If AOL uses 'points' and having a PTR record will lower your 'points', then
your email will have a greater chance of getting through. It is good
practice (afaik) to have a PTR record for your hosts and VERY helpful for
email servers (many Sendmail servers do this PTR check)!
I have, in the past, seen AOL not accept email, if a PTR record did not
exist (even though this may have been a violation of the RFC). So it appears
that they now do accept mail under this condition, but if the server also
finds other things that up your 'points', your email won't be delivered.
I liked it better the other way, at least one knew if the mail was accepted,
it would be delivered (and that is the spirit of the RFC!). That they now
just throw it away, and not even bounce it back, is not in keeping with the
RFC, to say nothing of the spirit of email and the RFCs. That they never
'tell' anyone (including the sender or postmasters) the reasons for the
non-delivery (anybody tried a DSN when sending to AOL???), just makes this
SMTP issue that much harder to figure out. I don't think they are doing the
postmasters of the world any favors!!! (starting to rant, sorry)
Seems to me, if there is something they (and others!) recommend and it is
'good practice', and it takes little effort to implement, that you should do
it. If it helps get all your mail to its destination, then it would seem
like the 'smart' thing to do. And it will likely 'solve' this 'problem'.
My small fraction of a dollar!
Daniel Donnelly
________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Perry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] AOL Update.
> > Just to update everyone, they had said that the domain wcmail.net did
> > not reverse...
>
> You should check to see what they really mean (or said). A domain can't
have "a reverse". A host name can have IP address(es) associated with it,
and an IP address can have a reverse.
>
> > and the To: header was blank. That was why the email had been
> > filtered out.
>
> That would be a logical spam check. Why are you sending out E-mail with
no To: header? It's kind of like addressing an envelope "To whom it may
concern". That works when on a letter addressed to a company, but it just
doesn't cut it as an address.
>
> > In discussion with this group, they should not require a reverse
>
> They could, but would lose tons of E-mail that way. It could be part of
their now-famous "point system".
>
> > and the RCPT TO: is where they should be looking for the aol.com
> > addresses the messages are being sent to. Is this correct?
>
> Yes, But. The RCPT TO: has to have an AOL address in it, unless either
you are using an AOL mail server to relay (a REALLY dumb thing to do), or
someone's DNS records are mixed up and pointing to AOL. So you really
shouldn't worry about. If they are checking a "To:" address to make sure it
exists (and says aol.com), it would HAVE to be in the message headers.
>
>
> --
> -Scott
>
> Declude: Anti-virus and Anti-spam solutions for IMail.
http://www.declude.com
> --
>
> Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
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