I'm a little confused now. postmaster.aol.com says they will reject any
connection w/o a PTR.
I don't think it is a hard rule, but when AOL started with the PTR-whatever
policy a couple years back, I know a lot of people on IMail list with
PTR-less boxes had scramble up PTRs quickly because they were blocked.
However, A few weeks back this came up and it was
revealed that what they do is check for the existence of a PTR but not
whether it matches anything. If a PTR is found to not exist they then
don't out right block it but just treat the mail negatively.
I think PTR-lessness makes any IP sending my MX mail suspect, and one more
mistake, the msg is rejected. I bet AOL has something similar.
They haven't said how the negative treatment works
see above.
but I can confirm
that it is possible to successfully send mail to an aol recipient
without having a PTR record.
yes, it's not a hard and fast rule, but expect them to ratchet up their
"DNS credentials", including SPF records. imo, the sooner and higher the
ratcheting, including SPF, the better, by any/all ASTA founders.
Perhaps this stricter checking is fairly new, within the last few weeks?
wouldn't be surprised. PTR-lessness sensitizes them to any other suspect
behavior by an IP.
I also think that once blockdd, AOL won't unblock an IP if it doesn't have
a PTR. If true, that's a good way to force MTAs to identify themselves more
completely with DNS records and coherent SMTP settings.
Len
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