to the auhoritative name server for the public address you are using.

Also its a VERY good idea to have reverse look records for ever single public IP address.

 

[dc5]

Reverse Look Up Zone - Setup

 

[NightFalcon]

Could be a little more specific on what you mean? I ran a reverse dns query, and on the last step I get this: Asking ns2.primusdsl.net. for xxx.xxx.181.216.in-addr.arpa PTR record: Reports that no PTR records exist.

Now I think that primus is their ISP, but not sure. Do I need to be talking to them about this, or do I need to be talking to the DNS host about this? Unfortunately the guys who host DNS don't seem to know much more about this then I do, so anything I tell them has to be basically directions for what to do.

 

[NightFalcon]

dc5, I'm not the one hosting the DNS records, so directions on setting it up on Windows 2003 don't help. Thanks for the info though.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: NightFalcon
Could be a little more specific on what you mean? I ran a reverse dns query, and on the last step I get this: Asking ns2.primusdsl.net. for xxx.xxx.181.216.in-addr.arpa PTR record: Reports that no PTR records exist.

Now I think that primus is their ISP, but not sure. Do I need to be talking to them about this, or do I need to be talking to the DNS host about this? Unfortunately the guys who host DNS don't seem to know much more about this then I do, so anything I tell them has to be basically directions for what to do.

call the provider (or have the other guy call) and say "I need a reverse lookup record for x.x.x.x pointing to mail.mydomain.com)

where x.x.x.x is the public IP address of the mail server and mail.mydomain.com is the fully qualified domain name of the mail server (the one your MX record uses)

 

[NightFalcon]

All right, I'll do that just as soon as I can find their phone number. Is there anything that needs to be done on the DNS side, or is it all just ISP?

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: NightFalcon
All right, I'll do that just as soon as I can find their phone number. Is there anything that needs to be done on the DNS side, or is it all just ISP?

whoever hosts the reverse lookup zone is responsible for the records. Most times that is the ISP.

you can do a whois on the address to be sure.

 

[Ditiris]

Is there anything that needs to be done on the DNS side, or is it all just ISP?

Spidey's got you pointed in the right direction. I've had the same thing happen before. You just need to call the ISP and get the IP + hostname added to the reverse record. You're looking at maybe two minutes of work once you find the right number. ^_^

Might take a day for the change to propagate.

 

[duke2106]

Granted, the following would not help with your reverse lookup issue, but just to make sure:

If you are running Active Directory (it sounds like you are if it is a domain controller), you have to have DNS installed on the server. The way I have mine set up at home is my computers contact my DNS server for information, and I have forwarders setup if my DNS server does not have the information I need.

I didn't know if you knew this, but it's a good piece of information to know for those starting out setting up a windows 2003 domain.

 

[NightFalcon]

Yea I do have a DNS server installed, but it's only for the Active Directory to work. The nameservers for our domain point to another location.

As for the reverse DNS, I talked to those guys on the phone and they actually told me to send an e-mail instead. I did, got a response within a few mins asking for the IP and hostname. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be all set

Thanks for all your help guys.