Is pop/smtp required in DNS for domains?

Running BIND 9.3.6 on SL5 x86_64

Is there an RFC requirement for email servers to have:

pop.acme.com
smtp.acme.com

instead just use mail.acme.com for all?

The server would have a CERT blanket cover all the sub-domains on it like:
secured port 443 access to mail.acme.com

the server would still have 1 IP and have www/ftp running as well.



Can someone shed some light on this, I work at an ISP when setting up new zones, I always use the following:

pop.acme.com
smtp.acme.com
mail.acme.com

ect.. would you use just mail.acme.com for all email?

Would this be more a security risk for this and does this create strange dns behavior?

I have tried to research this and I have not found any data about it.

It seems simpler to have just mail.domain.com than pop/smtp ect...


Any help/advice would be great.

I have my own mailservers for a couple low-use domains, I just use mail.example.tld for in and out mail. Many larger setups use different servers for smtp and pop/imap so they use different hosts.

I don't know of any problems using the same host url for all mail services.

As stated, it's when providers usually have multiple servers. Especially if the inbound and outbound servers utilize different filtering techniques. It wont cause any DNS problems to have it the same hostname. If you want, you can have separate names resolve to the same IP. No security risks I can think of as long as you make sure your server is secured. I have a mail server at my house for testing, it uses one hostname. Having different names may make management/troubleshooting easier as to not confuse yourself. Personal choice really.

I used to work at an ISP. The pop name was incoming, smtp was outgoing and mail was for webmail logins. Most companies I've seen follow that pattern.

Thank you for the replies, that makes sense to me, I never thought about it until I was needing to get a 'blanket' CERT SSL for building a new email server.


Since we have 3 email servers, I would like to go with the uniform 'mail.domainname.com. However I cannot sense the customers would have to change their email client settings, they would most likely get upset.

I did not know some places had different servers for incoming email and for outgoing.

So the incoming would relay out through a smtp server that allowed the IP of the incoming?

Is that correct?

That question seems vague. Can you be more specific of what you're asking?