-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi John,
On 30 Mar 2008 at 20:38, John R Levine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > > To run an email server, today, an existing host only needs to make the > > server software operational. No other change is required. For example, > > no coordination with DNS administration is required. > > I suppose that's still true in theory, but when's the last time you saw a > non-spam message sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or saw an MTA deliberately > configured to accept mail to dotted quad addresses? Every useful mail > server has at least an A record. No, I find that it happens. Dynamic DNS providers, for instance, provide memorable names for addresses, often free if those names are inside the providers' domains. Most ISPs provide existing ready-mapped hostnames for their customers. And even besides that, there's the simple question of how to make a host that didn't once receive mail start to receive it without touching the DNS configuration, as might happen at a dedicated webserver. The fallback provides that mechanism and it's often more than sufficient. I agree that addresses with address literals are rare, but that doesn't mean many hosts aren't ready to accept them (mine does because I'm on sendmail and sendmail scans the addresses bound for addition in literal form in the w class - known hostnames - and I'm aware of at least a couple of Windows servers whose instructions tell the end-user to set up address- literal forms in a similar way). When IPv6 becomes widespread and there are fewer obstacles to reaching IPv6 nodes, perhaps we'll go back to receiving our mail with SMTP because everyone will want a hostname of his/her very own. In such a case, the MX record may well be a nuisance more than necessary, and operating system vendors may well be justified in including stub MTAs with a default of "Reject everything". Cheers, Sabahattin - -- Sabahattin Gucukoglu <mail<at>sabahattin<dash>gucukoglu<dot>com> Address harvesters, snag this: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: +44 20 88008915 Mobile: +44 7986 053399 http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8 Comment: QDPGP - http://community.wow.net/grt/qdpgp.html iQA/AwUBR/Ep2yNEOmEWtR2TEQKHSACggLGjS4ImrSn8ZgxxS36xc8l5+90AoJkP tCbP+1vY0aEwdUHStfeO/6zG =X3wS -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
