Public DNS Server? Newbie question

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Timothy M Hodgson - 05 Mar 2004 14:55 GMT

Is there a "public" DNS server that I can specify in NSLOOKUP to
lookup A and MX record values?

I am writing a program that will look up a given email addresses' mail
server name so that my customers (who have no concept of what an SMTP
server is) don't have to.

Thanks in advance

Tim

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Jeff Cochran - 05 Mar 2004 19:04 GMT

>Is there a "public" DNS server that I can specify in NSLOOKUP to
>lookup A and MX record values?

Any DNS with internet access, and properly configured, will work.

>I am writing a program that will look up a given email addresses' mail
>server name so that my customers (who have no concept of what an SMTP
>server is) don't have to.

Why would your customer's ever need to look it up?

Jeff

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Timothy M Hodgson - 12 Mar 2004 16:37 GMT

> Why would your customer's ever need to look it up?

...because many of them are simply not bright enough to know what
their own SMTP server address is or they are in a corporate network
environment where their workstation is pre-configured and they simply
don't know or don't care. It's quite common.

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Jeff Cochran - 12 Mar 2004 19:40 GMT

>> Why would your customer's ever need to look it up?
>
>...because many of them are simply not bright enough to know what
>their own SMTP server address is or they are in a corporate network
>environment where their workstation is pre-configured and they simply
>don't know or don't care. It's quite common.

True enough. But an MX record doesn't specify a user's SMTP server,
it specifies the mail server for receiving mail sent to the domain.
They may or may not be the same.

Jeff

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