I didn't mean that the blank A record was bad practice, just having no MX is. Spam, why, well I would assume that the spammers rely on MX records.
Rob :-) > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of vin > Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 2:18 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [xmail] Re: question on mx records and spam > > > > hmm, that is helpful. I did have blank a records, mostly so > people could hit > my website without www, knowing full well it was bad practice but not > knowing why. I know this is semi unrelated but why is it bad practice to > name an a record as blank? also, would the presence of an mx > record have any > notable impact on spam? > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Rob Arends" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 11:44 PM > Subject: [xmail] Re: question on mx records and spam > > > > > > Ok there are a couple of scenarios. > > > > Lets say your email address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > If there is an 'A' record for hostname in the domain.com > domain, then some > > smtp servers (XMail is one of them) will send to the A record > IF there is > no > > MX record defined for domain hostname.domain.com. > > > > That said, if your email address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > You can define a blank 'A' record in the domain domain.com > > If you look in the zone files an '@' is how the blank is shown. > > If there is an 'A' record for '@' in domain.com, then you will get mail. > > (obviously the @ A-record would point to your mail server.) > > > > This is how you don't need an MX to receive mail. But it > breaks the RFC, > > because you should have an MX. > > And it is only NICE smtp server writers that try to help you > get your mail > > through, rather than bounce your mail because some sysadmin can't > configure > > a zone. > > > > Rob :-) > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of vin > > > Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 1:56 AM > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Subject: [xmail] Re: question on mx records and spam > > > > > > > > > > > > well, that is all well and good, but I kept getting all or > > > virtually all of > > > my mail for the several months that I had no MX record. I don't > > > think it was > > > SMTP server specific either, because I got mail everywhere > from hotmail > to > > > tiny, rural Australia ISPs. I kept getting mail from servers > that I had > > > never recieved mail from before and never sent mail to, as well. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: "Tracy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 11:12 AM > > > Subject: [xmail] Re: question on mx records and spam > > > > > > > > > > At 10:54 7/24/2003, vin wrote: > > > > >I had never bothered putting an mx record for my server, > > > because I seemed > > > to > > > > >be getting mail fine without it and I seem to remember from a > > > while back, > > > > >some discussion that under some circumstances, mx records are > > > not needed. > > > > >then the people at my dad's hospital changed their routers firmware > or > > > > >something and he could no longer email me, because his servers > > > need an mx > > > > >record. I put one, and now I get 1000% more spam. Is this a > > > coincidence? > > > > >under what circumstances should I NOT need an mx record? the IT > people > > > know > > > > >it is a configuration error on their part, but I do not really > > > understand > > > > >how mail gets delivered with no mx record, or if this is a > good thing > > > > > > > > An MX record is always required (per relevant RFCs) for a mail > > > server that > > > > will be receiving mail from the Internet. An MX record is not > > > (absolutely) > > > > required for a mail server that *only* sends mail. > > > > > > > > The reason you never got spam before is because your mail server was > not > > > an > > > > Internet mail server until you put up the MX record. When someone > sends > > > > mail to you, their mail server does an MX lookup on the domain that > the > > > > mail is addressed to. If it cannot find it, it fails and > > > returns the mail > > > > to the sender as undeliverable (or, at least, that's the way > > > it's supposed > > > > to work - obviously there can be mailers that are configured > > > internally to > > > > handle mail to specific domains directly rather than > through MX record > > > > lookups). > > > > > > > > > > > > - > > > > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in > > > > the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > > > - > > > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in > > > the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > > > - > > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in > > the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in > the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
