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I'm trying to move an email server we have using SmarterMail to AWS. I've provisioned a new EC2 instance using W2016, installed the software and assigned a new Elastic IP. I've opened ports for what I think it's required as in:

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But still don't receive any emails there. Any ideas on what I might be missing?


I've just got this answer from Amazon after submitting the form here https://aws.amazon.com/forms/ec2-email-limit-rdns-request?catalog=true&isauthcode=true

To assist, we have checked and confirmed that there are no email sending limitations on your account. Additionally, we also tried to configure the rDNS entry for disgrafic.es as 52.28.13.199, however this attempt failed.

The mapping for this reverse DNS entry is failing because the PTR record doesn't match the A record for that domain. We currently require the forward A record to match the PTR record for all reverse DNS entries.

You can either provide us with an alternate hostname, or configure the A record for this domain to match the desired PTR record on your side.

Looks quite strange to me this thing. If so that basically means I can't have a server for the web (with the @ and www domains) and a server for the email. Or am I missing something here?

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  • What’s the domain name you want to receive mail for? It may be misconfigured.
    – MLu
    Jan 12, 2019 at 23:19
  • The name disgrafic.es doesn't resolve to 52.28.13.199 in the DNS. It instead resolves to 80.58.162.95. This is the bit that amazon is talking about in this message. Jan 20, 2019 at 15:16
  • @MichaelHampton this is exactly what I'm saying; the base domain and www should not point to this machine, instead they resolve to the webserver. That's my complaint above: I can't seem to have my web on one server and email on a different one IF I want to have the naked domain resolve for the web server
    – vmasanas
    Jan 20, 2019 at 19:26
  • Then why are you trying to use that name? Use a different name. maybe mail.dnsgrafic.es? Jan 20, 2019 at 19:51

2 Answers 2

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Did you define an A record for your Amazon Elastic IP, for example mail.mydomain.com? This is used to set up a Reverse DNS on your web server, so that other SMTP servers know that you’re not a spam relay.

Then add an MX record to the address you just defined, for example mail.mydomain.com. Now each SMTP server sending mail to mydomain.com will contact mail.domain.com, which in turn points to your EC2 instance.

Also, keep in mind AWS limits email sent from EC2 by default. You need to have them remove that limit: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#Are_there_any_limitations_in_sending_email_from_EC2_instances

Similarly, contact AWS to let them know what Elastic IP Addresses you are going to use for your mail servers so that they can have them White-listed with SpamHaus and others.

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  • I think my DNS is correctly configured. This is what I have there: mail A 52.28.13.199 @ MX 10 mail.disgrafic.es @ TXT v=spf1 a mx ip4:52.28.13.199 -all Just sent the form you suggested on the previous reply. I tried again this morning sending email there and nothing happened. Intersting thing is that from this domain I can send email to hotmail for example. The problem seems to be on receiving.
    – vmasanas
    Jan 13, 2019 at 7:59
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I had a look at the domain disgrafic.es and the DNS seems to be fine.

However the IP 52.28.13.199 only accepts traffic on port 80 and times out on all the other ports listed in your Security Group.

Since the ports are open in the Security Group I assume that you've got a local Windows firewall turned on and that blocks the incoming connections on all the email-related ports. Check that and open the ports in the Windows firewall too.

Hope that helps :)

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  • I thought that the changes I made on the AWS security group reflected on the Windows Firewall. Is that not true?
    – vmasanas
    Jan 14, 2019 at 7:22
  • @vmasanas Nope, these are independent firewalls. One is Windows internal and one is AWS, external from Windows. You have to open the ports in both.
    – MLu
    Jan 14, 2019 at 7:24

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