-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi John,
On 30 Mar 2008 at 20:38, John R Levine <johnl(_at_)taugh(_dot_)com> said:
To run an email server, today, an existing host only needs to make the
server software operational. No other change is required. For example,
no coordination with DNS administration is required.
I suppose that's still true in theory, but when's the last time you saw a
non-spam message sent to someone(_at_)[12(_dot_)34(_dot_)56(_dot_)78] or saw
an MTA deliberately
configured to accept mail to dotted quad addresses? Every useful mail
server has at least an A record.
No, I find that it happens. Dynamic DNS providers, for instance, provide
memorable names for addresses, often free if those names are inside the
providers' domains. Most ISPs provide existing ready-mapped hostnames for
their customers. And even besides that, there's the simple question of
how to make a host that didn't once receive mail start to receive it
without touching the DNS configuration, as might happen at a dedicated
webserver. The fallback provides that mechanism and it's often more than
sufficient.
I agree that addresses with address literals are rare, but that doesn't
mean many hosts aren't ready to accept them (mine does because I'm on
sendmail and sendmail scans the addresses bound for addition in literal
form in the w class - known hostnames - and I'm aware of at least a couple
of Windows servers whose instructions tell the end-user to set up address-
literal forms in a similar way).
When IPv6 becomes widespread and there are fewer obstacles to reaching
IPv6 nodes, perhaps we'll go back to receiving our mail with SMTP because
everyone will want a hostname of his/her very own. In such a case, the MX
record may well be a nuisance more than necessary, and operating system
vendors may well be justified in including stub MTAs with a default of
"Reject everything".
Cheers,
Sabahattin
- --
Sabahattin Gucukoglu <mail<at>sabahattin<dash>gucukoglu<dot>com>
Address harvesters, snag this: feedme(_at_)yamta(_dot_)org
Phone: +44 20 88008915
Mobile: +44 7986 053399
http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 8
Comment: QDPGP - http://community.wow.net/grt/qdpgp.html
iQA/AwUBR/Ep2yNEOmEWtR2TEQKHSACggLGjS4ImrSn8ZgxxS36xc8l5+90AoJkP
tCbP+1vY0aEwdUHStfeO/6zG
=X3wS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----