Julian Mehnle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Don't get me wrong:  I don't really see a harm in accepting
> MX->IP *in general* (although there still might be one which I
> don't see).

After having thought about the topic a bit and having consulted RFC 1035, I think 
there *is* a serious argument against accepting MX->IP:

RFC 1035 (DNS), section 3.3.9 says that an MX record specifies a domain name, not an 
IP address.  This distinction is important since the DNS protocol stores IP addresses 
in a way  much different from domain names (raw address bytes vs. compressed 
variable-length series of labels).  Now think of IPv6 addresses and AAAA or A6 
records.  In the next few years, most hosts will get an IPv6 address next to an 
old-style IPv4 address.  For an MX, this will be correctly represented in DNS as 
follows:

  mydomain.com.       MX    10 mail
  mail.mydomain.com.  A     12.34.56.78
  mail.mydomain.com.  AAAA  1234:5678::1

It just makes no sense to directly specify a single IP address in an MX record for any 
host accessible through multiple protocols/interfaces.  Which address would you put 
into the MX RR?  Not even talking about creating multiple MX RRs for multiple 
addresses of the same host (mydomain.com. MX 10 12.34.56.78; mydomain.com. MX 10 
1234:5678::1), which would be a gross abuse of DNS.

Aiding such abuse is no good.  DNS masters should just do their homework themselves, 
instead of expecting authors of DNS resolvers (or mail server software) to do it for 
them.



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