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 Subject :Email - Looking for hints.. 2014-07-12- 15:19:51 
n2xu
Member
Joined: 2013-12-07- 10:33:05
Posts: 12
Location: Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Looking for some gentle nudges in the right direction...

I'm tinkering with on-mesh, mesh-only email.  I envision a regional or nationwide mesh that will one day have email capability.  Towards this end I built two raspberry pi email servers using information from http://www.samhobbs.co.uk/raspberry-pi-email-server.  I used only the first two tutorials and did not include the SSL/TLS capabilities.  Both Raspberry pi have names (nwf.local.mesh and fwb.local.mesh), they are attached to separate mesh nodes and I can connect to either one of them using the IP or the name without issue.  I can set up a mail client that can receive mail and I can connect to both smtp servers on the mesh to send email.  The problem I'm having is when one mail server attempts to connect to the other. 

My Mesh Configuration:

(RF)-[N2XU-First]-cat5-[RasPi: fwb.mesh.local]

(RF)-[N2XU-Second]-cat5-[RasPi: nwf.local.mesh]

If I attempt to log onto fwb as pi@fwb.local.mesh and send mail from pi@fwb.local.mesh to pi@nwf.local.mesh on the other server the log says it can't find a MX for nwf.local.mesh. The email does show in the sent folder but never arrives in the pi@nwf.local.mesh inbox on the other server.  Apparently it's doing a DNS lookup for the MX record of the other server.  Is there a way to include MX records in the DNS records on the mesh nodes that will propagate across the mesh.  I just encountered this a little while ago and did a search here on the forum for MX and didn't get any results.

I don't believe that everyone will run an email server, but I do believe that there could and should be at least one somewhat local in each area... maybe by county, or region of a state.  Has anyone else experimented with mesh only email with more than one email server?

Thanks.

Tom
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Tom Cardinal/MSgt USAF (Ret)/BSCS, Security+
 Subject :Re:Email - Looking for hints.. 2014-07-12- 17:48:30 
KG6JEI
Member
Joined: 2013-12-02- 19:52:05
Posts: 516
Location: 

You shouldn't need an MX record, and we don't have an ability to publish them.

The email standard is lookup an mx record, if none found lookup an A record (which we do publish IF your advertising the name as a reserved name). If A record found deliver to that IP address.
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 Subject :Re:Email - Looking for hints.. 2014-07-13- 04:21:00 
n2xu
Member
Joined: 2013-12-07- 10:33:05
Posts: 12
Location: Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Ok, I'll check the configuration on the email servers to figure out why they won't pass email on the A record. I do have the names I assigned them reserved. Since we're talking about DNS, Is there capability to add DNS servers as a service? Would clients and mesh nodes be able to discover and use them if they were added as services on a node? If we build out a regional network or even a nationwide network, I can see where the dns services on the nodes could be inadequate.
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Tom Cardinal/MSgt USAF (Ret)/BSCS, Security+
 Subject :Re:Re:Email - Looking for hints.. 2015-03-22- 09:49:47 
G0OFY
Member
Joined: 2014-11-04- 13:44:45
Posts: 12
Location: Euxton, Lancashire, UK
Hi Tom. Just flicking through posts about email on the mesh. I have successfully set up Mailenable Standard version 8 (and free)onto a spare XP machine I use for proof of concept for the mesh. Initially I could not get it to work at all either sending or receiving emails. Last Thursday 18/3/15 with the help of a local IT guy we were able to send and receive without any problem. On Friday I tweaked the system and it works perfectly. I use Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail and had a Linux version of email all working together, sending normal emails and even attachments (pictures and documents). I did not need a DNS server to achieve this you just have to make sure all the nodes can see each other and instead of using a server name for the POP and SMTP I used the IP address of the host computer. At the same time I was also running Yawcam bi directionally. The next task is to try all this over a distance. Eddy.
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 Subject :Re:Email - Looking for hints.. 2015-05-14- 10:18:21 
AB9U
Member
Joined: 2012-03-06- 08:19:44
Posts: 39
Location: Cottonwood, AZ
 
Hi... did you ever get the system going that you were looking to create? Wil - AB9U
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 Subject :Re:Email - Looking for hints.. 2015-05-14- 10:20:46 
AB9U
Member
Joined: 2012-03-06- 08:19:44
Posts: 39
Location: Cottonwood, AZ
 
Greetings. Would you be able to help test a system I have running here? It's in line with what you got running over there. I want to test just one email across the world wide mesh but can't be over to do the test there when I'm over here. 73 - Wil - AB9U
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 Subject :Re:Email - Looking for hints.. 2015-05-14- 10:37:48 
G0OFY
Member
Joined: 2014-11-04- 13:44:45
Posts: 12
Location: Euxton, Lancashire, UK

Hi Wil.

Our mesh is currently not connected to the web. We have no plans to do so, we are using it as a stand alone system and we are still trialling our network. Our next test will be on a Fell Race and we hope to be able to get a direct 2 mile link between 2 Linksys units with beam antennae.

Eddy.

The real G0OFY.
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 Subject :Re:Email - Looking for hints.. 2015-05-15- 16:06:30 
AB9U
Member
Joined: 2012-03-06- 08:19:44
Posts: 39
Location: Cottonwood, AZ
 
Hi Eddy... no problem in not being tunneled. At this end I can share with you similar experiences in networking and DNS behavior. In my old workplace when made changes to networks the DNS names had to stay the same while IP addresses could change. Here the DNS names change or don't propagate well after a feature change on a node but the numbers remain the same. Now that I know this, all my tests are working well. My immediate goal is to test a crude social media feature that may mature into a global chat room type of technology. There's already IRC and Twitter and you name it but I'm not going in that direction. With so much computing power in the nodes and the distributed "intelligence" of the network already in place, something very simple that ties it together has to be possible. I'll let you know how it goes.
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