[ih] MX and A records

[Larry Sheldon]

On 4/30/2013 11:42 PM, Paul Vixie wrote:
>
>
> John Levine wrote:
>> MX records were invented in 1986 in RFCS 973 and 974, replacing MD and
>> MF and as far as I can tell obsoleting MB, MG, and MR.
>>
>> It looks like there wasn't a rule to fall back to A if there were no
>> MD and MF, or if there was it didn't make it into the RFC.  RFC 974
>> does describe fallback from MX to A.
>>
>> Was that expected to be a transitional thing until MX was more widely
>> implemented, or was it expected to be permanent?  Or didn't anybody
>> think about it either way?
>
> my memories say, MX was designed to draw email traffic away from your A
> RR, and if you didn't need to do that, you didn't need an MX RR, either
> then or for all time.

They used to be useful for entertaining the folks on NANAE for weeks at 
a stretch.



-- 
Requiescas in pace o email           Two identifying characteristics
                                         of System Administrators:
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio      Infallibility, and the ability to
                                         learn from their mistakes.
                                           (Adapted from Stephen Pinker)