mx record

[matjaz]

hello,

does someone know how to get a mail server "responsible" for a domain?

i would like to let web user to check his email using my web form but i dont want to bother him with POP server name. i only want user to enter his email, username and password [no mail server].

where do i look for a mail server for [e-mail]?

Matjaz

[[deleted]]

The MX record should get you some info.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.getmxrr.php

But from a privacy point of view, this "service" you are building is really unsafe. You do use SSL right?

[matjaz]

i wrote my own one in a mean time [thanks vincent, i will take a look at that one too]. unsafe, why?

<?

function findPOPserver ($aEmail) {

//---- email sploh vsebuje @
if (($y = strrchr ($aEmail,"@"))==false) {
	return false;
}
//---- nslookup
$xDomain = substr ($y,1);
$xDomain = escapeshellcmd ($xDomain);

$xMailserver = `nslookup -type=MX $xDomain tagtag.com`;
if (!$x = strpos ($xMailserver, "mail exchanger = ")) {
	return false;
}
$xMailserver = substr ($xMailserver, $x + 17);
$xMailserver = substr ($xMailserver, 0, strpos($xMailserver, "\n"));

if ($xMailserver != "") {
	return $xMailserver;
	}
else {
	return false;
}

}

//=====================================

$xEmail = $email;

if (!$x = findPOPserver($xEmail)) {
echo "I cant find POP mail server name!";
}
else {
echo "POP SERVER: $x";
}

?>

[[deleted]]

Unsafe because you are asking for peoples username and password, to fetch mail on servers other than your own mailserver.

This means that you get access to their username and password for systems other than your own, which is not very safe from a user's point of view.

Yes, there are web-based email systems out there, but they only handle email-accounts of the ISP itself, and passing the username and password to the ISP that issued them is safe (or at least they don't need your password, they can simply reset it at will)

[matjaz]

then all public web emails are unsafe... hotmail, yahoo mail. of course, you are right, but we [users] take that "risk" when have a need to use a service like that.

its about public wap mail...

Matjaz

[[deleted]]

Not all webmail is unsafe, because like I said, in sites like hotmail you enter the username and password for the HOTMAIL mail, that is owned by the same people that give you the email.
Hotmail will never ask you to enter the data for any other account than your Hotmail account.

Many (if not all) ISP's have a clause in the contract that says that you are not allowed to give your password to any thrid-party, that includes your page.

If I saw a page that said:
"Enter your username and password for any of your email an we'll read it for you" I wouldn't feel comfortable.

[kparker]

Your function is really engaged in false advertising. MX records describe how to send email to a particular domain via their SMTP server, and have nothing to do with POP servers--except accidentally in so far as some sites use the same machine for both functions.

[php4hosting]

A zone file does not have to contain an MX record to allow sendmail to work, this then defaults to the domain name when attemtping to deliver e-mail.

Also a domain may contain several MX records not just one.

Darren
http://www.php4hosting.com

[matjaz]

ups, i guess you are right Kirk! sh*t :-) so i guess for what i am trying to do i dont get much use of MX right?

do you know the way to get a POP server "responsible" for an email? if you know what i mean? can this be done automatically without bothering user to enter it?

vincent: many well known web mail systems allow you to check external POP mail [yahoo is a good example]. like i said: if you need that option, you will enter your user&pass, if you dont or you are scared, you will not going to use it. its up to a user.

[[deleted]]

So it does. my mistake.
Anyway, it's not being scared, it's being smart.
Any password you give to any third party is compromised at that very moment.
Yahoo has a nice disclaimer. I suggest you get one too before you start doing this.

[kparker]

do you know the way to get a POP server "responsible" for an email

No, and for good reason. While everyone who wants to send you mail needs to be able to find the SMTP server that's responsible for delivering mail to you, you are the only one who needs to know where your pop server is. That's why there's no way to look it up.

[Anon]

Hi as i saw the discussion may be pretty late , but i want to add one thing , that their are ISP's who don't allow relaying of mail from their server , even if it is for your own domain name. now thats where mx lookup may help as you can connect directly to the port of mail server u want to send mail to.

[Anon]

one more question
does anyone knows , is their any application developed in php , which has its own email server , pop3, smtp, for windows 32 bit. or in conjunction with some server, maybe something like workgroup mail , microsoft exchange and it being a freeware , if anyone knows this please reply back

Thanks

[[deleted]]

"ISP's who don't allow relaying of mail from their server"

Replaying is sending mail from an account on domain X to an account on domain Y, through a server on domain Z.

A mailserver should accept mail from/to anyone as long as either the sender or recipiant is on the same domain as the mailserver itself.

[[deleted]]

Google finds everything,
but look at the Tucows websites, the have tons of free/shareware tools.