gethostbyaddr Error

[Barry Margolin]

In article <93dgki$i9t at pub3.rc.vix.com>, SoloCDM  <deedsmis at aculink.net> wrote:
>The following error occurs in /var/log/maillog:
>
>sendmail[32602]: gethostbyaddr(204.118.157.122) failed: 1
>
>Because I'm connected to an ISP, the last set of numbers (after
>the last period) change with every ISP connection, so how can I
>put a generic entry in DNS?  The host is either mail.aculink.net
>or aculink.net . . . I just don't know which is more appropriate
>or standardization.

You should create DNS entries for all the hosts in your address block.  You
can do this easily with the $GENERATE directive in the zone file.

You could create a wildcard entry that looks like:

* IN PTR somename.in.your.domain.

but the problem with this is that sendmail may try to verify that the
forward DNS matches the reverse DNS.  When it looks up
somename.in.your.domain, it won't get the address it started with, and will
treat the reverse DNS as spoofed.

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