Re: [Asrg] More reasons you can't overload POP and IMAP server names

John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> Sun, 07 February 2010 02:54 UTC

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Date: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:55:37 -0000
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From: John Levine <johnl@taugh.com>
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Subject: Re: [Asrg] More reasons you can't overload POP and IMAP server names
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>You left out yahoo, google, comcast, att, and the broad range of
>non-US-based major ISPs.

Oh, sorry.  Here you go.  As a free bonus, I did Hotmail, too.  I'm
modestly (but not hugely) surprised that every one of these uses at
least one level of CNAME.  As you may recall, putting something at a
subdomain of a CNAME is rather naughty, so where do you plan to put
your TXT record?

$ dig pop.comcast.net a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop.comcast.net.	7200	IN	CNAME	mail.comcast.net.
mail.comcast.net.	900	IN	CNAME	mail.g.comcast.net.
mail.g.comcast.net.	300	IN	A	76.96.30.119


; AT&T DSL POP server
; the first CNAME is also the name used for Yahoo's own POP service
$ dig pop.sbc.yahoo.com a 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop.sbc.yahoo.com.	1798	IN	CNAME	pop.mail.yahoo.com.
pop.mail.yahoo.com.	598	IN	CNAME	pop.plus.mail.yahoo.com.
pop.plus.mail.yahoo.com. 298	IN	CNAME	pop.plus.mail.fy4.b.yahoo.com.
pop.plus.mail.fy4.b.yahoo.com. 300 IN	A	206.190.53.11


$ dig pop.aol.com a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop.aol.com.		3600	IN	CNAME	open.imap.aol.com.
open.imap.aol.com.	3600	IN	CNAME	open.gopen.imap.aol.com.
open.gopen.imap.aol.com. 4	IN	A	205.188.200.149

$ dig imap.aol.com a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
imap.aol.com.		501	IN	CNAME	open.imap.aol.com.
open.imap.aol.com.	3016	IN	CNAME	open.gopen.imap.aol.com.
open.gopen.imap.aol.com. 10	IN	A	64.12.168.246


$ dig imap.gmail.com a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
imap.gmail.com.		146	IN	CNAME	gmail-imap.l.google.com.
gmail-imap.l.google.com. 146	IN	A	74.125.93.109
gmail-imap.l.google.com. 146	IN	A	74.125.93.111

; POP for Google, also for Virgin.net, the largest cableco in the UK
$ dig pop.googlemail.com a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop.googlemail.com.	600	IN	CNAME	googlemail-pop.l.google.com.
googlemail-pop.l.google.com. 300 IN	A	74.125.91.16

; POP server for Hotmail
$ dig pop3.live.com a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop3.live.com.		2508	IN	CNAME	pop3.hot.glbdns.microsoft.com.
pop3.hot.glbdns.microsoft.com. 27 IN	A	65.55.32.247


; POP server for BT Internet, the largest ISP in the UK, with mail hosted by Yahoo
$ dig  mail.btinternet.com a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
mail.btinternet.com.	600	IN	CNAME	pop-smtp.bt.mail.yahoo.com.
pop-smtp.bt.mail.yahoo.com. 1800 IN	CNAME	pop-smtp.bt.mail.fy5.b.yahoo.com.
pop-smtp.bt.mail.fy5.b.yahoo.com. 300 IN A	217.12.13.134
pop-smtp.bt.mail.fy5.b.yahoo.com. 300 IN A	217.146.188.192


Here's two different domains at the largest ISP in France that use
different A records to point to the same set of POP servers.  I don't
know whether these are only names that customers use to refer to those
servers.  From what I've seen of France Telecom, I wouldn't count on
them knowing, either.

$ dig pop.orange.fr a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	193.252.23.65
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	80.12.242.8
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	80.12.242.14
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	80.12.242.51
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	80.12.242.60
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	80.12.242.90
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	80.12.242.143
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	80.12.242.149
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	193.252.22.85
pop.orange.fr.		514	IN	A	193.252.22.90

$ dig pop.wanadoo.fr a
;; ANSWER SECTION:
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	80.12.242.8
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	80.12.242.14
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	80.12.242.51
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	80.12.242.60
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	80.12.242.90
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	80.12.242.143
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	80.12.242.149
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	193.252.22.85
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	193.252.22.90
pop.wanadoo.fr.		600	IN	A	193.252.23.65


>And for reference, you are postulating that the DNS-based query is
>hugely expensive for those providers using your scenario, but I'm not
>convinced that it does.

No, I'm pointing out that the DNS configuration would often be much,
much more complicated than adding a single TXT record per server, if
it's even possible to do, and is therefore much, much harder to get
right.

>You appear to be postulating that the DNS query would fail.  Please
>explain how and in what cases.

See many prior messages.

R's,
John