External DNS

[leco]

Can't find non-existent domain

[PiqueABoo]

You substituted in your real schoolname, laname etc?

[leco]

Yep certainly did.

And the email said "Please ask the school to put in their external DNS ..." so clearly I have to do something my end.

[PiqueABoo]

OK repeat the nslookup in SYNACKs post (in the code block) - look for "primary name server" and assuming you find it is that anything you recognise? That is the only place you can add that CNAME and if it's not a) a box you control, b) a box where you can logon to some web i/f and fiddle with that DNS zone, then I don't see how.

[SYNACK]

OK the MX mail exchangers (there are two of them) are pointing to smpt1-wak.rbcname.net and smtp2.rbcname.net.

Questions then - would the person that looks after our school web site be the person to ask perhaps? Do both of the smtp records get changed or just one of them?

Would just need to change one of them (the one with the lowest prefference number), the second is there as a failover incase the first one is inaccessable. If the preffreence numbers are equal then it will just load balance between them. You could even just add the new one with a lower prefference number than the other two and leave the others there to fail over onto just incase.

Your website person may know but it is likely that your DNS servers are run by your RBC, if you use the whois tool above on your domain you should be able to retrive the technical contact and talk to them directly through those contact details.

[leco]

Did the nslookup thing:
primary name server = int-ns1-wak.rbcname.net
responsible mail addr = webmaster.schoolname.leaname.sch.uk

Name server box not in my school, webmaster not in my school. IP address of name server not in my range but is within the grid.

So where does that leave me - up thingy creek without the proverbial I suspect. My boss is being very understanding about all of this surprisingly, but I have to get it sorted. We have had three days now without incoming mail, he'll begin to get cross soon.

[PiqueABoo]

primary name server = int-ns1-wak.rbcname.net

I would go back to your LEA support and say "I've got a general purpose query about modifying the DNS zone for our school: I'm told I need to make change to that, but the zone seems to be controlled by a server 'int-ns1-wak.rbcname.net and that's not obviously one of my boxes where I can make changes.'.

If they say we don't support Exchange, point out that this doesn't involve doing anything to Exchange and it's a 100% DNS issue.

webmaster not in my school

That's special and it really means: webmaster@schoolname.leaname.sch.uk
It's an e-mail address anyone can whine at if they have some issue with anything relating to the 'schoolname.leaname.sch.uk' domain.

[leco]

Just fired off an email to someone that I work with, on another IT project, in the LEA. I think the primary name server is one of their boxes since it has an internal address. They also work in IT at the LEA with schools, so should know not only what I'm talking about but also be able to do something about it.

Thanks for the info on the webmaster address I did wonder.

[leco]

Update:
It turns out that the firewall rules/filters, between the RBC and the LEA, had not been changed to take into account the school's new server address. So nothing that I had done wrong or not done phew. Email is now flowing back and forth. Thanks for all the help guys.