Talk:Postmaster

"I have no idea how common it is for mail servers to perform this kind of blacklisting, but if you want really reliable email, set up a "postmaster" and "abuse" account for yourself."
 * You can 'ping' an email address basically, so some MTAs do a ping back on the postmaster@ address, if it doesn't exist it will put the email(s) in quarrantine or bounce, or drop the email, and (some will just send an entry to the blacklists.
 * The servers that then use the blacklists, will know that mail should be treated how all other email with the same problem is treated --NigelJ 21:40, 14 Jul 2006 (PDT)

Hardpack, why do you say a mailbox is required? The RFCs indicate that the address (mailbox name) must be valid, that is to say that one can attempt to send a message and it will not be rejected. Naturally they do insist that the message be routed to a person responsible for the mail server in such a way that they are sure to read it.

In particular the test for compliance (RCPT TO: command) works for forward-only addresses. I can't find any references indicate that one must use postmaster@domain for outbound messages or route directly to a mailbox. Please cite references if you can. --Atropos 06:39, 16 February 2009 (UTC)