At 9:06 PM +0100 11/1/01, Fokko van Duin  imposed structure on a 
stream of electrons, yielding:
>At 11:37 -0700 01-11-2001, Warren Michelsen wrote:
>>I went all through this with the dnsreports.com guy yesterday. 
>>Basically, his time-outs are set pretty short -- not up to RFC 
>>standards. He's concerned that users of the web page will grow 
>>impatient if they have to wait too long for the report results. As 
>>I told him...
>
>OK, thanks for the info.
>
>>
>>So, the problem is likely not on your end.
>
>Still leaves the question why SIMS waits 30 sec on DNS lookup, while 
>"Verify Return Paths" is unchecked (or has DNS lookup nothing to do 
>with return paths?).

That's it. 'Verify Return Paths' checks mail return paths (the 
argument of the SMTP MAIL command) not introduction names. (HELO 
arguments) The intro check is done as an audit trail matter: if a 
machine claims to be 'dnsreport.com'  SIMS will see if the people who 
run DNS for dnsreport.com agree. If they do not (as they do not in 
this case) then SIMS notes this in the log and constructs  Received 
headers for the session's mail that clearly emphasizes the IP address 
while noting the claimed name in parentheses. If this verification is 
passed, SIMS constructs a Received header that notes the verification.



>On the other hand doing mx lookups for dnsreports.com gives:
>
>dnsreport.com                 MX    65151   10    mail.dnsreport.com
>mail.dnsreport.com            A     7523    24.240.171.218
>
>but:
>
>218.171.240.24.in-addr.arpa  PTR   206     24-240-171-218.hsacorp.net
>
>The ptr record does not refer to mail.dnsreport.com, so SIMS can not 
>verify, but still waits 30 sec, why?


That's not what SIMS does. Nothing can be told reliably from a PTR 
record, as proven by the spammers operating out of RackSpace who used 
to (and may still) set their PTR records to the names of innocent 
parties. The HELO check is a simple one which does not actually block 
any mail: does the hostname given in the HELO resolve to the IP 
address used. If the person running that SMTP client is competent, 
the HELO argument will have an A record. On the other hand, it might 
be dnsreport.com on the other end...
-- 
Bill Cole                                  
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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