[exim] where does the HELO hostname get set?

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Author: Rick Pasotto
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [exim] where does the HELO hostname get set?
I have been running exim on my debian machine for many years without a
problem. Now the one recipient won't accept mail from me and gives the
below explanation which I only partially understand.

I think the problem will be resolved if I can get exim to respond with
'niof.net' to HELO rather than 'mnr.niof.net'. mnr is the machine name
but the domain is niof.net. At the present time it is the only machine
in that domain.

I know just enough to muddle my way through and would appreciate if
someone could help me understand what's going on and what I need to do
to fix it.

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 02:35:18AM +0000, Support Team wrote:
>
> This error message indicates company's email server misconfiguration.
> The problem is that hostname, used by the server to represent itself
> to remote side (to our spam filtering system in this particular case),
> is invalid. Mail standards require HELO greeting to be sent from valid
> (existent) FQDN hostname (IE names like "localhost" or "myserver"
> doesn't comply with RFC). In your case servers (I see several mail
> sources in MTA logs on our side) send FQDN HELO, but A records,
> corresponding to HELO hostname, are missing from DNS. Please see
> example reject message from filter's log and DNS query transcript
> below.
>
> You have 2 possible options at this point. You can either correct HELO
> hostname in your MTA configuration files, or add "A" records,
> corresponding to your current HELO hostnames, to your domain's DNS
> zone.
>
> Also please note, that reverse DNS records for your mail relay IPs
> must exist. We don't check direct/reverse DNS correspondence, but we
> reject mail sources with inexistent PTR records.
>
> Please let us know if we can be in any further assistance.
>
> ##########################
> $ dig mnr.niof.net
>
> ; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> mnr.niof.net
> ;; global options: printcmd
> ;; Got answer:
> ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 38288
> ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
>
> ;; QUESTION SECTION:
> ;mnr.niof.net.                  IN      A

>
> ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
> niof.net.               10659   IN      SOA     ns03.domaincontrol.com. dns.jomax.net. 2007101000 28800 7200 604800 759

>
> ;; Query time: 2 msec
> ;; SERVER: 10.1.1.251#53(10.1.1.251)
> ;; WHEN: Wed Nov 12 04:34:58 2008
> ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 98
> ##########################


-- 
"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many
 rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."
    -- Ronald Reagan
    Rick Pasotto    rick@???    http://www.niof.net