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Date:      Thu, 24 Jul 1997 10:39:20 -0700
From:      "jfesler@calweb.com" <jflists@calweb.com>
To:        Anthony.Kimball@East.Sun.COM, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: (over)zealous mail bouncing 
Message-ID:  <3.0.3.32.19970724103920.0094c100@pop.calweb.com>
In-Reply-To: <199707241601.LAA03086@compound.east.sun.com>
References:  <199707241422.HAA00957@hub.freebsd.org>

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At 11:01 AM 7/24/97 -0500, Tony Kimball wrote:
>I beg to differ.  Most machines which may validly receive email do *not*
>have valid hostnames.  Using the majority-minority rule, *you* lose.
>That's reality.  

Um - MX records.  

The host names in the email addresses, should have valid MX records, and as
a fallback, a valid A record (preferably MX records though).  Otherwise,
the email address in question is non-replyable.  And if it's non-replyable,
it's not  acceptable either.

We actively block any SMTP session where the MAIL FROM: command  lacks a
valid DNS entry.  If it takes >3  seconds to resolve, we assume it's
slow/unreachable DNS.  If it takes <3 seconds to resolve, we fail it
immediately with no retrys, as in every case it's either a bad hostname,
fake  domain name, or a  typo on someone's host portion of an email
address.  In every case, the error message  says to contact
postmaster@calweb.com for assistance, which is immune  to the filter.

Even UUCP  sites are safe  from our filter - they have  MX  records
pointing to valid MX receivers  that will take mail for their domain names..

--
Jason Fesler  jfesler@calweb.com   'whois jf319'     | When the chips are down
Admin, CalWeb Internet Services   www.calweb.com     | The buffalo's empty
Junk email returned in bulk; 1 cc to your postmaster | 
Junk mail probs?  http://www.gigo.com/junkmail.htm   |      :-)



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