SUMMARY: MX/A records; mail problems

From: Dave Zwieback (zwieback_dave@timeplex.com)
Date: Mon Mar 30 1998 - 10:56:29 CST


The original question was:

> I have an MX record for our domain in the DNS. However, I don't have
an
> A record for mydomain.com.
>
> Apparently, we can't get mail at mydomain.com sometimes from certain
> users.
>
> Would adding an A record would help? What would be the format, just
> "mydomain.com IN A address.of.mail.exchanger" ????

Unfortunately, there was no consensus. Some people said that if a mailer
can't recognize an MX record then it's broken. However, some people
suggested that I add an A record for mydomain.com in addition to an MX
record for mydomain.com will fix the problem for "brain dead mailers",
i.e.:

mydomain.com. IN A 12.13.14.15

The O'Reilly book on DNS (DNS and Bind, 2nd edition) implies that by
default most mailers will first look up the MX record for a particular
host, and then, if the lookup fails, will lookup an address for the host
itself, not the other way around.

Thanks to all that contributed, including:

Johnie Stafford, js@cctechnol.com
"Scott D. Yelich" <scott@spy.org>
Andrew M Townsend <ATOWNSEND@DOLETA.GOV>
Rich Pieri <rich.pieri@prescienttech.com>
"Schaffer, Gregory J." <GSchaffe@mc.utmck.edu>
"Mike D. Kail" <mdkail@fv.com>
"James Ford" <James.Ford@seebeck.ua.edu>
Ronald Loftin <reloftin@mailbox.syr.edu>
ROBIN_BROWN@phl.com
Tom Lojewski <thl@atmsys.com>
lhoo@fcicom.com (Louis Hoo)
Aaron Dewell <dewell@woods.net>
"Auteria Wally Winzer Jr." <wally.winzer@ChampUSA.COM>

Thanks!

Dave.





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