Webmaster forum - Weird email redirect problem

Author

Weird email redirect problem

E-Star

2007-04-20, 10:18 pm

This is somewhat a webmaster problem so I'm posting it here.

It's a confusing situation. A company was purchased including it's
website, which I am now hosting (both web and email). The transfer was
less than smooth and the domain ended up expiring. The original owners
(or hosts or whoever) got back the domain via a SnapNames auction.

They gave me access to their SnapNames account which I tranferred within
SnapNames to another newly created account. So this is an internal
transfer with SnapNames.

Ok, so for a month the website has been working fine and I have been
getting incoming emails all along. So far so good.....until a few days
ago.

Emails sent from my place of work to this domain gets redirected to the
original owners/hosts of the domain, which is a Hotmail account!! So
email from more than one sender at my place of work all gets redirected.
This is true to more than one account for the domain I host. But just
the one domain I host not others.

So in Summary:

user1@myplaceofwork.com -> user1@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected)
user2@myplaceofwork.com -> user1@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected)
user1@myplaceofwork.com -> user2@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected)
user2@myplaceofwork.com -> user2@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected)

user1@anythingelse.com -> user1@problemdomainIhost.com (works fine)
user1@anythingelse.com -> user2@problemdomainIhost.com (works fine)

So after winning the domain back it got placed in manage.snapnames.com,
which is garbage, but that's besides the point. It doesn't even offer
DNS service so I set up DNS service through DNSexit.com.

I'm not seeing those emails by my server at all in my SMTP logs. The
DNS service with DNSexit.com is newly created.

So my question is, where are these being redirected from?

I called manage.snapnames.com and they said all their record contains is
the nameservers to DNSexit.com.

My place of work does not do their email inhouse. The have their
website and email hosted via their ISP. I have access to their account
setup, and nowhere via that web interface does it show that anything
should be redirected, and especially to that Hotmail account which has
nothing to do with them.

My guess is with the garbage registrar manage.snapnames.com but I'm not
sure if they could or would have some sort of MX record. My DNS and MX
records have been confirmed to be correct and point to my server. And
it has been setup for a month so propegation is not an issue.

Ok, the first reply is going to be someone telling me to look at the
header of a redirected email. Remember how I said the transfer didn't
go all that well? I've asked twice via email and one I left a
voicemail. So far no luck in getting the full email source.

But where do other people think the problem is? It seems like an MX
record issue but my DNSexit.com account was newly created and I didnt
put no forwarding entry in there to some guy's Hotmail account. So I'm
left with the registrar.

skmoab@gmail.com

2007-04-21, 3:17 am

You might want to move to another hosting. Godaddy recently messed up
my site. I moved to
http://www.midphase.com/newaff/redi...reative=Banners|midPhase|TextLinks|TextLink&redirURL=
and everything work fine. They even help moved my site over.

On Apr 20, 8:00 pm, unix_c...@linuxmail.org (E-Star) wrote:
> This is somewhat a webmaster problem so I'm posting it here.
>
> It's a confusing situation. A company was purchased including it's
> website, which I am now hosting (both web and email). The transfer was
> less than smooth and the domain ended up expiring. The original owners
> (or hosts or whoever) got back the domain via a SnapNames auction.
>
> They gave me access to their SnapNames account which I tranferred within
> SnapNames to another newly created account. So this is an internal
> transfer with SnapNames.
>
> Ok, so for a month the website has been working fine and I have been
> getting incoming emails all along. So far so good.....until a few days
> ago.
>
> Emails sent from my place of work to this domain gets redirected to the
> original owners/hosts of the domain, which is a Hotmail account!! So
> email from more than one sender at my place of work all gets redirected.
> This is true to more than one account for the domain I host. But just
> the one domain I host not others.
>
> So in Summary:
>
> u...@myplaceofwork.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected)
> u...@myplaceofwork.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected)
> u...@myplaceofwork.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected)
> u...@myplaceofwork.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected)
>
> u...@anythingelse.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (works fine)
> u...@anythingelse.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (works fine)
>
> So after winning the domain back it got placed in manage.snapnames.com,
> which is garbage, but that's besides the point. It doesn't even offer
> DNS service so I set up DNS service through DNSexit.com.
>
> I'm not seeing those emails by my server at all in my SMTP logs. The
> DNS service with DNSexit.com is newly created.
>
> So my question is, where are these being redirected from?
>
> I called manage.snapnames.com and they said all their record contains is
> the nameservers to DNSexit.com.
>
> My place of work does not do their email inhouse. The have their
> website and email hosted via their ISP. I have access to their account
> setup, and nowhere via that web interface does it show that anything
> should be redirected, and especially to that Hotmail account which has
> nothing to do with them.
>
> My guess is with the garbage registrar manage.snapnames.com but I'm not
> sure if they could or would have some sort of MX record. My DNS and MX
> records have been confirmed to be correct and point to my server. And
> it has been setup for a month so propegation is not an issue.
>
> Ok, the first reply is going to be someone telling me to look at the
> header of a redirected email. Remember how I said the transfer didn't
> go all that well? I've asked twice via email and one I left a
> voicemail. So far no luck in getting the full email source.
>
> But where do other people think the problem is? It seems like an MX
> record issue but my DNSexit.com account was newly created and I didnt
> put no forwarding entry in there to some guy's Hotmail account. So I'm
> left with the registrar.

E-Star

2007-04-22, 10:19 pm

I finally got the headers form one of the redirected emails. Turns out
the ISP also hosted this domain before I took it over. The account is
still being paid and hence was active, so emails never got sent out ot
the internet and was not using the actual (and correct) DSN information.

Even more annoying is that they aren't willing to fix the problem since
it's an active account, even though they can see that the nameservers of
the domain do not point to them. I have to now deal directly with the
previous owner on behalf of my cilent and ask if he will terminate his
account.

Anyone experience this? I find this wrong that the host is knowingly
redirecting emails incorrectly. I've temporarily had to instruct my
client and all their users to minimize email use because of the security
breech. (ie. emails were being redirected to the previous owner). I
realize this is only an issue with emails send from within the same host
but still.

<skmoab@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote:

> You might want to move to another hosting. Godaddy recently messed up my
> site. I moved to
> http://www.midphase.com/newaff/redi...c=1&creative=Ba
> nners|midPhase|TextLinks|TextLink&redirURL= and everything work fine. They
> even help moved my site over.
>
> On Apr 20, 8:00 pm, unix_c...@linuxmail.org (E-Star) wrote: > This is
> somewhat a webmaster problem so I'm posting it here. > > It's a confusing
> situation. A company was purchased including it's > website, which I am
> now hosting (both web and email). The transfer was > less than smooth and
> the domain ended up expiring. The original owners > (or hosts or whoever)
> got back the domain via a SnapNames auction. > > They gave me access to
> their SnapNames account which I tranferred within > SnapNames to another
> newly created account. So this is an internal > transfer with SnapNames.
> getting incoming emails all along. So far so good.....until a few days >
> ago. > > Emails sent from my place of work to this domain gets redirected
> to the > original owners/hosts of the domain, which is a Hotmail account!!
> So > email from more than one sender at my place of work all gets
> redirected. > This is true to more than one account for the domain I host.
> But just > the one domain I host not others. > > So in Summary: > >
> u...@myplaceofwork.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected) >
> u...@myplaceofwork.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected) >
> u...@myplaceofwork.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected) >
> u...@myplaceofwork.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (redirected) > >
> u...@anythingelse.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (works fine) >
> u...@anythingelse.com -> u...@problemdomainIhost.com (works fine) > > So
> after winning the domain back it got placed in manage.snapnames.com, >
> which is garbage, but that's besides the point. It doesn't even offer >
> DNS service so I set up DNS service through DNSexit.com. > > I'm not
> seeing those emails by my server at all in my SMTP logs. The > DNS
> service with DNSexit.com is newly created. > > So my question is, where
> are these being redirected from? > > I called manage.snapnames.com and
> they said all their record contains is > the nameservers to DNSexit.com.
> website and email hosted via their ISP. I have access to their account >
> setup, and nowhere via that web interface does it show that anything >
> should be redirected, and especially to that Hotmail account which has >
> nothing to do with them. > > My guess is with the garbage registrar
> manage.snapnames.com but I'm not > sure if they could or would have some
> sort of MX record. My DNS and MX > records have been confirmed to be
> correct and point to my server. And > it has been setup for a month so
> propegation is not an issue. > > Ok, the first reply is going to be
> someone telling me to look at the > header of a redirected email.
> Remember how I said the transfer didn't > go all that well? I've asked
> twice via email and one I left a > voicemail. So far no luck in getting
> the full email source. > > But where do other people think the problem is?
> It seems like an MX > record issue but my DNSexit.com account was newly
> created and I didnt > put no forwarding entry in there to some guy's
> Hotmail account. So I'm > left with the registrar.

Jerry Stuckle

2007-04-22, 10:19 pm

E-Star wrote:[color=darkred]
> I finally got the headers form one of the redirected emails. Turns out
> the ISP also hosted this domain before I took it over. The account is
> still being paid and hence was active, so emails never got sent out ot
> the internet and was not using the actual (and correct) DSN information.
>
> Even more annoying is that they aren't willing to fix the problem since
> it's an active account, even though they can see that the nameservers of
> the domain do not point to them. I have to now deal directly with the
> previous owner on behalf of my cilent and ask if he will terminate his
> account.
>
> Anyone experience this? I find this wrong that the host is knowingly
> redirecting emails incorrectly. I've temporarily had to instruct my
> client and all their users to minimize email use because of the security
> breech. (ie. emails were being redirected to the previous owner). I
> realize this is only an issue with emails send from within the same host
> but still.
>
>
>
> <skmoab@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
>

That's strange. Where are the MX records pointing? If they're pointing
at the new server, what the old host had shouldn't make any difference
(except possibly for email initiated on their servers).

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================

E-Star

2007-04-23, 6:16 am

>
> That's strange. Where are the MX records pointing? If they're pointing
> at the new server, what the old host had shouldn't make any difference
> (except possibly for email initiated on their servers).

The MX record is correct and point to the new server. The problem only
exists with email initiated on their server.