gethostbyaddr Error

[Kevin Darcy]

SoloCDM 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?

If you know that the entire 204.118.157/24 range is used as a pool of
dynamic addresses, you could create a 157.118.204.in-addr.arpa zone on
your nameserver containing a wildcard PTR record (just use * as the
owner name). If only part of that /24 range is dynamically-assigned,
though, then this approach could blind your nameserver to some of the
reverse mappings for addresses in the statically-assigned part of the
range, which might even include some of your ISP's infrastructure nodes.
This could be a Bad Thing.A better solution, therefore, would be for
your ISP to populate 157.118.204.in-addr.arpa with appropriate PTR
records. Most ISP's do that as a matter of course for their dynamic
address pools; I'm surprised that yours didn't.

>  The host is either mail.aculink.net
> or aculink.net . . . I just don't know which is more appropriate
> or standardization.

It's purely a matter of preference.

> Note: When you reply to this message, please include the mailing
>       list address in Cc: and my email address in To:.

Why?


- Kevin