MX pointing to an IP address

[Barry Margolin]

   From: "Mathias Körber" <mathias at koerber.org>
   Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 01:04:49 +0800

   > >> Using an IP address instead of a hostname will *not* result in an =
   > >error
   > >> from the DNS server at load time.  Syntactically, an MX record =
   > >pointing to
   > >> an address is valid (assuming he puts in the preference level that he
   > >> accidentally left out above), so named won't complain.  But most =
   > >mailers
   > >> will.

   > I know.  But since named doesn't check whether the hostname in an 
   > MX record
   > exists, it will not result in an error.  I was not saying that it's OK to
   > do it, I was just responding to your claim that it will result in an error
   > being logged when you load the zone into named.

   That was not my claim, I think it was Jim's :-)

   I was just trying to clarify that what is syntactically correct must not be
   semantically so. Saying that 'some mailers will' (complain) does not really make
   it clear that the record will end up meaning something totally different..

Everyone else who had responded had already said that pointing MX records
to IP addresses doesn't work.  I was merely correcting the one incorrect
thing he'd said.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
Genuity, Burlington, MA