There is also this point to consider. A server can disallow telnet access to the port if they desire to. I personally have never had much trouble with netscape, on the other hand Hotmail and Yahoo live on a short list of banned mail providers. At 03:43 AM 17/09/2004, you wrote: >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