Ok there are a couple of scenarios. Lets say your email address is [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If there is an 'A' record for hostname in the domain.com domain, then some smtp servers (XMail is one of them) will send to the A record IF there is no MX record defined for domain hostname.domain.com. That said, if your email address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can define a blank 'A' record in the domain domain.com If you look in the zone files an '@' is how the blank is shown. If there is an 'A' record for '@' in domain.com, then you will get mail. (obviously the @ A-record would point to your mail server.) This is how you don't need an MX to receive mail. But it breaks the RFC, because you should have an MX. And it is only NICE smtp server writers that try to help you get your mail through, rather than bounce your mail because some sysadmin can't configure a zone. Rob :-) > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of vin > Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 1:56 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [xmail] Re: question on mx records and spam > > > > well, that is all well and good, but I kept getting all or > virtually all of > my mail for the several months that I had no MX record. I don't > think it was > SMTP server specific either, because I got mail everywhere from hotmail to > tiny, rural Australia ISPs. I kept getting mail from servers that I had > never recieved mail from before and never sent mail to, as well. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tracy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 11:12 AM > Subject: [xmail] Re: question on mx records and spam > > > > At 10:54 7/24/2003, vin wrote: > > >I had never bothered putting an mx record for my server, > because I seemed > to > > >be getting mail fine without it and I seem to remember from a > while back, > > >some discussion that under some circumstances, mx records are > not needed. > > >then the people at my dad's hospital changed their routers firmware or > > >something and he could no longer email me, because his servers > need an mx > > >record. I put one, and now I get 1000% more spam. Is this a > coincidence? > > >under what circumstances should I NOT need an mx record? the IT people > know > > >it is a configuration error on their part, but I do not really > understand > > >how mail gets delivered with no mx record, or if this is a good thing > > > > An MX record is always required (per relevant RFCs) for a mail > server that > > will be receiving mail from the Internet. An MX record is not > (absolutely) > > required for a mail server that *only* sends mail. > > > > The reason you never got spam before is because your mail server was not > an > > Internet mail server until you put up the MX record. When someone sends > > mail to you, their mail server does an MX lookup on the domain that the > > mail is addressed to. If it cannot find it, it fails and > returns the mail > > to the sender as undeliverable (or, at least, that's the way > it's supposed > > to work - obviously there can be mailers that are configured > internally to > > handle mail to specific domains directly rather than through MX record > > lookups). > > > > > > - > > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in > > the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in > the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
