From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Feb 25 12: 9:29 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from pilchuck.reedmedia.net (pilchuck.reedmedia.net [209.166.74.74]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8247F37B400 for ; Mon, 25 Feb 2002 12:09:26 -0800 (PST) Received: from reed by pilchuck.reedmedia.net with local-esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 16fRQh-0003Hq-00; Mon, 25 Feb 2002 12:08:59 -0800 Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 12:08:59 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeremy C. Reed" To: Chip Morton Cc: FreeBSD Chat Subject: Re: blocked mail In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20020224193235.01935ab8@threespace.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Sun, 24 Feb 2002, Chip Morton wrote: > >germanium:jack {103} host -t mx cox.net > >Host not found, try again. I don't see that from the three COX nameservers. I see that mx.east.cox.net is the MX. It is running InterMail. > Yep, that's who it is. I'm glad to know that it's not just me. I'm not > sure what the hell MX records are, but thanks for the tip. An MX record basically tells the sending mail server what remote mail server handles the email for a host. For example, aaa.foo's email may be handled by supermailcompany.bar -- so the DNS would indicate that with an MX record. If you don't have an MX record then it tries the A record (which is the IP for the hostname). Also, an MX record has a preference value. So you can list several hosts that can handle email for you. The lower the number, the higher the priority. Usually, the high numbers (lower priority) are just backups, that temporarily queue your mail. (But some use multiple MXs to provide a redundant mail service.) > And to Terry, it's just easier to use the Cox SMTP server because it allows > me to send mail using all my "personalities." The other doesn't have that > convenience. Maybe you could just use your FreeBSD box to handle your outgoing email yourself. (Usually that is even more convenient.) Jeremy C. Reed http://bsd.reedmedia.net/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message