We've been talking about using DNS for some of the signalling. You
could specify a "_report.<mailstore hostname>" TXT record that specifies
the address (which isn't necessarily in the mailstore's domain) to send
it _and_ its very existence shows that the mailstore provider supports
the functionality (and thus the TiS button gets enabled).
Right. It would be a SRV record, but close enough.
I'm still worried about name overloading. Never in the history of POP
or IMAP has the name of the server been anything other than a handle
to the the IP address to which to connect. If your server has
multiple names, or no name, that has no effect on its operation.
Here's a concrete example, a customer of mine who uses the hosted mail
service at Tucows:
$ dig pop.philiphazan.com a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop.philiphazan.com. 294 IN CNAME
mail.philiphazan.com.cust.a.hostedemail.com.
mail.philiphazan.com.cust.a.hostedemail.com. 3594 IN A 216.40.42.5
$ dig imap.philiphazan.com a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
imap.philiphazan.com. 300 IN CNAME
mail.philiphazan.com.cust.a.hostedemail.com.
mail.philiphazan.com.cust.a.hostedemail.com. 3590 IN A 216.40.42.5
Their POP and IMAP servers have thousands of different names, one for
each hosting customer. If we do a DNS hack, each of those thousands
of customers has to add something to its DNS. If we do something
where the MDA adds a header, one software upgrade would make it work
for everyone.
This is a common way to set up a mail system for hosting services. So
you tell me, which approach is "simpler"?
R's,
John
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