On Friday, February 7, 2003, at 04:22 PM, George Szekely wrote:
>> There's a server that's having trouble sending email to both of my exim
>> machines; this is the error being logged:
>>
>> 2003-02-07 15:15:25 rejected EHLO from [64.221.212.2]: syntactically
>> invalid argument(s): twinsoft_bdc.twinsoft
>> 2003-02-07 15:15:25 rejected HELO from [64.221.212.2]: syntactically
>> invalid argument(s): twinsoft_bdc.twinsoft
>>
>> Looking at that, I'd say the problem is that underscores are illegal in
>> domain names, but I wanted to run it by the experts before I insist to
>> the Exchange admin that it's his problem.
>
> Mark,
>
> I have the same entires in my reject log as you.
>
> 2003-02-05 08:03:26 rejected HELO from [218.244.245.246]: syntactically
> invalid argument(s): cscec_notes.chinaconstruction.com
> 2003-02-05 08:04:08 rejected HELO from [218.244.245.246]: syntactically
> invalid argument(s): cscec_notes.chinaconstruction.com
>
> _ is forbidden in domain name...
>
> Also just wanted to let you know, that I'm using exim-courier-mysql as
> a result of your posting almost a year ago. I have a page posted about
> it at http://maxo.captainnet.net/installs/mail-install.html.
Glad to hear it! My machines have sure achieved a new level of
trouble-freeness since I started using Exim. Exim stands next to Apache
as a model of well-written server software, IMHO.
Sorry everyone for my posting about this without fully informing myself
of the causes, which turned out to be a google search away (always
search google before posting!)
So, I enabled
helo_allow_chars = _
and that fixed the problem of course. Now, the real question is, are
there drawbacks to allowing _ in domains in exim, other than the obvious
annoyance of clueless Exchange admins flagrantly violating rules of
DNS? Security concerns, that sort of thing?
--
Mark Edwards
Engineer
Mr. Toad's
San Francisco, CA
