Question

"nameserver timed out" message when sending mail from linux machine; how do i reset DNS

Asked by: njf520

we recently moved the machine that does DNS for our office to a new IP.
since then, my linux box cannot send mail.  returned messages in root's mailbox contain these lines:

    **********************************************
    **      THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY      **
    **  YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE  **
    **********************************************

The original message was received at Wed, 9 Aug 2006 10:33:30 -0700
from localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
451 satorilabs.com: Name server timeout
Warning: message still undelivered after 4 hours
Will keep trying until message is 5 days old
---
the messages never get delivered.  i keep reading that i need to chance /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/hosts.  but, i am not sure how to change them.  i changed /etc/resolv.conf so it now reads:

; generated by /sbin/dhclient-script
nameserver 192.168.11.175

but, that didn't change anything.  do i have to restart a process for that file to be read?

i am sure there is more info that someone might need to fix this issue.  let me know what info you need and i'll append it to this question.

thanks.

njf


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Asked On
2006-08-10 at 11:40:41ID21950355
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Topic

Linux Administration

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Answers

 

by: pjedmondPosted on 2006-08-11 at 05:25:38ID: 17295485

Things to check:

1.    Check that the server can connect to the nameserver. Can you ping it? Does routing need updating?

2.    I'm suprised that your mailserver is still localhost.localdomain. Normally, I would expect the /etc/hosts file to have an entry in it and hostname to be set. This doesn't stop the server sending mail, but does imply that vwery little configuration has been done.

3.    For the emails returned can you:

dig @192.168.1.1 domain.co.uk all
dig @192.168.1.1 domain.co.uk MX

Obviously an MX record needs to exist as this tells the server where to deliver the email.

4.   If you get a mail exchange MX ip from the above, can you ping it? (This doesn't allways work due to firewalls, but is worth a try). To test whether it is really functioning, try from the mailserver:

telnet mx.ip.ad.dr 25

This attempts to connect to port 25 which should be active if the server is to receive mail.

5.    If you can't connect to port 25, then you need to look at your route and network configuration. Possible for there to be problems with the firewall.

From the error that you have give, I'd expect the problem to be about point 1 or point 3.

(   (()
(`-' _\
 ''  ''

 

by: njf520Posted on 2006-08-11 at 10:35:46ID: 17298007

1) i can ping the nameserver:
# ping 192.168.11.175
PING 192.168.11.175 (192.168.11.175) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.11.175: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=0.259 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.175: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=0.111 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.175: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=0.121 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.175: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=0.112 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.175: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=0.127 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.175: icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=0.126 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.175: icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=0.128 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.175: icmp_seq=8 ttl=128 time=0.124 ms

--- 192.168.11.175 ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 received, 0% packet loss, time 6993ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.111/0.138/0.259/0.047 ms
----
i am not sure how to carry out the command you list in #3.  do i put my nameserver address in where you have "192.168.1.1"?  what do i put in where you have "domain.co.uk?  is that top level domain name or the name and domain of the linux box?  for example, if my top level domain is company.com and the machine is linux.company.com, which am i using there?

thanks.
njf

 

by: njf520Posted on 2006-08-14 at 10:27:12ID: 17311951

i ended up fixing the problem myself.  i had to restart the linux machine for other reasons and, upon restarting, DNS worked again.  not totally sure why.

nick

 

by: pjedmondPosted on 2006-08-14 at 10:41:20ID: 17312038

domain.co.uk is the DNS domain that you are querying - i.e the domain of your network.

If you put in a request in the Community Support forum, then they will refund your points for you.

Glad to see you got it sorted:)

(   (()
(`-' _\
 ''  ''

 

by: njf520Posted on 2006-08-14 at 14:17:19ID: 17313667

thanks.

cheers,
nick

 

by: PAQ_ManPosted on 2006-08-14 at 17:01:34ID: 17314677

Closed, 125 points refunded.
PAQ_Man
Community Support Moderator

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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