[Solved] Use HelioHost as a backup email server

[MauroF]

I've registered a domain, foti.eu and, because I've not installed a mail server yet, I would like for emails to that domains to be received and handled by the heliohost mail server.

 

I've created a subdomain (and a test email account) and the DNS for my domain is thus configured:

foti.eu       A         2.238.78.104
www.foti.eu   A         2.238.78.104
foti.eu       MX  20    fotieu-backup.wolfcube.heliohost.org

However, when I try to send an email to test@foti.eu I get the following message from my email provider

<test@foti.eu>: host fotieu-backup.wolfcube.heliohost.org[65.19.143.6] said:
    550-The mail server could not deliver mail to test@foti.eu.  The account
    or 550-domain may not exist, they may be blacklisted, or missing the proper
    dns 550 entries. (in reply to RCPT TO command)

It looks like the mail server is trying to forward the email to my website (which of course will not work since there is no server installed), but I would like it to handle it. How can I do this? Please note that transferring the DNS settings to point my domain to heliohost is not an option as I need it where it is now, I would like just the emails to get to heliohost.

[Krydos]

You're getting that error because foti.eu isn't hosted on our server.

 

You can fix that without updating your nameservers by changing your main domain to foti.eu. https://www.heliohost.org/classic/support/scripts/domain

[MauroF]

Ok that worked, although I would consider it a bit of a "dirty" solution, especially since by doing this way I lost my domain "wolfcube.heliohost.org", also I couldn't do the same thing with another domain if I wanted to. Is there any other way to do it?

 

Anyway, as a temporary solution it works fine, thanks a lot!

 

P.S. please beware that the script you've sent me is NOT https, and it's not really nice since I've had to put my account password...

[Krydos]

Changing the main domain is the only way to get around the nameserver requirement. It wouldn't be "dirty" if you wouldn't refuse to change your nameservers (even for 30 seconds). If you did change your nameservers you could add the domain as an alias or an addon domain.

 

Yes, we know the old classic website doesn't have SSL. It's so old that if we try to add SSL it breaks it completely. I need to rewrite a couple of the old pages, such as the main domain change script, on the new website format before we can retire the old site completely.

[MauroF]

Oh, well, I didn't want to change my DNS permanently, but if it's just the time to set up an addon domain and then they can be changed back I can defintely do it.

 

I'm sorry, probably I didn't make that clear enough.

 

Do I just to need to change the A records for my domain or I need to change the DNS servers to that of heliohost? Because I just tried changing the A record and when adding the addon domain it said

 

(XID mqu5yp) Sorry, the domain is already pointed to an IP address that does not appear to use DNS servers associated with this server. Please transfer the domain to this servers nameservers or have your administrator add one of its nameservers to /etc/ips.remotedns and make the proper A entries on that remote nameserver.

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by MauroF

[Sn1F3rt]

Changing the A record won't work as it'll always show the Queued page on the respective server.

 

You'll have to set your nameservers to that of HelioHost.

[MauroF]

Sweet, that worked perfectly. Thanks you both!

[Sn1F3rt]

You're welcome!