Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!LCS.MIT.EDU!sra From: sra@LCS.MIT.EDU (Rob Austein) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Subject: Domain names in resource records (was: PTR records ...) Message-ID: <9101181603.aa02093@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Date: 18 Jan 91 21:03:32 GMT References: <1991Jan17.210309.15170@mp.cs.niu.edu> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: inet Organization: The Internet Lines: 18 Date: 17 Jan 91 21:03:09 GMT From: Neil Rickert ... It next tries to send to the second preference. Before doing so, it compares the name with its own host name to be sure it is not sending to itself. Because the name on the MX is the name of the CNAME record, and not of the A record, it does not recognize the name as its own. It therefore tries sending to itself, discovers the problem, aborts and bounces the mail. I believe the problem is not in sendmail, but in the MX -> CNAME. Sorry, but this is dead wrong. There is no technical difficulty involved in checking both the source and the target of the CNAME. If sendmail doesn't do this, sendmail is broken. TOPS-20 MMAILR got this right years ago. --Rob Austein