Re: [ISW] AOL mail issues

[Shawn Duffy <shawnduffy () gmail com>]

> Essentially, here is what is happening.  AOL is set up to block incoming
> messages if the mail server sending the message does not have a proper
> reverse DNS entry.  For example, say your server has a host name of
> mail.mydomain.com and an IP address of 12.34.56.78.  Of course, you already
> have a DNS record for mail.mydomain.com that points to the proper IP
> address.  However, if you enter the IP address you will likely get something
> like adsl-12-34-56-78.dsl.cityst.myisp.net.  Since the do not match, AOL
> does not allow the message to go through.  To make matters worse, most
> companies do not have any control over these reverse DNS (PTR) records.

1)  This is general good practice and you would be hard pressed to
find any major provider who isn't doing the same thing.  If your IP
doesn't reverse properly, you're gonna have problems sending to a lot
of people, not just AOL.

2)  Most commercial hosting providers DO provide control over DNS PTR
records.  So if you have a hosted domain and mail, this should not be
a problem.  Residential users do not have control over PTR records
because it's generally unnecessary and much of the IP space is
dynamically allocated.  Regardless, unless you're one of my
residential users (as in, I am your provider) there is no reason to
accept mail directly from you.  It may be inconvenient to some but,
unfortunately, it's become necessary.

3)  That is not the main reason you are having so much trouble sending
email directly to AOL.  It's part of it, but AOL is set up to not
accept mail directly from major blocks of residential or
dynamically-allocated IP space.  Again, for any large provider this
isn't a bad idea either considering the spam loads they deal with
every day.

My aim is not to defend AOL but just present the facts.  With spam as
bad as it is, though, I can't say I blame them.

sd