I get errors when I try to map for email address saying it's the wrong format

  • Unknown's avatar
    therelentlessobserver · Member ·

    I don’t really understand this stuff, admittedly. I am trying to set this up so that I can send and receive from (email visible only to moderators and staff). This is the message I get:
    1. MX records should be “MX <number> <domain>.”

    2. MX records should be “MX <number> <domain>.”

    3. MX records should be “MX <number> <domain>.”

    4. CNAME records should be “CNAME <subdomain> <domain>”. No wildcards (*).

    5. CNAME records should be “CNAME <subdomain> <domain>”. No wildcards (*).

    6. TXT data must be 192 characters or shorter.

    7. This does not match any of the DNS record formats.

    This is how I have tried to set it up as per Whois.com
    MX us2.mx3.mailhostbox.com.
    MX us2.mx1.mailhostbox.com.
    MX us2.mx2.mailhostbox.com.
    CNAME webmail.therelentlessobserver.org
    CNAME us2.webmail.mailhostbox.com.
    CNAME pop.therelentlessobserver.org
    CNAME us2.pop.mailhostbox.com.
    CNAME smtp.therelentlessobserver.org
    CNAME us2.smtp.mailhostbox.com.
    CNAME imap.therelentlessobserver.org
    CNAME us2.imap.mailhostbox.com.
    TXT “”v=DKIM1; g=*; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCsePHZjVORdxXIiWjDzrm7RyfWA43NdWTPgBhD LVrGFXMJVKfxc+GwJfgSAu/iwT3KQD61UrN14bKWXhmH30qviFrpFep+VdrDf69nGidCHxTjgBCi 6cYxPWV8E9rxIcOOmtJkw1lbeja3vrssWqEHWKkd7dlY86+eUV7WPIISnwIDAQAB””
    therelentlessobserver.org
    TXT “”v=spf1 redirect=_spf.mailhostbox.com””

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    Can you tell me, who is your domain registered with currently? What MX information did they give you?

    Thanks for the additional info!

  • Unknown's avatar
    therelentlessobserver · Member ·

    Thank you for responding…you’re giving me hope! So I registered my domain through Whois.com. I pasted above the information I put into the box for custom DNS records for WordPress along with the error report I get. Is that helpful? Thanks so much.

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    Great, well let’s get your email figured out. So the information you are adding is more that is needed to create a connection to your mail account, so where are you getting your information for there settings?

    The service you are trying to use should supply you with the records you need to make these changes. Is that the case? Can you contact your service provider to get the necessary information.

    Thanks!

  • Unknown's avatar
    therelentlessobserver · Member ·

    I wish I could attach a screenshot. The info is in a section where they give you the email mapping info. Supposedly. I spoke to them on the phone and they walked me to the section. I called back to double check. Yet apparently this is incorrect.

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    If you don’t have the ability to take a screenshot, please try this tool. It will give you a link you can paste into your response and I will be able to talk a look from there
    http://snag.gy

    Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

  • Unknown's avatar
    therelentlessobserver · Member ·

    I uploaded it directly to my media library. I tried snag.gy (even updated my Java to use it) but when I went to paste the item the message repeatedly came up “Certificate has been revoked.” Par for the course? Can you access the screen shot from my library nonetheless?

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    Great, I can see it, and that is a big help. One question: I noticed that the MX records don’t have a priority number associated with them. For example:

    • MX 10 MAIL1.EXAMPLE.COM.
    • MX 20 MAIL2.EXAMPLE.COM.

    The numbers “10” and “20” are the priority numbers I am referring to.

    Are they shown in your domain manages interface view (I see that there is more to the right that you have to scroll to see) or if not, can you contact your registrar’s support department and ask them what the priority is for the 3 MX records they provide?

    Also, sorry for the back and forth here; the format your registrar uses is not typical of what we see, which is making this difficult to sort out. We’ll get this working though… :)

    Thanks!

  • Unknown's avatar
    therelentlessobserver · Member ·

    So I made progress and got the priority and then I was able to set up the TXT files as well as the CNAME. It told me that the pop, imap and smtp were already set up…so that’s a little weird but it let me set up this:
    CNAME autodiscover us2.webmail.mailhostbox.com.
    The question now is how I actually send and receive email from that address. I use iOS7 and have tried to set up a new account the way I’ve set up my other two but I get messages that the certificate is invalid in one instance and a problem with the SSL in the other. Should I give up? Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!! Thanks for your help!

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    So I made progress and got the priority and then I was able to set up the TXT files as well as the CNAME.

    Ah, I should have told you not to bother with that. I’m happy to take a crack at formatting those records for you. Before I do that, can you tell me what the priority number your host gave you for each of the following MX records? Note that there should be a different priority number (generally from low to high) for each.

    • us2.mx1.mailhostbox.com.
    • us2.mx2.mailhostbox.com.
    • us2.mx3.mailhostbox.com.

    And also, can you copy/paste the txt setting I have circled here? I can’t see it as it is out of view in your screenshot. Don’t change it’s formatting at all; just paste it into your response to me.

    Screen Shot 2014 01 25 at 1 17 28 PM

    With that info I will be able to format your email records on my end.

    I also noticed a new record which I don’t recognize from your screenshot of the mail settings your host provided you

    • smtp-fwd.wordpress.com

    Was that a record your host provided you with? Did they offer any other instructions that are not captured in your screenshot?

    The question now is how I actually send and receive email from that address. I use iOS7 and have tried to set up a new account the way I’ve set up my other two but I get messages that the certificate is invalid in one instance and a problem with the SSL in the other.

    Well, there are two principal ways to access your inbox: A webmail interface (which your host will provide) and a 3rd party email client like the Mail App that is on all Macs.

    My recommendation is to confirm that you have email working by seeing if you can send and receive email via the webmail interface first, as it is the easiest one to set up correctly. Have you tried that with the records you have set currently?

    Once you can confirm that by sending and receiving a few test emails, you can then take the extra step of configuring an email client.

    Thanks! :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    therelentlessobserver · Member ·

    Thanks so much for continuing this. I just did some poking around my account record on whois.com and found some more information.

    1) The priority number is 100.

    2) Here’s some other info I found and in answer to your question, I don’t know where the smtp-forward.wordpress.com came from….it is one of many mysteries to me!
    Is this helpful?

    imap.therelentlessobserver.org. 86400 IN CNAME us2.imap.mailhostbox.com.
    pop.therelentlessobserver.org. 86400 IN CNAME us2.pop.mailhostbox.com.smtp.therelentlessobserver.org. 86400 IN CNAME us2.smtp.mailhostbox.com.webmail.therelentlessobserver.org. 86400 IN CNAME us2.webmail.mailhostbox.com.

    3) Here is the entirety of the section you circled.
    “”v=DKIM1; g=*; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCsePHZjVORdxXIiWjDzrm7RyfWA43NdWTPgBhD LVrGFXMJVKfxc+GwJfgSAu/iwT3KQD61UrN14bKWXhmH30qviFrpFep+VdrDf69nGidCHxTjgBCi 6cYxPWV8E9rxIcOOmtJkw1lbeja3vrssWqEHWKkd7dlY86+eUV7WPIISnwIDAQAB””

    4) Here’s more I found:
    Branding Configuration

    Please add the following CNAME records for your branding to work
    Alias Host Canonical Host TTL
    smtp.therelentlessobserver.org. us2.smtp.mailhostbox.com. 1 day
    webmail.therelentlessobserver.org. us2.webmail.mailhostbox.com. 1 day
    imap.therelentlessobserver.org. us2.imap.mailhostbox.com. 1 day
    pop.therelentlessobserver.org. us2.pop.mailhostbox.com. 1 day

    5) I use a Mac so I just use their mail program and the same set-up on my iPhone. It’s always been pretty simple and I’m hoping it will be again once we get this resolved. BTW I can’t even access my webmail because it brings me right to my wordpress site right now.

    Thanks for your patience. If I can understand the logic of how wordpress and the domain host relate I will be much more independent. RIght now it’s just like being dropped from the air into a foreign land. Thanks so much for being an interpreter.

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    1) The priority number is 100.

    I will try it with that priority number, but it is not typical for all the mx records to have the same priority number. They are intended to serve as backup addresses in case one with a higher priority is offline for some reason, then a record with a lower priority is there to catch email for you.

    Can you clarify with your host that all the MX records are meant to have the same priority (100) as the others?

    Using our formatting, I have added the following records: 

    MX 100 us2.mx1.mailhostbox.com.
MX 100 us2.mx2.mailhostbox.com.
MX 100 us2.mx3.mailhostbox.com.
CNAME webmail us2.webmail.mailhostbox.com.
CNAME pop us2.pop.mailhostbox.com.
CNAME smtp us2.smpt.mailhostbox.com.
CNAME imap us2.imap.mailhostbox.com.
TXT v=DKIM1; g=*; k=rsa; 
TXT p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCsePHZjVORdxXIiWjDzrm7RyfWA43NdWTPgBhD LVrGFXMJVKfxc+GwJfgSAu/iwT3KQD61UrN14bKWXhmH30qviFrpFep+VdrDf69nGidCHxTjgBCi 6cYxPWV8E9rxIcOOmtJkw1lbeja3vrssWqEHWKkd7dlY86+eUV7WPIISnwIDAQAB
TXT v=spf1 redirect=_spf.mailhostbox.com

    One thing to note: I had to break up the TXT records a bit, as we have a 192 character limit on TXT records. For the records above, this one is still over 192 characters, so it may not work as I have entered it. With that in mind, it may be necessary to have your host provide a modified TXT file that will work.

    For now, though, let’s see where we are at with the records I have added. Are you able to use webmail to send/receive messages? If you are not sure how to access your webmail (as opposed to the mail app on your computer) please ask your email host for instructions.

    Hope that helps. Please let me know where we stand with your email, as will as updated priority numbers for your mx records.

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