I'd have to agree with AOL and other major companies position on there control of email entering there networks. if you don't have a 'vanity reverse DNS entry', as you put it, then flat refuse the email. Our small, small company blocks entire countries, class A blocks, etc. just to help stop the spam, viruses, hackers, etc.
If you, as a small company, can block E-mail from entire countries and Class A blocks, then there is no problem for *you* to block E-mail based on the reverse DNS entry. You know who you are going to receive E-mail from.
But for most companies, wholesale blocking of countries and Class A blocks is a terrible idea. For example, we do business with people in many countries, including Japan and China (two major sources of spam). An ISP or web host can't block E-mail from specific countries or Class A ranges.
If an ISP sell's business accounts, on a multi-use backbone, then they (the ISP) should provide a true 'static
ip address' and provide the 'vanity reverse DNS entry' - this is not a hard
thing for them to do.
It's nice, yes. But not required by the RFCs, and not something that helps reduce spam.
Ultimately, if you *block* E-mail based on the reverse DNS entry, you're going to block legitimate mail. If that's acceptable to you, there's no problem with doing it. But recommending that others do so (unless you know their needs, and point out the drawbacks) is doing them a disservice.
Note that this does *not* apply to more advanced spam control settings (such as blocking E-mail based on the reverse DNS entry, only *if* it fails other tests as well).
-Scott
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