Railmaster support email bouncing back

[Augustus Caesar]

*** Update

 

Ludlowlad has decided that since a new key has been obtained this issue will lie for a time so no immediate solution is sought by him. I have agreed to help if he needs further attention with this as the problem is likely a hosting issue with permissions but, like all other problems, the real culprit could be something simple or spurious.

 

If a solution is required and found in future then no doubt it will be placed here hopefully for all to see. In the meantime please consider this closed.

[Ludlowlad]

***Another Update!

Hello all,

Just want to thank everyone for their help on this issue and especially @AC and @Chrissaf. I now have a working copy of Railmaster running on my new PC with all original files present and correct. It was not straightforward and I needed extra help from @AC's excellent help website and a few private email exchanges, again many thanks.

Ironically the original problem has not been solved but circumnavigated, my emails from my domain to support@rail-master.com still bounce. The solution was to create a gmail account and use that, I'm happy with that as I don't envisage contacting RM on a too regular basis and my domain was generated to run my wifes business website which has been running trouble-free for many years, I didn't want to risk changing settings that might impact the website for the sake of a little train trouble!

A second issue occurred when installing my new £7 RM licence onto my new laptop. I used this forums download link to install RM and that went well however, the RM software would not communicate with RM servers to verify my licence key. I followed the excellent help page on this issue and cleared my laptop of the preinstalled trial McAfee AV software but, with @ACs help, found I had a problem with the Windows Defender settings. The settings for Windows Defender recommended on the Help site did not work for me, I found that I needed to have both private and public network boxes ticked and everything worked instantly. I realise that there may be some underlying spurrious issue as to why this was necessary but the bottom line is I am now up and running with new locos programmed and tested, so I am very happy. The laptop is solely used by me for running my Locos and designing my layout so I am not too concerned if I don't have the most secure network settings as it won't be connected to the internet for most of the time (only for the occasional update).

I'm not sure I am allowed to say this on this Forum but, as a non-teccie (but not a luddite!), I found it frustrating that a brand new copy of RM would not allow you to access the full program (ie verify the licence) on a brand new PC out of the box, it should be plug and play in my opinion. Although the solution is not difficult it may not be clear to those who don't know about or use this forum. I installed Anyrail 6 prior to installing RM, verified the licence, updated and was up and running in less than 5 minutes. This was before removal of McAfee and any other network and anti-virus adjustments. Maybe RM could aspire to have an installation process that worked as well.

Signing off now, many thanks again to all for your help.

Ludlowlad

[Augustus Caesar]

@ludlowlad

 

...and all others interested in this topic...

 

Thank you for your kind words of appreciation ludlowlad and comments re the site. Very much appreciated.

 

In addition to the detail you give above I would offer up any help if you decide to take another look in the future for the initial host related problem re bouncing mail. While any setting changed here for authentication for email is safe it would be very unlikely to impinge on the rest of the hosting package re your good lady wife's website. However, having said that I do respect your decision.

 

My second point re the firewall and the ticking of both Private and Public could very well be down to a second profile for your network card being setup in the registry. This is not something that is known about usually by casual users in Windows (version doesn't matter) and only those who know what they are doing can pinpoint this and sort it within a couple of minutes.

You most likely have a second network profile which points to Public and while the first is correctly pointing to Private the second may be 'interfering' and this is why some connections to outside sites are failing.

 

Again, this is easy to fix but until you do experience further 'errors' or bad connections just leave as is as you are not connecting to make security a big concern.

I will help also to sort that if you wish. It could also be part of the reason for bouncing mail but not the whole story by any stretch... there will be the other mentioned above that will have the biggest impact.

 

Glad it's all working though in a roundabout way but at least it's working. Thanks again re the comments about the site and help given. It's always nice to receive positive feedback and results of that help. 😎

[Ludlowlad]

@AC you are an absolute Gent, I can think of no higher praise. 😀

[david_churchward]

 Hi all, sorry to reopen this but i'm having the same problem trying to contact the support email - i receive the following message -

support@rail-master.com

    host 192.168.0.205 [192.168.0.205]

    SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<support@rail-master.com>:

    550-It appears that the DNS operator for rail-master.com

    550-has installed an invalid MX record with an IP address

    550 instead of a domain name on the right hand side.

I'm also having problems with the registration as when i clicked on the link it reported it wasn't connected, then when i retried it said i was already registered but the software is still in evaluation mode. Can anyone help me with this please?

[Chrissaf]

David,

What brand of Anti-virus product are you using on your PC?

[david_churchward]

Windows Defender

[Chrissaf]

In that case I have no further advice to offer with regard your email issue as described.

.

With regard the 'RailMaster not accepting the license key'. Check to make sure that Windows Firewall has a RailMaster exclusion exception configured in it. This previous post provides guidance on this.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/elink-program-track/?p=2/#post-154731

.

 

[Augustus Caesar]

@david_churchward

and possibly

@ludlowlad

too...

 

This error message usually points to a hosting company allocating an IP address to an MX record for mail and it shouldn't. It should actually point the MX record to its domain name... i.e. hornby.com

 

In other words at the host company's site under either a Plesk or cPanel Control Panel system you will have DNS settings in which those for mail are essential to get right.

 

They SHOULD look something like this under Plesk (Windows usually - cPanel is Linux):

 

Host = mail.hornby.com

Record type = A

Value = 104.222.174.5 (IP address here is an example only)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Host = hornby.com

Record type = MX (10)

Value = mail.hornby.com

 

The first 3 lines are ONE record in DNS and the second 3 lines are a second record... there are several more of course.

What usually happens here is that the host provider gets these wrong.

On the second record they give the value as an IP address thus allocating it to the the MX record (don't get concerned what the bracketed '10' is for), which is totally incorrect.

Occasionally the domain under the Value to the A record is given a domain name, again, which is wrong.

 

All this can be terribly confusing but the above is just about the correct reason for errors here. There could be other reasons but this is absolutely the most common mistake made, even by professionals.

 

Some mail gets thruogh but a lot will not. Like myself who owns my own domain names I have full access to these Control Panels, which is par for the course, and can change these records at will.

Hornby will need to be told if there is a possible error on their setup for their own IT team to look into it. If they are good they will sort it out quickly.

 

A reverse DNS record is also advisable but is not highly likely here to be causing this issue. It is generally always down to the site hosting company having incorrect MX records as stated and as Hornby own the domain it is up to them to sort it.

 

@ludlowlad

 

Not sure if you had these error messages but this may be how you were getting email going astray.

[david_churchward]

HI AC

Thanks for that, I to have my own domain through Namesco but i don't have the experience to go fiddling with the DNS settings. I am going to call Hornby (again) tomorrow, however they have already told me it is rail-master who deal with it, not them, so i don't know how successful it will be.

[Fishmanoz]

The only person at Hornby who knows anything about RM is Mark Lodge the HCC Manager, so ask for him.  If he’s not available, ask them to have him call you back.

[Augustus Caesar]

David...

DNS settings are not usually wrong when set up by a host provider but it can and does happen unfortunately.

Thus the reasons for letting a user set their own because default settings may not work in the desired fashion required by that user.

 

However, I don't believe you misunderstood my wording but just in case anyone thinks it is THEIR set of DNS settings that need correction here... unlikely in this case. It will be down to the host for Hornby and that clue presented itself in the error messages presented above.

 

With your DNS settings with Namesco they will almost certainly be correct as other mail issues will probably not have presented themselves to you... so need to worry about those at all.

 

Hornby do need to be told though and if you do get in touch please present the error messages to them also and maybe even a copy of my own worded answer... I won't mind. If their systems are wrong they will correct them. It is unlikely to be their ISP either so a little 'fob' will not work if they try and wash their hands of this one.

 

Of course there may be other reasons for the fail but usually not.

[david_churchward]

Sorry, still waiting for Mark Lodge to call me back

[RDS]

David

When people have previously mentioned being unable to contact support, it has turned out to be a problem at the users end, usually Firewall or Virus protection.  I guess that hundreds if not thousands of people have successfully contacted RM support and in your case I would think that the same problem in emailing them is preventing the registration.

[St1ngr4y]

With apologies to the OP for hijacking his thread, has anyone requested help through the RM system in the last 24 hours? I sent a help request yesterday afternoon at around 4:55 and everything looked OK at the pc end. However, I haven't received the usual automated reply to tell me it has been received. The messages in the RM log file look OK, ending with ...

 

10/08/18 16:55:24 Message displayed: Your request for help has been sent. (379) - Response=6

10/08/18 16:55:24 Notified user that a help request has been sent successfully

 

Ray

[Augustus Caesar]

Just a quick post to just say that because several emails ARE getting through to where they should does NOT mean there is not an error on DNS servers at the host or ISP... generally almost always the former (host provider).

 

So if I sent an email today and it got through and one of you sent one and it didn't this is normal for this kind of error in host settings for DNS.

 

The error cannot be on the users side... that is absolutely impossible.

 

If there IS an error on the user's side then this is NOT a DNS problem and the error message posted would be absolutely wrong and it can't be. Reason? It is very specific.

[david_churchward]

Thanks AC and Fishmanoz, i've spoken to Mark Lodge who got Rail-master to email me. I gave them the error information and whilst they didn't say what was done, my emails are now getting through (from both my work and home accounts). Hope this sorts it out for others having the same problem.

[Augustus Caesar]

Glad it's all working now David...

 

I knew the issue was not user related and had to be on the Hornby side with the error message you gave.

It simply couldn't be anything else other than what I stated. One just can't mess with DNS or get it wrong and get away with it... all kinds of stuff will go wrong.

Anyways... hopefully no-one will set that setting back and allow this error to reoccur :-)