spf-discuss
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Re: [spf-discuss] Re: SPF adoption statistics

2005-11-23 00:38:58
On Tue, 22 Nov 2005, Hector Santos wrote:

On the other hand, a small domain (less than class C) does
*not* have the ability to create PTR records.  Only their
ISP does!

That's not completely correct, [Stuart].  If you are working with a
knowledgeable bandwidth provider, they can DELEGATE a subnet within
a Class C network to you and you can then control your PTR records by
setting up an IN-ADDR.ARPA for the full subnet.  The delegated
address range will then be referred to your Class C subnet to
poll your primary DNS server and will be given the PTR record
for your mail server.

The key is working with a KNOWLEDGABLE provider.

Exactly.  When the broadband provider is NOT knowledgable AND is a monopoly
in the area, you are up a creek without a paddle.  This problem
is wide spread.  Most of my customer cannot get proper PTR records
because of ISP incompetence.  As a result, I have to relay some of
their mail through other customers that do.  That is why I keep
(futilely) campaigning against using PTR as a test of MTA competence.

To give you a taste:

I finally got PTR records for a customer in Baltimore last week.
After 6 months of calling and calling (wasting time with piles
of real work to do), we finally got a call from a technician.  He
proceded to tell us that we really didn't need RDNS, but just as he
was launching into an explanation of what RDNS was and why we didn't need
it, the years of frustration dealing with this problem came crashing down.
I lost my temper and started yelling at him and calling him a
blithering idiot and then started loudly reading exactly what to type into
his zonefile.  Just as I got ahold of my temper and calmed down, kicking
myself for antagonizing probably the only person at the ISP capable of
actually putting in the delegation, I was shocked to hear him say,
"I was just going to ask you for your IP address".  He then explained
that the salesman had failed to record the primary domain for the account,
and therefore the account had been flagged as "Windows".  If he
was going to overlook my temper tantrum, I would certainly overlook
the fact that he certainly wasn't "about to ask for the IP".  5 minutes
later: working PTR delegation.

Wonderful.  Now 4 out of 40 customers have PTR records.  Whoopee.  Better
than 3 out of 40, I guess.

-- 
              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.

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