verizon email problems continued

[Bruce Dawson]

[Top-posted because I'm replying to the entire article - not individual
paragraphs. But see my in-line posting further down too.]

This is undoubtedly part of the problem...

    [jbd at bruce jbd]$ host -t mx threeofus.com
    threeofus.com mail is handled by 20 mail.antistatic.com.
    threeofus.com mail is handled by 30 oblique.antistatic.com.
    threeofus.com mail is handled by 10 mail.threeofus.com.
    [jbd at bruce jbd]$ host mail.threeofus.com 
    mail.threeofus.com is an alias for threeofus.com.
    threeofus.com has address 199.232.38.4
    [jbd at bruce jbd]$ host 199.232.38.4
    Host 4.38.232.199.in-addr.arpa not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

Your smtp server doesn't have a PTR ressource record for your IP
address. Further digging shows:

    [jbd at bruce jbd]$ /usr/bin/whois 199.232.38.4 at whois.arin.net
    [whois.arin.net]
    
    OrgName:    Cambridge Entrepreneurial Network 
    OrgID:      CNNT
    Address:    90 Sherman St.
    City:       Cambridge
    StateProv:  MA
    PostalCode: 02140
    Country:    US
    
    ReferralServer: rwhois://rwhois.gnaps.com:4321/
    
    NetRange:   199.232.0.0 - 199.232.255.255 
    CIDR:       199.232.0.0/16 
    NetName:    CENT-CIDR-01
    NetHandle:  NET-199-232-0-0-1
    Parent:     NET-199-0-0-0-0
    NetType:    Direct Allocation
    NameServer: NIC.CENT.NET
    NameServer: NS2.CENT.NET
    Comment:    IP ADDRESSES FROM THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE
    Comment:    
    Comment:    whois reassignment information for this block is
    available at: rwhois.gnaps.com:4321
    RegDate:    1994-04-11
    Updated:    2001-05-04
    
    TechHandle: BFB-ARIN
    TechName:   Bruce, Barton 
    TechPhone:  +1-617-507-5118
    TechEmail:  barton at cent.net 
    
    # ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2003-11-10 19:15
    # Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
    
Unfortunately, I can't get rwhois.gnaps.com to respond, so I can't tell
who's managing your IP address. You need to get your ISP to create a
reverse DNS entry (a PTR RR) for your IP address, and have it point back
to threeofus.com. If you can't get your ISP to respond, then try
cent.net directly.

Good luck, --Bruce

On Tue, 2003-11-11 at 15:03, Joshua S. Freeman wrote:
> Hi Ed,
> 
> Thanks for responding.
> 
> 
> Basically, I have a machine on the network at my house up in Boston (we
> live in Westchester, NY now... ).  The machine is at 199.232.38.4.  It
> runs sendmail, apache, dns, etc.. for my threeofus.com domain as well as
> a bunch of other domains.
> 
> I don't have IMAP installed on that machine yet.. or, rather, I don't
> have it configured yet.  It's running RH 6.2... I forget which kernel...
> 
> The important point for this conversation is that I manage (ineptly) my
> own DNS... i have a /etc/named.conf file and a bunch of files in
> /var/named/ ...
> 
> In westchester, our ISP is the cable company.. optonline.net.
> 
> My wife has some friends who use Verizon as THEIR isp.
> 
> Their email addresses are username at verizon.net.
> 
> My wife receives their mail just fine.
> 
> My wife's computer uses optonline.net for smtp.
> 
> verizon.net seems to be rejecting the email she sends to her friends on
> verizon because, I think, her (my wife) email address is
> monica at threeofus.com and she's using optonline's smtp server..

Several possible explanations for this:
        * If verizon.net is rejecting mail she sends out, then she's NOT
          using optonline.net's SMTP servers! 
        * Or she is, and optonline.net is banned from Verizon because of
          their spam history.
        * Or she's sending directly from an optonline.net client address
          and not optionline.net's SMTP servers. (A number of ISPs will
          reject mail coming from home accounts - but will accept mail
          coming from a "published" smtp server for the net. This policy
          was put into effect due to the trouble ISPs have with
          end-users keeping their systems free of mail viruses and
          trojan horses.)

Unforunately, we need the entries from your /var/log/maillog to diagnose
the problem. And maybe access to the system and some addresses to try.


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