foo@bar.com is a real email address

Post by Confusion » Tue, Nov 22, 2011, 8:12 AM UTC

xbryanx wrote: post #59

vog wrote: post #17

I thought this is basic knowledge of everyone technically engaged in Internet stuff. But apparently, this isn't the case, despite its well-known and very readable documentation! [1] It says: 1) There are exactly 3 domains the IANA keeps free for that purpose: example.com example.net example.org 2) In addition, all domains under the following 3 top level domains can be used freely for that purpose: *.test *.example *.…

So I've wondered this for a long time. Where does email sent to wildcard@example.com go? If I accidentally sent sensitive information to wildcard@example.com would some evil person (potentially at the IANA) be able to retrieve it someday?

Post by Kevindish » Tue, Nov 22, 2011, 9:44 AM UTC

a_m0d wrote: post #66

mirkules wrote: post #36

If you really need to receive a test email, you can always use @mailinator.com (just make sure it's not sensitive info). Mailinator is a disposable, publicly viewable email address mostly useful for one-time account registrations, especially in cases where you fear they might spam you. In recent years, I started using the + notation at gmail -- anything you put after the + and before the @ is ignored by gmail, BUT yo…

The "+" trick is great, except for sites that use hair-brained email "validation" scripts which reject the address. Sadly enough, these are often the ones that I most want to use the "+" for (its a great way to also keep track of who hands out your email address to spammers).

Post by robin_reala » Tue, Nov 22, 2011, 11:37 AM UTC

pyre wrote: post #29

old-gregg wrote: post #10

That is so true... Most developers who get an account with Mailgun ( http://mailgun.net ) get so excited about the live email log or for some other reason... they love to fire up emails to @test.com. We have thousands of emails in our queue destined for test.com at any given moment. Guys, please stop: what makes you think test.com can't be a real destination? :-) Actually, they don't have a mail server for that domai…

Some should setup a MX on test.com and: * post a public webpage with all email going to @test.com * post a public webpage with all email addresses harvested from emails to @test.com Or * setup an auto responder asking people to stop sending there (bonus points: threaten to post emails of repeat offenders to spammer lists)

Post by danssig » Tue, Nov 22, 2011, 12:29 PM UTC

seanp2k2 wrote: post #70

mcauser wrote: post #16

I frequently use aa@aa.aa - last time I checked, there were no countries using .aa

To you and everyone using things != .+@example.com: why? Example.(com|net|org) were specifically created for this purpose and for the purpose of tutorials. I work in client-facing support, and it's very easy to troubleshoot software that /other people/ write when the client says something along the lines of "It says 'connection to example.com:25 failed'" -- I instantly know what the problem is. If you're using things…

Post by wazoox » Tue, Nov 22, 2011, 12:44 PM UTC

nikcub wrote: post #81

ry0ohki wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

doh, test@test.com must be pissed.

the guy who owns test.com emailed me once because I wrote a paper on IIS vulnerabilities and had 'test.com' as example URL's. turns out a lot of people reading my paper would copy+paste the example exploits and own the test.com server (which just happen to be running IIS).