Can't send E-mail due to reverse dns, can I configure it myself?

[ccrobin]

Hello all. I must say in looking around this forum I am very impressed with the help available. I am a newbie to all this stuff and the forums have helped me with most of the start-up problems I've had.

Anyways, on tot he problem I can't seem to fix...

None of the e-mail accounts I have on my server can send E-mail. When I do a DNS check at dnsreports.com, I get the dreaded reverse DNS failed error. I've contacted my bandwidth provider and asked if the Reverse DNS settings was something I could do, or if they had to do it. Any message I send to them takes 1-2 days before I get a response, and their answer never addresses my questions (I get the feeling they don't know the answer themselves). Is there any way I can ssh into my box and set up the reverse DNS myself, or am I at the complete mercy of the bandwidtrh provider? The box is not a virtual server, I control the whole thing (at least that is what I was told).

Any help is extremely appreciated! I cannot start moving my accounts here until I can provide them E-mail, and it's bumming me out paying for 2 servers...

 

[PWSowner]

I'm 90% certain that reverse DNS has to be set up by the provider. One of the things I'm not absolutely certain about.

When I first got my new server I couldn't send email to AOL. I asked at my providers helpdesk and 15 minutes later they said it was now set up. There was no record of them going into my server.

 

[Website Rob]

Whomever has ownership of rDNS can set it up and it depends on the individual DC. You'll find that keeping one specific question (to Tech Support), will get you answers quicker. Have to do it myself sometimes with various places.

 

[ccrobin]

Thank you all for your help. Sounds like I may be at the mercy of my support team, Eh?

I did just realize something too, when my server was first set up I was getting emails from my server (such as the "cron daemon" & "root" messages), then it stopped after a few days. The Reverse DNS must have been working at one point for these to get to me, correct? Is it possible I screwed up the Reverse DNS by something I did (like changing the hostname or something), or is it something toally out of my control?

I just don't wanna do it again if I did someting wrong. I would hate to shut-down the e-mail for all my clients and have to wait 2-3 days until my bandwidth provider "got around" to fixing my reverse DNS.

Arghhhh...I can see learning Linux is going to be fun.