Mac Server - Mail Service Setup

hi,
i'm a newbie to dns & mail hosting..

GOAL: Setup mail service on my Mac Mini & later host a website on the same server with the same ip

Having problem in setting up mail service on a Mac Server.
Currently running on OSX 10.8.3 , Mac Server vers 2.2.1(169)
My Mac Mini Server (e.g.192.168.1.2) is connected to a Modem/Router (e.g.192.168.1.1).

I already bought a domain name & a static IP. I also did a port forwarding to 192.168.1.2 e.g. 80, 25, 587, 110, 143
let say my domain is headache.com and my static ip is 60.70.80.100

Previously I try to setup the DNS inside my mac mini pointing to 60.70.80.100 but it is not working, I know I did wrong somewhere..

So, then I get some help from my friend by using another DNS server
which point to my mac mini server 60.70.80.100
what he did is set the A record for headache.com which point to my IP & an MX record for mail.headache.com

Then I enable mail service inside Mac Mini.. but nothing happen..
so I went to Mac Server DNS service >>
add A record for headache.com which pointing to itself >192.168.1.2
add A record for mail.headache.com also pointing to >192.168.1.2
add MX record for mail.headache.com

so I add a user and try to setup a mail account and did a mail connection doctor.. which show green light..
I also setup another account on different machine which run on different network ip which also show green light (does this mean everything is OK??)

But when i try to send/receive mail sometimes I can send out email from the server. but most of the time I cant do anything from outside computer.

this is the delivery failure message I get:
"Could not deliver message to the following recipient(s):

Failed Recipient: [email protected]
Reason: Failed to connect to the recipients mail server. No DNS information was found for the 'headache.com' domain.

-- The header and top 20 lines of the message follows --

Received: from xx.xx.xx.xx [xx.xx.xx.xx] by smtp.citra.com with SMTP;
Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:42:43 +0800
From: abc <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: dr macbook from .com 2 .my
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:42:09 +0800
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 6.2 \(1499\))
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1499)

1. Am I doing the DNS setting right or other setting that I have missed?? HELP please, I rreaaaallly neeed a solution for this....
2. is it possible to setup the dns ONLY within the mac mini, without using any external dns server. which I failed to do so..
3. Can user access their mac email account through web via url??
4. If possible how do I set 2 diferrent subdomain to the same IP i.e. headache.com & mail.headache.com to the same IP.

Start with naming your server server.headache.com

Then be sure that you have an MX record configured on you DNS cpanel pointing to your static IP.

thanks MacsWork,
I've done the renaming part & is it a must to put server at the beginning of the server name..
but can u explain a bit detail on the steps that I should do... this is done within the mac itself right...
and I did point my IP through an external DNS.. should I create the same record (like I explain above) inside the mac server DNS AGAIN..

really need a thorough explanation.. helppp

You shouldn't point A and MX records to an internal private IP space like 192.168

DNS servers out in the internet will not be able to route any info

I suggest you give have a look at this article
OSX Lion Server Part 02

And also look at Todd Olthoff's YouTube tutorials for Lion server

Mac 10.8 Mountain Lion Server Tutorials - YouTube

hi louishen,

thanx for the links.. and I have watch the youtube link before but it seem not thoroughly explain in my case..
anyway, can you share/show with me, your domain name register perhaps I can also use it (some guidelines would be nice). Because I bought a domain in my country, but inside my registrar the only thing tht I can do is set/Change Primary (Pri.) and/or Secondary (Sec.) name servers. There is no DNS management. Therefore, I have to set the nameserver pointing to another system/server which will set the DNS, but the problem is I cant see it myself, I only gave instruction.

2. As i mention in my prev post, is it possible, after purchasing the domain, I would point the IP directly to my mac mini.. since that there is no dns management inside my domain name registrar. Theres only nameserver setting inside there.

3. louishen, if I have follow what u have mention earlier, then what should i add inside the dns in my mac server??

thanx

You really need to set the A records and MX records on your ISP, you cannot do that on your own network, otherwise anybody could setup their own network as CocaCola.com and propagate that through the world's DNS system.

Once you do have DNS records setup on the ISP, your server doesn't really need to act as a DNS server itself on such a small network, it only needs to know the ISP DNS server so it can interpret request to the web.

As for pointing services like mail to your mac mini, services traffic from the Internet to a specific device inside your network (your Mini) is the job of the router, not really DNS, so you would need the router to do any port forwarding to the minis IP or MAC address

understood louishen,

1. I hv set the A & MX record on my ISP DNS server.
2.I also hv set the port forwarding in my router for all the necessary thng .e.g. port 25

the only thing confuse me is: in Mac Mini Server there is a portion for DNS. Is there anything that i should configure in there in order for my services to function correctly?

"it only needs to know the ISP DNS server so it can interpret request to the web."
Where should I put this inside my little server..

thanks...

newbie

You can set up a DNS server on your own network but this is an unnecessary complication on a home network, so I would skip it for now.

The purpose of running a DNS service inside your network would be to keep most DNS requests inside your network, but DNS requests make up a puny amount of bandwidth in your case.

For a large corporate network it makes more sense, in that you can keep the hundreds and thousands of DNS requests inside a corporate network, reducing the amount of external requests that would use up your outgoing bandwidth

So its only a real necessity if you have hundreds of clients using DNS

ok..
meaning when setting up mac server I just leave it as it is, without amend anything inside the dns.
Hopefully my mail service will worked!
will update later...

thanks louishen