Re: [exim] domain refuses all mail sent from <>, dialup exim…

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Author: John W. Baxter
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: Re: [exim] domain refuses all mail sent from <>, dialup exim4/debian
On 10/13/2004 20:07, "Marc D Ronell" <marc_ronell@???> wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> I have my Debian Sarge 3.1 dialup Box running Exim4 which forwards all
> of my mail to my ISP's smtp host. Outbound mail works to some extent,
> but as this message will probably illustrate, I believe my headers may
> not be completely clean. Further, some destinations seem to receive
> my email satisfactorily, while others just drop the email with no
> bounce messages. After contacting sourceforge.net about some lost
> email, a sourceforge admin sent me the following hint:
>
> In this case, your domain refuses all mail sent from <>, the null
> or bounce sender. This causes problems and goes against the SMTP
> standard.
>
> However, I am not sure whether the domain refusing all mail sent from
> <> is my dialup Linux box or my ISP's smtp server. Is there some
> configuration option which I need to properly set in the
> /etc/exim4/exim4.conf file to fix this problem?
>
> I read through the FAQ and Exim 4 Spec but I am still not sure whether
> the problem resides with my box or the ISP. If its my box, how do I
> set parameters in the exim4.conf file to solve the problems?
>
> Thanks for any assistance.
>
> marc


Assuming that the mail in question carries the Envelope sender
<marc_ronell@???>,
it would appear to be your ISP refusing the MAIL FROM: <> command:

# dig -tmx highstream.net

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> -tmx highstream.net
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 29026
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;highstream.net.                        IN      MX


;; ANSWER SECTION:
highstream.net.         20664   IN      MX      10 m1.highstream.net.
highstream.net.         20664   IN      MX      20 m2.highstream.net.


;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
highstream.net.         20664   IN      NS      auth120.ns.uu.net.
highstream.net.         20664   IN      NS      auth111.ns.uu.net.


;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
m1.highstream.net.      20664   IN      A       65.214.41.101
m2.highstream.net.      20664   IN      A       65.214.41.109


;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 172.21.2.3#53(172.21.2.3)
;; WHEN: Thu Oct 14 10:13:57 2004
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 152


telnet m1.highstream.net 25
Trying 65.214.41.101...
Connected to m1.highstream.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 SMTP X1
helo fox.olympus.net
250 hello highstream.net
mail from:<>
501 bogus mail from
quit
221 Goodbye
Connection closed by foreign host.


Note in passing that the banner they send out (the first 220 line) is
invalid, since it lacks the fully qualified domain name of the machine.

You're unlikely to be able to send mail to SourceForge from that
account...the same is likely true of other destinations you may want to send
mail to.

--John