On Wed, 4 May 2005, Radu Hociung wrote:
A forwarder such as mail.com, uses its mail servers specifically to
relay ("forge", some might say) without changing the MAIL-FROM. so when
you send a message to happydog.com which is a forwarded domain that uses
mail.com MX servers, goes out through some other outgoing server that
belongs to mail.com.
However, no happydog.com (as its MAIL-FROM) mail originates from those
servers. So in this case, what do you think is more likely that ...
This makes no sense. Relay type forwarding is something a mail receiver
sets up. It has no effect on publishing SPF records. It does affect
checking SPF records if the forwarder does not change MAIL-FROM. But
the sender has nothing to do with it. Indeed they can't, because they
don't know what if any forwards a destination domain might have set up.
If you are talking about outsourced SMTP servers for outgoing mail, then yes,
the SPF record for a sending domain should include mail.com if that is how they
are sending mail. With either '+', or '?', depending on whether mail.com
protects against internal forgery.
If you are talking about HELO SPF records, then it doesn't matter if the
MAIL-FROM and HELO domains are different. The MAIL-FROM and HELO domains are
unrelated. (Except for <> expanding to <postmaster(_at_)hello(_dot_)domain>.)
--
Stuart D. Gathman <stuart(_at_)bmsi(_dot_)com>
Business Management Systems Inc. Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flamis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.