<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">What to do if email is rejected because rDNS/DNS validation failed</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">If you see this type of rejected email message:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">554 [2817EA1A-3A0B-1802C112365D@mxi5a.bennyspage.org] client [x.x.x.x] rejected; no rDNS</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">it means there is a problem with the DNS setup of the computer that is trying to send email to bennyspage.org&nbsp;<strong><span style="color: red;">(Please enter your Email)&nbsp;</span></strong>email addresses.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>One way to (almost always) avoid the entire DNS configuration issue is to have your email program relay/send your email through the mail server of your ISP.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Contact your ISP:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Ask them to help you configure your email program to relay through their mail server</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">or</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Ask them to help you setup your DNS properly</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Feel free to point them to this page, and be sure to have a copy of the exact error/reject message for them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Unfortunately, if you are receiving this error/reject message, there is nothing we at bennyspage can do to fix it. Feel free to post a message in our help desk forum for help from other bennyspage users.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Other email topics</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="https://bennyspage.com/faqs/7/what-is-2-way-email-reply"><span style="color: #1155cc;">bennyspage2-way email relay</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">For those wanting to understand what is happening "under the hood"...</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">NOTE! Fixing DNS issues can be complicated and is not something the average computer user should have to deal with... See note above about talking to your ISP! Anyways, here we go!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">DNS is short for Domain Name System. It's the way that IP addresses get converted to hostnames, and hostnames get converted to IP addresses. It's used all over the Internet.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">When a mail server attempts to send email to bennyspage.org email addresses, in order to prevent as much spam as possible, we try to be sure that the server is who it says it is. Validating that DNS is setup properly for the connecting server is a great way to stop a lot of spam because spammers tend to employ all sorts of tricks and non-standard/broken configurations in order to hide their identity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">One of the first things that happens when a computer attempts to deliver email to bennyspage.org is that our server looks at the IP address of that computer and tries to convert that IP address to a hostname, by doing what is called a Reverse DNS Lookup. A DNS tool called "host" is being used to provide the following examples.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">pluto:~ user$ host<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2F192.168.123.231%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1SfsJHFiYmPncEnOkpKHtM_lHO35vkh6pct455rFLBHUxjqKGFeTFxy6A&amp;h=AT2nxoIbjcLiNPPWgIh-GOalieLsBR6Psniyk_3d5q7MyE1RsgPcxwbSrE8OEpEfmypbntDES_2j8omk2JjiIVgeuYTQBeEb1EGIlRCuDNu4N7VqoaOaN0VN5mrb6Ou30k5_vA"><span style="color: #1155cc;">&nbsp;192.168.123.231</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2F192.168.123.231%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1xxT2ypAXjlvdfIdkUK2-yNg7rA_39ZKYVgBix_cYomRotkY-rz--sh9w&amp;h=AT2nxoIbjcLiNPPWgIh-GOalieLsBR6Psniyk_3d5q7MyE1RsgPcxwbSrE8OEpEfmypbntDES_2j8omk2JjiIVgeuYTQBeEb1EGIlRCuDNu4N7VqoaOaN0VN5mrb6Ou30k5_vA"><span style="color: #1155cc;">192.168.123.231</span></a>.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer samplehost.example.com.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">The next thing that happens is that we try to convert that hostname (samplehost.example.com) back into an IP address to see if it matches (<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2F192.168.123.231%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1SfsJHFiYmPncEnOkpKHtM_lHO35vkh6pct455rFLBHUxjqKGFeTFxy6A&amp;h=AT2nxoIbjcLiNPPWgIh-GOalieLsBR6Psniyk_3d5q7MyE1RsgPcxwbSrE8OEpEfmypbntDES_2j8omk2JjiIVgeuYTQBeEb1EGIlRCuDNu4N7VqoaOaN0VN5mrb6Ou30k5_vA"><span style="color: #1155cc;">192.168.123.231</span></a>):</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">pluto:~ user$ host samplehost.example.com</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">samplehost.example.com has address<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2F192.168.123.231%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0U0-xbg_zm8h_ADm1w1FMm36JVBp6CogiA0lJ_g4UAUWiAZuwAs8T9t6A&amp;h=AT2nxoIbjcLiNPPWgIh-GOalieLsBR6Psniyk_3d5q7MyE1RsgPcxwbSrE8OEpEfmypbntDES_2j8omk2JjiIVgeuYTQBeEb1EGIlRCuDNu4N7VqoaOaN0VN5mrb6Ou30k5_vA"><span style="color: #1155cc;">&nbsp;192.168.123.231</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">When the reverse and forward lookups match up properly, the connecting computer has been validated to continue to talk to our mail server.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>However, when they don't match up, or any part of that validation fails, you will get the rdns/dns failure message.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">There can be several things that will cause failures:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Reverse DNS is not setup for your IP address</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Forward DNS is not setup for the hostname that is returned by the reverse DNS query</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Forward DNS is setup for the hostname that is returned by the reverse DNS query, but the IP address it returns does not match the IP address of the computer that is attempting to connect to our mail servers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">The solution is to make sure your rDNS and DNS are setup properly. Explaining how to do that is beyond that scope of this document, but more information can be found at:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_Confirmed_reverse_DNS?fbclid=IwAR2C6eUnKWRYXamw-_aVDr1qySq5TXIc6w147ASwCg70SB9FumL-_e5isyw"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_Confirmed_reverse_DNS</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System?fbclid=IwAR3jO-7E0xurXFg2AtO447jCFrX_5-W9-7kPgX-MGoCEjKkejgvrwRXndIE"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDNS?fbclid=IwAR04EAg2ZelMGO6DRQYtDrdrWPriLlow_wtRPxs1SJyAVdIt9yIKfFot8rA"><span style="color: #1155cc;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDNS</span></a></span></p>