Dynamic IP Difficulties!

benn600 · Post by **benn600** » 2006-03-09 15:05

I have always had difficulty sending email to @aol customers and some other random domains. This is because I am using a dynamic ip address with no-ip to resolve to my current IP. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting around this? It is not very important to me because I know very few individuals still using AOL.

Thanks!

Post by **martin** » 2006-03-09 17:43

Test your DNS-settings at dnsreport.com and make sure that there's no warnings or errors.

benn600 · Post by **benn600** » 2006-03-09 18:04

I ran the test and got the following errors:

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ERROR: I couldn't find any MX records for ppcpathways.com. If you want to receive E-mail on this domain, you should have MX record(s). Without any MX records, mailservers should attempt to deliver mail to the A record for ppcpathways.com. I can't continue in a case like this, so I'm assuming you don't receive mail on this domain.
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ERROR: I could not find any mailservers for ppcpathways.com.
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This makes no sense, though, because I receive email all the time with no problems. Why am I unable to send to certain services? They say I have a dynamic IP so they are concerned I might be sending spam. Any more ideas? I use no-ip for dynamic ip resolving and I have read about mx records but am not quite sure what they are or if I even need them since my email server is working fine for incoming traffic.

Blue Ninja · Post by **Blue Ninja** » 2006-03-09 18:36

Many mail servers reject mail as probably spam when it's coming from a dynamic IP - I had the same issue. I ended up switching to a commercial account with a fixed IP address, but another solution you could use is something like DynDNS.org's MailHop Outbound service.

benn600 · Post by **benn600** » 2006-03-09 19:30

I definitely understand I can use a static IP or dyndns/no-ip's mail servers, but I want a free solution. I would be happy using MSN's servers but they are awful--either not working or having strange problems.

Blue Ninja · Post by **Blue Ninja** » 2006-03-10 02:33

Youcould use your ISP's SMTP gateway, but that will prevent you from sending SPF-compliant mail, since your domain wouldn't match the ISP's domain. Though you could include your ISP in your SPF record, that would let ANYONE on your ISP's domain send mail "from you", so that would be a disaster.

I'm not personally familiar with any free SMTP gateways, and I'd be surpruised if many existed - seems they would be an easy target for spammers, and likely end up in the DNS blacklists pretty quickly...

CraigHarris · Post by **CraigHarris** » 2006-03-10 04:21

The best & probably cheapest solution is to pay for a static IP.

Slug · Post by **Slug** » 2006-03-10 05:00

CraigHarris wrote:The best & probably cheapest solution is to pay for a static IP.

Unfortunatly I have to agree with Craig

woyzeck · Post by **woyzeck** » 2006-03-10 17:29

I have read about mx records but am not quite sure what they are

And you are running a mail server? Maybe you should read up on the basics.

The reason you are still receiving e-mails is that in the absence of an mx record or if the mailserver specified by the mx record is down or busy many mail servers will send to the a record instead, which you do have.

Also, many services will make sure that #1 there is a FQDN in the HELO message and #2 that that domain has an mx record. Large outfits also get lists of residential dynamic ip addresses from other large isps. AOL certainly does this as my business static ip was accidentally listed once.

If you can live without using spf, simply use a service that will relay messages for you. Or live with the fact that you will not be able to send mail to provideders like AOL.

Woyzeck