too many hops with 2 MX records for 2 mail servers

Hello,

I am using URL to manage my DNS information.

I have two mailservers for my domain, in different locations (PA and TX), with two different hosting companies.

I have created the following MX and A records:

sungbot.com. 60 MX 10 mail1.sungbot.com.
sungbot.com. 60 MX 20 mail2.sungbot.com.

mail1.sungbot.com. 60 A 63.227.39.151
mail2.sungbot.com. 60 A 61.246.38.124

----

The idea is that the sender SMTP tries to deliver the email to mail1.sungbot.com first.
If it fails, then it tries with mail2.sungbot.com.

------

But this is what is happening:

- If both mailservers are OK, then the mail is delivered to
mail1.sungbot.com

- If I remove the record
sungbot.com. 60 MX 10 mailtx.sungbot.com.
then the emails are delivered to mail2.sungbot.com

Until now, everything OK

------

Now

- If I keep both MX records and suspend the mail1.sungbot.com server , then the email is not delivered and the sender receives
the message below at the end of this post.

- However, If I keep both MX records and I substitute
mail1.sungbot.com. 60 A 63.227.39.151 by
mail1.sungbot.com. 60 A 230.230.230.230 *
* (a non-existant server IP)
then the emails are delivered to mail2.sungbot.com

-----

I have tried sending email from several different addresses, and I get the same results.

-----

Any ideas to explain why the sender gets so many hops when it attempts to deliver to mail1.sungbot.com?

If mail1.sunbot is suspended, why are there many hops?

When the sender cannot deliver to mail1.sunbot.com because there are too many hops, why does it not try to deliver the email to mail2.sungbot.com?


Thanks

Juan Guirao
A Spaniard in Seoul, Korea

===========

Message received by sender...



The original message was received at Sat, 14 Jun 2003 10:17:23 -0400
from secure.cyberhost.net [63.227.39.151]

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<juan@sungbot.com>
(reason: 554 5.4.6 Too many hops)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
554 5.4.6 Too many hops 26 (25 max): from <erinpan@softhome.net> via secure.cyberhost.net, to <juan@sungbot.com>


Any ideas to explain why the sender gets so many hops when it attempts to deliver to mail1.sungbot.com?

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