Re: [Exim] 451-Invalid HELO

At 10:18 pm +0100 2004/04/28, Tom Playford wrote:
[...]
>(0): SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT
>TO:<help@???>: host
>oxmail.ox.ac.uk [163.1.2.161]: 451-Invalid HELO (**my-server-name**)
>used by **my-server-ip**. See
>RFC2821 S4.1.1.1 for syntax\n451-of the HELO command. This is a
>temporary error. You may try again
>after\n451 this server (**my-server-ip**) has been fixed.
>
>I have spoken to computing-services at Oxford at they say it's a
>fault at my end. This is strange as
> I haven't changed my configuration or upgraded exim for months.

why is it strange? Clearly they have changed their configuration and
are applying a strict HELO check.

Your machine (what's the point in obscuring it since we can get it
anyway) greets with the following:

Received: from cpc1-cmbg2-6-0-cust180.cmbg.cable.ntl.com
([80.4.4.180]:43079 helo=marvin)

so you are on a dynamic address (but this is not the issue here) and
helo with an unqualified "marvin". This is against RFCs as the helo
argument should be the FQDN of the sending host, in this case
something that resolves to 80.4.4.180.
Even after you fix this, you will have all sort of problems with
servers rejecting mail from dynamic IPs as yours. If you want to
avoid these problems use your provider smtp server to relay outgoing
mail.

Giuliano