Quick guidance on PTR record needed please

Help! (Home for newbies)
1

Hi guys, my server has been running now for a few weeks and now I have got used to VM I am really impressed with the speed in which it operates.

Being new to all of this I have asked a few questions to get things like DNS setup and working which for the most part seems to be great, however I am stumped by PTR records and my sites emails are all bouncing because apparently the ptr IP address is incorrect.

The nameserver ns1.mydomain.com is set to 188.94.76.184 so I setup the PTR record as :

184.76.94.188.in-addr.arpa

Here is a config for the domain I am using as an example:

$ttl 38400
@ IN SOA pixel.webhostsheffield.com. root.pixel.webhostsheffield.com. (
1357993594
10800
3600
604800
38400 )
webhostsheffield.com. IN NS ns1.webhostsheffield.com.
webhostsheffield.com. IN NS ns2.webhostsheffield.com.
ftp.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
m.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
localhost.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 127.0.0.1
webmail.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
admin.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
mail.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
webhostsheffield.com. IN MX 5 mail.webhostsheffield.com.
webhostsheffield.com. IN TXT “v=spf1 a mx a:webhostsheffield.com ip4:188.94.76.184 ?all”
_domainkey.webhostsheffield.com. IN TXT “t=y; o=-;”
2013._domainkey.webhostsheffield.com. IN TXT “k=rsa; t=y; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQC1MQP165dsUppE/s8brwk/zmiwbzmMoWBr8F/Z/6D0H4MZWD/UYse5Wi/4GmrFvIka6JFwOKBubpP55kEmsQ+a6bgfE3h+EQ479wGzl9j4QDIzJ+cmn782Avj66SjFJYfQTTPwYW0NldYke+wZdTtXHfkmP9XCGlnb8C9/DS7UiwIDAQAB”
ns1.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
ns2.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.189
webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
pixel.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
www.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
ns1.webhostsheffield.com. IN NS 184.76.94.188.in-addr.arpa.
autoconfig.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184
*.webhostsheffield.com. IN A 188.94.76.184

As far as I can tell I set it up correctly but from the email results for almost all incoming messages it would appear not, if anyone could shed some light and help me get this right I would appreciate it as all server emails from free email providers seem to be bouncing

regards

2

Howdy,

In most cases, the PTR record would be setup by your ISP, rather than on your own system.

What you would normally do is give them a call, and tell them you’d like to setup reverse DNS for your IP address.

They’d either set that up on the phone for you, or direct you to an area in a control panel where you can do it there.

-Eric

3

Hi Eric, is that the case even though the DNS is hosted on this server?

Also, is the record format correct?

regards

Leigh

4

Howdy,

Yup!

Even though all other DNS records are hosted on your server, reverse DNS (PTR records) are special. Because your ISP owns that particular IP address block, they are queries for reverse DNS lookups, rather than your own server.

It’s so rare that one has to do anything with PTR records, that I don’t recall the correct syntax for that. So I’m not entirely certain if your syntax is correct (though, if you restart BIND, it’ll tell you in the logs if there’s a syntax error).

-Eric

5

Hi,

I concur with Eric’s point. To clarify, IP address owners control the PTR records, in most cases this falls to the ISP or data center respectively. If you need custom PTR records, and your ISP does not offer a web tool to set them, simply fire them an email or support request. In my experience, if you ask, they will generally have no problem making the adjustment for you.

Best Regards, Peter Knowles TPN Solutions

E: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com
P: 604-782-9342
W: http://www.tpnsolutions.com