Re: And so it begins... -- MIDRANGE-L

I know AOL still does rDNS lookup.  I have problems with it
sometimes that I know I'll have to deal at some point.

bvstools.com doesn't have a rDNS lookup...   So if I send
to AOL.com from the AS/400 it gets bounced because of no
rDNS.  I have a couple other domains registered and they
also don't have a valid rDNS...  one points back to my ISP.
 I know if I called them to say "I need you to correct the
rDNS for my domain" they would look at me and say "wha?"

This is using my MAILTOOL software which communicates with
the mail server of the recipient.  It has the option to
bind the outgoing traffic to a speicifc IP (so rDNS would
work if it was set up properly with the ISP).

I could see I would need at one point in the future if this
becomes the norm to start using a mail relay that has valid
rDNS, but we've done that in the past and had issues
because the email relay wasn't as reliable as my mail
software.

Other customers use it as well... One of them has mentioned
the issue and I felt terrible telling them the only thing
they could do was to set up the rDNS or use a mail router
with rDNS when using MAILTOOL.  (their machine was a server
on the net, not behind a firewall).

My opinion is that the rDNS causes more problems than it
solves.  But I understand why some do it.

Brad
www.bvstools.com


On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 07:48:21 -0500
 "Chuck Lewis" <clewis@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> But rDNS isn't without issues too ?
> 
> >From
>
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci917504,00.html:
> 
> 
> Reverse DNS (rDNS) is a method of resolving an IP address
> into a domain
> name, just as the domain name system (DNS) resolves
> domain names into
> associated IP addresses. One of the applications of
> reverse DNS is as a spam
> filter. Here's how it works: Typically, a spammer uses an
> invalid IP
> address, one that doesn't match the domain name. A
> reverse DNS lookup
> program inputs IP addresses of incoming messages to a DNS
> database. If no
> valid name is found to match the IP address, the server
> blocks that message.
> 
> Although reverse DNS is fairly effective for filtering
> spam, it also
> sometimes blocks valid e-mail, at least in the current
> technological
> environment. A number of problems, including network
> delays and improperly
> configured networks or servers, can prevent legitimate
> messages from getting
> through the filter. In January 2003, AT&T WorldNet
> started using reverse DNS
> in conjunction with other anti-spam software. The company
> was forced to
> remove the filter just 24 hours after it was deployed,
> after subscribers
> reported that messages were going undelivered.
> 
> So has the problem that AT&T WorldNet been fixed or is
> that still an issue ?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Chuck
> 
> 
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Bradley V. Stone
BVS.Tools
www.bvstools.com