Boris2009
asked on
Understanding reverse DNS and smart hosts
When you do not use a smart host a recieving mail server may do a reverse DNS check.
My understanding is that it uses the source IP of the email (In our case the primary IP of our ISA firewalls external interface) and checks the DNS PTR record to see if brings up a DNS MX record that matches the domain of the email. Now my question is when you send mail via a smart host either at your ISP or elsewhere like AuthSMTP what happens to reverse DNS checks. The way I see it is that the reverse DNS check will take the source IP address which will be the smart host address and not be able to associate it with an MX record of the emails domain. Can anyone let me know if I'm missing something.
Thanks
My understanding is that it uses the source IP of the email (In our case the primary IP of our ISA firewalls external interface) and checks the DNS PTR record to see if brings up a DNS MX record that matches the domain of the email. Now my question is when you send mail via a smart host either at your ISP or elsewhere like AuthSMTP what happens to reverse DNS checks. The way I see it is that the reverse DNS check will take the source IP address which will be the smart host address and not be able to associate it with an MX record of the emails domain. Can anyone let me know if I'm missing something.
Thanks
ASKER
Hi thanks for the quick reply.
So if you send an email from your exchange via a smart host (E.g. Jbloggs@anydomain.com) when a reverse DNS check is done on the emails source address (The ip address of the smart host server) wont the check fail and the email marked as spam since the MX record of the smart host isnt a MX record for the anydomain.com.?
I might be still missing a piece of the puzzle I'm sorry
So if you send an email from your exchange via a smart host (E.g. Jbloggs@anydomain.com) when a reverse DNS check is done on the emails source address (The ip address of the smart host server) wont the check fail and the email marked as spam since the MX record of the smart host isnt a MX record for the anydomain.com.?
I might be still missing a piece of the puzzle I'm sorry
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ASKER
I think I get it now. Thanks
It seems the reverse DNS process isn't as comprehensive as once thought it doesn't insist on A records for the emails domain just that the sending server is trustworthy i.e the smart host /smtp relay
This post helped me as well
AOL are simply looking at the server that is delivering the message (Smart Host). If the server says it is mail.domain.net and the reverse DNS confirms that the IP address is mail.domain.net and it is not on the blacklists, then it will usually be allowed to deliver.
Thanks
It seems the reverse DNS process isn't as comprehensive as once thought it doesn't insist on A records for the emails domain just that the sending server is trustworthy i.e the smart host /smtp relay
This post helped me as well
AOL are simply looking at the server that is delivering the message (Smart Host). If the server says it is mail.domain.net and the reverse DNS confirms that the IP address is mail.domain.net and it is not on the blacklists, then it will usually be allowed to deliver.
Thanks
the source ip is the address of thier smart host.
they put in an A record for this so that it points to the correct name.
reverse lookups work perfectly.