Are some of your internet recipients getting bounced?
Submitted by W3QA on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 12:16.
Even though recipients are on your Whitelist, some internet addresses get bounced.
Here's why:
There is a standard in e-mail delivery designed to prevent spam sent from domain names that do not match the IP address. (This is a common way spam originates). It's called reverse-DNS lookup. WL2K central servers check with the DNS of every incoming internet sender to be sure the 'From' address matches the IP address from which the message comes. If not, it is rejected as incoming spam. This is our firm policy.
Some may point out that RFC 2821 states that SMTP servers (ISPs) may verify the match, but should not reject the message if verification fails. Our policy is tough for a reason; only 2% of messages hitting our system are valid. Also, the Winlink 2000 system is NOT an ISP. We are a private concern and are not legally bound to RFC 2821, or to accept any messages that are not of our choosing. We do not charge our users for the services we provide. And, as an amateur radio public service, we strictly observe the rules that govern amateur radio in every country our stations operate. There are no rules that allow indecent and commercial messages over amateur radio frequencies.
If your recipient's mail provider has not updated their DNS to include reverse-DNS (PTR) records, the WL2K check fails, and the legitimate mail can be branded as spam and rejected. Advise your internet correspondents to tell their ISP to upgrade their service to current anti-spam standards by adding a PTR record (the reverse-DNS record) to their DNS servers. If they won't, your recipients can get a free email account with yahoo or gmail (Google) that properly conform.
The good news is that most ISPs are diligent and have the same concerns about spam. For the few that don't, well, we wish they did. Sorry for the trouble, but internet spammers have made life complicated for the rest of us!
The Winlink Development Team