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Improperly configured E-mail servers:
If you want to start a fight, say to whomever administers the E-mail
servers you use: "Your E-mail services are misconfigured!"
Unfortunately, it's quite common, because it's not easy to properly set
up E-mail services. Several years ago, being able to
reliably send E-mail was of top concern. That goal has now taken a
back seat to reducing UCE, (Spam). Often, mail from a misconfigured
E-mail server will work just fine for 95% of the people it's being sent
to. As time goes by, this percentage will surely drop as less
tolerance for spam increases.
Basically, here are the rules for disassociated E-mail servers to
properly talk to one another:
The remote mail server must connect and intoduce itself.
The introduction must be a proper Fully Qualified Domain Name.
The FQDN given must exist in DNS.
The IP address of the FQDN given must be the IP address it's
connecting from.
The server's IP address must not be a globally black-listed server for being an open relay or spammer.
Common mistakes are:
Not reading or understanding
RFC-2821 before
setting up E-mail services.
You have no business operating an E-mail server on the Internet if
you've not read and fully understand this document!
Simply throwing an E-mail server on a DSL connection, without
coordinating with the ISP who controls the DNS and it's address space.
Not understanding the SMTP protocol and using an E-mail
address, the wrong name, or some arbitrary or bogus name for the
server.
DNS not matching the real name for the server. Often caused by one
IT department not coordinating properly with the other.
Read: RFC-1035 to fully
understand DNS, and RFC-974 to
understand the requirements E-mail has on DNS.
This link does
a good job explaining.
Not configuring the DNS reverse Zone for the address space that's been allocated.
Correcting the above, (and other) problems and not un-blacklisting
your server. If you've corrected problems, make sure your mail server
is not still blacklisted.
Check out: SORBS to insure
your server's reputation is clean.
Discovery Networks, Inc., operates fully RFC compliant E-mail services and solutions.
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