Re: [Declude.JunkMail] Does anyone not have Reverse DNS?

[Matthew Bramble]

Why not just require everyone in the world to show the secret sign 
before having their E-mail accepted?  Sarcasm obviously, but reverse DNS 
entries are not necessary for E-mail to function properly, and in many 
cases won't even match the domain given in HELO...so why require it?  
This also will do near nothing to stop the flood of spam over the 
long-haul, so it appears to be a net negative due to the problems that 
this creates.

Sorry, but I just see this as another blunt weapon, and again, something 
that becomes our problem to deal with when problems occur.  Just like I 
expect to see many legit servers sending E-mail without DNS entries, I 
also expect companies which take such actions to be almost impossible to 
reach for corrections because they are obviously causing widespread 
problems and don't have the staff to handle all of the inquiries that 
would result, and of course, their lack of logic appears to have spread 
to other highly imperfect anti-spam measures which have blacklisted at 
least three list members reported in the last few days.

The only positive about all of this is that it continues to prove the 
incompetence of such companies to deal with spam, and that just makes me 
look all the better.

Naturally, this is all just my opinion, so please don't be offended that 
I disagree so strongly.

Matt



Andy Schmidt wrote:

1. ISPs are not accurately, clearly and fairly specifying RDNS entries.
     

They need to do a better job of this, but have little motivation to do this.
<<
Well - I see your point and admit that there will be a painful time of
adjustment.
But frankly, providers like yours will adopt their policies, when many of
their business customers suddenly have valid complaints that they are unable
to send emails anymore.  There is no need for them to DELEGATE DNS, but at
least they have to offer to adopt their Reverse DNS to your needs (e.g.
generic host entries for your domain).
In the meantime, why not relay your outbound mail through your ISP?

Best Regards
Andy Schmidt
Phone:  +1 201 934-3414 x20 (Business)
Fax:    +1 201 934-9206 



-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Todd Holt
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 01:33 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Declude.JunkMail] Does anyone not have Reverse DNS?
Jason,
Many ISPs refuse (for one reason or another) to delegate RDNS.  

For example, we have a T-1 from MPower in Las Vegas.  It is business class.
It has is a static block of 8 IPs.  Normally considered by most as
acceptable to host a mail server.  But Mpower refuses to delegate RDNS.
And a few times people on this list have set forth criteria that would
classify us as unacceptable.  Bundling us into the dynamic IP bunch because
of our RNDS from MPower: las-DSL224-cust089.mpowercom.net
The most common reason for this reasoning is that most admins consider "DSL"
to be equal to "consumer".  But there is such a thing as SDSL (symmetric
DSL) at speeds > 2Mbit!  A better hosting environment than my T-1.
In conclusion, I see two distinct problems here:
1. ISPs are not accurately, clearly and fairly specifying RDNS entries. They
need to do a better job of this, but have little motivation to do this.
2. Mail admins need to do a better job of creating criteria for mail
classification.  Don't lump all DSL into spam source.  Don't put a lot of
stock into what an RDNS says, just that it exists.  I really appreciate Pete
McNeil's unique approach in building a tool that looks for the same things
that I would look for by hand, in the content, not the context.  I think we
need more out of the box thinking like this.
Todd Holt
Xidix Technologies, Inc
Las Vegas, NV  USA
www.xidix.com
702.319.4349


 

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:Declude.JunkMail- 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 7:52 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Declude.JunkMail] Does anyone not have Reverse DNS?

I wanted to throw this question to the list:

1) Who does *NOT* have Reverse DNS (PTR) entries for their
   

mailservers?
 

2) If so, why not?

Personally I think reverse DNS entries adds an ounce of ownership to
   

who
 

actually uses an IP address. For instance, I have several IPs given to
   

me
 

by my colo provider. I have reverse DNS on all of them, even the IPs I 
haven't used yet. If anyone looks my IPs up they will see something
   

like:
 

Number.freedom2be.net as reverse DNS. This is basically telling them
   

that
 

"freedom2be.net" is the operator of the IP address.

3) Shouldn't all mail servers on the internet have a reverse DNS entry 
with some valid "administrative" domain name?  We use "freedom2be.net" 
exclusively for our reverse DNS entries. As our mail server is
   

multi-homed
 

with many different domains. If someone needs to contact the
   

appropriate
 

owner of the IP, say our mail server was doing something "bad" (which
   

it
 

never has) they would know that "freedom2be.net" is the domain to
   

email.
 

(such as [EMAIL PROTECTED]) Isn't this a good idea?

--Jason
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
   



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