nanog mailing list archives

RE: DNS question, null MX records


From: Eric J Esslinger <eesslinger () fpu-tn com>
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:46:06 -0600


I've had a couple of off-list comments already about using it as/donating it to a spam trap; That is a good idea and I 
actually thought of that.

However, the address was formerly used for email addresses for our customers and for our business (some 10 years ago it 
was registered, but has not had any valid dns records set for roughly 6 years), and we still deal from time to time 
with mail being sent to old addresses on that domain for various reasons (several dns registrations, for example, we've 
had to help these people go through the fax change system because we don't want to go to the trouble of setting up to 
receive email on this domain again)

So in any case, due to customer privacy concerns we feel we can't do that.

Also I have set the spf -all on it, for those that look for these records to auot-reject email from the domain.
__________________________
Eric Esslinger
Information Services Manager - Fayetteville Public Utilities
http://www.fpu-tn.com/
(931)433-1522 ext 165



-----Original Message-----
From: Eric J Esslinger [mailto:eesslinger () fpu-tn com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 9:18 AM
To: 'nanog () nanog org'
Subject: DNS question, null MX records


I have a domain that exists solely to cname A records to another domain's websites. There is no MX server for that 
domain, there is no valid mail sent as from that domain. However when I hooked it up I immediately started getting 
bounces and spam traffic attemtping to connect to the cnamed A record, which has no inbound mail server (It's actually 
hitting the firewall in front of it). (The domain name is actually several years old and has been sitting without dns 
for a while)

I found a reference to a null MX proposal, constructed so:
example.com    IN    MX 0 .

Question: Is this a valid dns construct or did the proposal die? I don't want to cause people problems but at the same 
time, I don't want any of this crap to even attempt to deliver on this domain to any of my servers.


__________________________
Eric Esslinger
Information Services Manager - Fayetteville Public Utilities http://www.fpu-tn.com/ (931)433-1522 ext 165



________________________________
This message may contain confidential and/or proprietary information and is intended for the person/entity to whom it 
was originally addressed. Any use by others is strictly prohibited.

This message may contain confidential and/or proprietary information and is intended for the person/entity to whom it 
was originally addressed. Any use by others is strictly prohibited.

Attachment: Eric J Esslinger.vcf
Description: Eric J Esslinger.vcf


Current thread: