Reverse DNS and SMTP

Conrad A. Rockenhaus conradr at skyphusion.com
Thu Feb 28 20:46:21 UTC 2002


Patrick Muldoon <doon at inoc.net> said:

> 
> 	If an ISP who doesn't have reverse DNS setup correctly on their
> mail servers, we point them to the RFC's and generally offer to help
> them correct it.  
> 	We have noticed that our spam has reduced drastically, and the
> complaints are few, but alas this is a double edged sword, where if you
> even block 1 legitimate e-mail out of the 100K+ that we receive daily,
> someone is going to complain.   

To be honest, I would do this as a last resort.  For example, if their ISP's 
(or their own, if they have the block delegated) DNS server is misconfigured, 
etc, you might have a issue.  Also, some admins have no clue what reverse dns 
is, seriously :).

I would use a service like MAPS first to see if that resolves the issue, and 
use this as a last resort.

If they don't have an issue with blocking unresolvable ips, then they 
shouldn't have an issue with just using an rbl ;).

--conradr




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