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Shortest Email Address

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Tags: computer, shortest, email, email address

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  • +1 U. A.

    U. A.

    @Marc. Sorry, I don't know much about windows or mac so can't suggest of a specific mail agent there that would accept ua@au. And it looks like your failed attempt (thanks for trying!) shows that even a major MTA (but postfix! I would not have expected that!) - doesn't handle it correctly :-( I had until now thought the bugs were only at the MUA.

    I think if the record includes the qualifier "useful in the real world", and probably it should, I have to fail :-( So I'm not fussed. But it remains true that au@ua is valid and "active" (get it past broken software on the sending end and I'll reply).

    -Adam

  • response to this attempt +1 Dominic Sayers

    Dominic Sayers

    I just received a reply from au@ua so I can confirm that it exists and is the address of a real person.

    @Marc: it looks like Postfix is looking for an A-record for ua. If so this is a bug. RFC 5321 says there is no requirement for an A-record to exist if there is an MX-record for that domain*. This was unclear in the days of RFC 822 as the RFC predates the widespread acceptance of DNS.

    • "If one or more MX RRs are found for a given name, SMTP systems MUST NOT utilize any address RRs associated with that name unless they are located using the MX RRs" - RFC 5321 Section 5.1 (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5321)
  • +1 Marc

    Marc

    My attempt to send an email to this address failed:

    : Host or domain name not found. Name service error for name=ua type=A:
    Host not found

    Final-Recipient: rfc822; au@ua
    Original-Recipient: rfc822;au@ua
    Action: failed
    Status: 5.4.4
    Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; Host or domain name not found. Name service error for name=ua type=A: Host not found

  • response to this attempt +1 Dominic Sayers

    Dominic Sayers

    @Marc: I sent au@ua a test email today using eM Client on my PC (http://www.emclient.com/). Seemed to go OK even though I'm using a Google account.

  • +1 Marc

    Marc

    Regarding U.A.'s comment, I can verify that cd1.ns.ua reports the MX record for UA to be mr.kolo.net. In other words, a server is accepting mail on behalf of the domain "ua"

    @UA what mail clients on Mac or PC will allow for sending to such an address?

  • +1 U. A.

    U. A.

    I've tried submitting my address "au@ua" several times. (That's not ua.com, it's not ua "dot" anything, it's just au@ua for five characters). But this site doesn't believe it, even though it's valid.

    To be fair, it's not just the site's problem; many mail agents such as microsoft outlook will not even try send to this because they expect at least one ".". Gmail has this problem too (bug reported to them). There are however Internet standards (/RFCs) covering such issues and in spite of unfamiliarity by some of the big guys, au@ua is indeed valid. Send by unix mail, for instance; I'll reply.

  • response to this attempt +1 Dominic Sayers

    Dominic Sayers

    The TLD .io (British Indian Ocean Territory) has an MX record so somebody at the registry could give themselves a 4-letter address, e.g. a@io

    If you have 1000AUD to spend then some Kiribati 3-letter domain names are available (e.g. 4.ki is available as I write) giving you the opportunity for a 6-letter address.

    Go...

  • response to this attempt +1 Rob Birdsong

    Rob Birdsong

    Jed, email and ask him.

  • response to this attempt +1 Jed Kronfeld

    Jed Kronfeld

    Is this the Ben Bailey from Cash Cab?

  • +1 Zachary Reidell

    Zachary Reidell

    i would have submitted z-@q.com, but it would have tied your record.

  • +1 Corey Henderson

    Corey Henderson

    Good catch Peter. I just tried to email that address from two separate accounts they got bounced both times.

  • +1 Peter Craig

    Peter Craig

    The record holder for this needs to be given a name, not a web address - also the domain a.pt isn't even registered...

  • +1 Peter Craig

    Peter Craig

    j.mp was another 4chr domain...

  • +1 Peter Craig

    Peter Craig

    I myself have submitted a smaller e-mail in this category (8 characters) but that's also beaten with a quick search, any domain with 4 characters would also have emails attached to them, one published address with 6 characters is: a@3.ly for a url shortening service. There are various others x@g.gg, x@t.co etc So with that said, is the record criteria that it must be owned and maintained by a single owner and person and not a company/body?

  • +1 Corey Henderson

    Corey Henderson

    My college email address would have tied this one. I wish I still had it. cor@bu.edu

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