From: David Lesher <wb8foz@nrk.com> Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 10:33:56 -0400 (EDT)

A query to help educate me. Feel free to flame away; the week is young.

Every site should accept/respond to "postmaster" -- T/F?

True. Required by RFC 822, para 6.3 "Reserved Address" and discussed by RFC 2142 and RFC 2821. Although RFC 822 does not specify "sites running mail", 2142 does, in fact, specify that <postmaster> must exist "...on all hosts that have an SMTP server." Although RFC 2142 says this, further reading of the RFC and supporting RFCs implies that the "domain-name" must accept mail to <postmaster@domain-name> and forward to the proper person/mailbox. So I guess, if you are the proud owner of a domain, you must have routing that supports <postmaster@domain>..." In other words, ... Connected to the internet with a domain name? Must have a <postmaster> mailbox.

Or is it "Every site running mail"....

The RFC states

Or every box running mail?

RFC states " on all hosts that have an SMTP server..."

IOW: Which of the following are required vice recommended vice best practives, etc.

a) postmaster@example.com b) postmaster@mail.example.com c) postmaster@wizzbang.example.com d) postmaster@pop.example.com e) postmaster@cisco.example.com

They should all be recognized *IF* each of these boxes run SMTP. <postmaster@example.com> should be recognized in any case. Best practice? I define postmaster == root == some person or group of persons. Does everyone do this? Nope! Not by a long shot. I get flak over the policy. I can categorically state, however, that the machines where I get mail from root seem to have less problems than those where root mail is ignored. Does this definition result in some unwanted email? Yep. But, the one message that says "I found this problem, please fix." is worth all the chaff that just get deleted. This is especially true when the problem causes the machine to die in such a fashion that it cannot be restarted in a 'sane' manner and the only clue is a message from root... YMMV.

and most important to me: where to I go to justify the decisions on same?

Depends on the services you offer:

From Para 5, RFC 2142:

5. SUPPORT MAILBOX NAMES FOR SPECIFIC INTERNET SERVICES For major Internet protocol services, there is a mailbox defined for receiving queries and reports. (Synonyms are included, here, due to their extensive installed base.) MAILBOX SERVICE SPECIFICATIONS ----------- ---------------- --------------------------- POSTMASTER SMTP [RFC821], [RFC822] HOSTMASTER DNS [RFC1033-RFC1035] USENET NNTP [RFC977] NEWS NNTP Synonym for USENET WEBMASTER HTTP [RFC 2068] WWW HTTP Synonym for WEBMASTER UUCP UUCP [RFC976] FTP FTP [RFC959] Regards, Gregory Hicks --------------------------------------------------------------------- Gregory Hicks | Principal Systems Engineer Cadence Design Systems | Direct: 408.576.3609 555 River Oaks Pkwy M/S 6B1 | Fax: 408.894.3479 San Jose, CA 95134 | Internet: ghicks@cadence.com "I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she's too young to have logged on yet. Here's what I worry about. I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, she will come to me and say 'Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?'" --from the Cryptography list