🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi.  I am setting up a NeXTstation Color, running NeXTstep 3.0.  The
sendmail 
version advertised on the SMTP daemon  banner is NX5.67c/NC3.0M.

After connecting the machine to the network, it was discovered that users
on 
other machines (even in the same domain) couldn't send mail to the host. 
Playing around with the machine a bit, I discovered that it wasn't
responding properly to 
an SMTP HELO command.  Local messages get to their proper destinations
and 
messages from the machine can get to remote hosts correctly.

Looking at mail -v 's output, this is what I found.  For reference, the
problem
 host is named ralph.cs.haverford.edu:

>>> HELO ralph.cs.haverford.edu
553 ralph.cs.haverford.edu config error:  mail loops back to myself.

Remote mail addressed to ralph bounces back with a "554 Service not
available" message.

I changed the sendmail.cf file to echo errors to postmaster, and got the
same
errors.  Manually telneting to the SMTP port revealed that HELO's
that didn't
provide a hostname or provided names other than ralph were accepted but
not delivered.  The same error message gets sent to postmaster, though,
so I guess 
it is forwarding the message to itself!

Calling sendmail -bt doesn't help much.  "root@ralph.cs.haverford.edu"
invokes 
the "ether" mailer, which seems to have correct options set.  Using the
reception replacement rules for "ether", the address gets parsed
correctly.  There is no 
obvious mistakes in the sendmail.cf file supplied by the manufacturer.

I am at wit's end with this problem.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Please send replies to ozimmer@acc.haverford.edu, and I will summarize.

Thanks in advance,
Oolan Zimmer '93
Haverford College

ObDisclaimer:  This posting does not reflect the opinions of the Computer
Science department or Haverford College.