Email woes: AOL, Reverse DNS and Network Solutions.
February 24, 2006 2:09 PM Subscribe
Email from my company's domains aren't making it to AOL users... why is this so hard to fix?
We have a couple of domains, one of them is hosted with Network Solutions.
AOL has told us that emails from our domains are not making it through their spam filters because the domains don't have reverse DNS settings.
Network Solutions has said they do not support reverse DNS -- am I crazy or is this rediculous?
Are they full of crap, or do I need to transfer my domains away -- and if so, to whom?
We have a couple of domains, one of them is hosted with Network Solutions.
AOL has told us that emails from our domains are not making it through their spam filters because the domains don't have reverse DNS settings.
Network Solutions has said they do not support reverse DNS -- am I crazy or is this rediculous?
Are they full of crap, or do I need to transfer my domains away -- and if so, to whom?
Network Solutions is actually telling the truth. They don't support reverse DNS -- because it's not something registrars are responsible for. It is a function of your ISP or whatever other organization has authority over your IP addresses (not your domain name, that has nothing to do with it). Tell your ISP to get on the stick and add reverse DNS records for your mail servers. If your ISP has delegated this to you then you're the one who needs to get on the stick.
posted by kindall at 2:32 PM on February 24, 2006
posted by kindall at 2:32 PM on February 24, 2006
Kindall--Netsol also offers web hosting etc (as do many registrars). If o2b's organization is hosting a site with them, they've got a legitimate beef.
posted by adamrice at 2:46 PM on February 24, 2006
posted by adamrice at 2:46 PM on February 24, 2006
o2b you're going to need to be more specific - is Netsol just the domain registrar or are they the registrar and host?
If the former, then as kindall said it's really none of their business - that burden falls on your ISP or webhost.
If they're providing hosting, though, and won't help you setup reverse DNS then you need to find a different provider pronto.
posted by Ryvar at 3:21 PM on February 24, 2006
If the former, then as kindall said it's really none of their business - that burden falls on your ISP or webhost.
If they're providing hosting, though, and won't help you setup reverse DNS then you need to find a different provider pronto.
posted by Ryvar at 3:21 PM on February 24, 2006
Response by poster: They are not hosting our mail servers, which turns out to be the point -- the people hosting our mail servers suck, as they told us it was NetSol's responsibility.
I think we're on the right track now.
posted by o2b at 3:30 PM on February 24, 2006
I think we're on the right track now.
posted by o2b at 3:30 PM on February 24, 2006
As said above, this lies with those hosting your mail servers and the network infrastrure they're using.
The good news is that once reverse DNS is enabled, most of the other AOL delivery requirements should be already taken care of as part of the hosting setup and common sense e-mail server configuration: sending RFC compliant mail, not being an "open relay" that anyone on the internet can send mail through, not having a dynamic IP address and not having hard-coded MX records for AOL's servers. If your mail host isn't handling that then it may be worth finding a new vendor.
Further, as additional protection for your AOL mail delivery, your mail host can add SPF information to their DNS server configuration and also submit the sending servers' IP addresses to AOL's whitelist service. SPF will help your orginization deliver mail more reliably all over the Internet, as it's recognized by the major ISPs and is also integrated into SpamAssassin, which is at the root of many of the spam blocking solutions in the market. While we're at it, Yahoo also has delivery guidelines and a form for server information submission in the event of problems.
posted by VulcanMike at 4:37 PM on February 24, 2006
The good news is that once reverse DNS is enabled, most of the other AOL delivery requirements should be already taken care of as part of the hosting setup and common sense e-mail server configuration: sending RFC compliant mail, not being an "open relay" that anyone on the internet can send mail through, not having a dynamic IP address and not having hard-coded MX records for AOL's servers. If your mail host isn't handling that then it may be worth finding a new vendor.
Further, as additional protection for your AOL mail delivery, your mail host can add SPF information to their DNS server configuration and also submit the sending servers' IP addresses to AOL's whitelist service. SPF will help your orginization deliver mail more reliably all over the Internet, as it's recognized by the major ISPs and is also integrated into SpamAssassin, which is at the root of many of the spam blocking solutions in the market. While we're at it, Yahoo also has delivery guidelines and a form for server information submission in the event of problems.
posted by VulcanMike at 4:37 PM on February 24, 2006
Oh, I thought you said you were using NetSol's hosting.
If your ISP has b0rked reverse DNS on mail servers, ditch them. That's absolutely unacceptable.
posted by drstein at 9:22 PM on February 24, 2006
If your ISP has b0rked reverse DNS on mail servers, ditch them. That's absolutely unacceptable.
posted by drstein at 9:22 PM on February 24, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
Check out DNS Report and see what it comes back with. (Ignore the SPF error, if it gives you one)
posted by drstein at 2:22 PM on February 24, 2006