email routing problems

[daverad]

Hi Everyone,
We have a WHM. Whenever we set up a new hosting account for a client who has an existing web hosting account with another provider, they are not able to send us emails. We currently get around this by disabling the local mail entry on their new account. We do this until we make their new webhosting package "live". Our webhosting/email account is in the same WHM as our clients.

Our web host says this issue is a bug in Cpanel. Here is what they said when I asked them to change servers for our own webhosting/email account.


"No matter what server you are on, you will have this issue with any external mail server - the issue is actually with cPanel not allowing you to specify domains with external mail servers by default.

cPanel believes ALL domains on the server should be handled (by default) so a support operator has to manually remove the domain name from a file on the server.

Changing servers wont actually make a difference in this case."

Is there a solution for this? Sometimes it is several weeks before we make the new hosting package live as we are developing the new client's site.

Any help is appreciated!

[cPanelDon]

Hi Everyone,
We have a WHM. Whenever we set up a new hosting account for a client who has an existing web hosting account with another provider, they are not able to send us emails. We currently get around this by disabling the local mail entry on their new account. We do this until we make their new webhosting package "live". Our webhosting/email account is in the same WHM as our clients.

Our web host says this issue is a bug in Cpanel. Here is what they said when I asked them to change servers for our own webhosting/email account.

No matter what server you are on, you will have this issue with any external mail server - the issue is actually with cPanel not allowing you to specify domains with external mail servers by default.

cPanel believes ALL domains on the server should be handled (by default) so a support operator has to manually remove the domain name from a file on the server.

Changing servers wont actually make a difference in this case.

To fully answer please consider and take note of the following information:

1. It is correct that the default option when creating new accounts is to use the local mail server. To further clarify, this has always been the case and is not new behavior; however, in cPanel 11.25 there are enhanced features and functionality that allow easier customization of desired mail routing configurations. Please see the following official resources for full details regarding what's new, improved, and what may have changed:
   cPanel 11.25
   cPanel Release Notes
   cPanel Change Log
   
2. While it is true there are default settings to avail of, it is not correct that we believe "all" domains should be configured in a specific manner; if the person being quoted received this idea from an official source it would be appreciated to know of the applicable cPanel ticket number or other official reference involved.
3. It is incorrect that changing the configuration will not make a difference; when a domain is setup to use a remote mail server then it will use the remote mail server (MX) for mail delivery.
4. As hinted at above, there is a new option in cPanel 11.25 that allows you to setup the mail routing configuration at the time of account creation; this is found at the following menu path:
   WHM: Main >> Account Functions >> Create a New Account >> Mail Routing Settings
5. As an additional visual aid and for reference please see the two screen shots (screen capture images) that are attached to this post; they show the specific area of the Create a New Account page that is used to setup initial Mail Routing Settings during new account creation. The following information is directly from WHM as seen in the provided screenshots:
   • Automatically Detect Configuration (recommended):
     • Local Mail Exchanger: If the lowest number mail exchanger points to an IP on this server the server will be configured to accept mail locally and from outside the server.
     • Backup Mail Exchanger: If a mail exchanger other than the lowest points to an IP on this server, the server will be configured to act as a backup mail exchanger.
     • Remote Mail Exchanger: If there are no mail exchange that point to an IP on this server the server will be configured to not accept mail locally and send mail to the lowest MX record.
     • Note: Automatic detection of MX configuration is not possible if MX entries do not resolve (ie: you mistype a domain name or enter one that does not exist). If your MX configuration is set to auto and you add or edit an MX record that does not resolve you will see a warning and MX configuration will default back the last known setting. If you have IPs that are not bound to any network device on this server and you would like automatic selection to consider them as local you can edit the list of additional local IPs here (WHM: Main >> IP Functions >> Configure Remote Service IPs).
   • Local Mail Exchanger: Configure server to always accept mail. Mail will be delivered locally on the server when sent from the server or outside the server.
   • Backup Mail Exchanger: Configure server as a backup mail exchanger. Mail will be held until a lower number mail exchanger is available.
   • Remote Mail Exchanger: Configure server to not accept mail locally and send mail to the lowest MX record.

Is there a solution for this? Sometimes it is several weeks before we make the new hosting package live as we are developing the new client's site.

Any help is appreciated!

The following menu paths may be used in order to change the mail routing configuration after account creation:
cPanel: Main >> Mail >> MX Entry
WHM: Main >> DNS Functions >> Edit DNS Zone
WHM: Main >> DNS Functions >> Edit MX Entry

[nimonogi]

How i can set "Automatically Detect Configuration" as the default option for all new accounts?

[cPanelTristan]

Since the Mail Routing Settings are not set in the packages area when adding a new package, and because "Automatically Detect Configuration" is not the default currently, I'm not certain it is possible to set it as the default when using WHM > Create a New Account area.

It sounds like a good feature request to raise that the WHM > Add a Package area include Mail Routing Settings as one of the options that can be pre-selected so that you'd simply assign people to that package that has automatic detection. The feature request forum is at the following location:

Feature Requests for cPanel and WHM

[nimonogi]

As cPanel recommends this, it should have an option to be as default.

[cPanelTristan]

That would still be a feature request to change the behavior.

[nimonogi]

Feature request thread created: http://forums.cpanel.net/f145/email-...on-199421.html