On 9/16/2004 11:21 AM, Stan Horwitz wrote:

> When I log onto our listserv host and try to telnet to netscape.com 25
> I get the following
>
> # telnet netscape.com 25
> Trying 64.12.37.146...
> telnet: connect to address 64.12.37.146: Connection timed out
> telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection timed out
>
> which suggests to me that there's a problem with netscape receiving email,
> but I can send individual emails to the same address from my email account
> just fine.

To the best of my knowledge, we are not encountering problems sending
messages to addresses in the netscape.com domain. Having said that, I
should point out that your trouble-shooting technique is flawed.

Many sites create domain-level DNS A records which resolve to their web
servers, so that web surfers who type the domain name in the browser
location box will be directed to the domain's web site. That seems to be
what Netscape has done. Consequently, your SMTP connection attempt was
directed to a  web server, not a mail server. I am not surprised that the
SMTP connection request timed out.

When you send an email message, your mail server performs a DNS query to
identify the MX (Mail eXchanger) host for the domain portion of the
recipient address. When you are testing email delivery to a host or
domain, you also need to direct your SMTP connection request to the
appropriate MX host. You can use 'nslookup -q=MX' to identify the domain's
MX host.

As you can see below, netscape.com and www.netscape.com resolve to the
same IP address, but the MX host for the netscape.com domain has a
different IP address.

----- begin -----
* get the IP address for 'netscape.com'
sunbear(prussell):~ > nslookup netscape.com
Server:  bind.nd.edu
Address:  129.74.250.100

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    netscape.com
Addresses:  64.12.37.146, 64.12.180.19

* get the IP address for the likely netscape.com web server
sunbear(prussell):~ > nslookup www.netscape.com
Server:  bind.nd.edu
Address:  129.74.250.100

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    www.gwww.netscape.com
Address:  64.12.37.146
Aliases:  www.netscape.com

* get the MX hostname for the netscape.com domain
sunbear(prussell):~ > nslookup -q=MX netscape.com
Server:  bind.nd.edu
Address:  129.74.250.100

Non-authoritative answer:
netscape.com    preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.netscape.everyone.net

Authoritative answers can be found from:
netscape.com    nameserver = ns2.netscape.com
netscape.com    nameserver = ns.netscape.com
netscape.com    nameserver = ns1.netscape.com

* get the IP address of the MX host for the netscape.com domain
sunbear(prussell):~ > nslookup mail.netscape.everyone.net
Server:  bind.nd.edu
Address:  129.74.250.100

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    mail.netscape.everyone.net
Address:  216.200.145.10
----- end -----

--
Paul Russell
Senior Systems Administrator
OIT Messaging Services Team
University of Notre Dame