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Date:         Mon, 7 Sep 92 12:32:20 GMT
From:         Ned Freed <NED@SIGURD.INNOSOFT.COM>
Subject:      Documentation of PMDF's mail server access control
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pmdf-l

> I have recently set up an MTCP channel. It works fine on reception,
> but delivery fails.

This error is not being produced by PMDF. It is being produced by the remote
machine after PMDF successfully transfers mail to it. The Received: header

  Received: from chemna.dichi.unina.it by risc55.dichi.unina.it (AIX 3.1/UCB 5.6
   1/4.03)
            id AA03814; Wed, 2 Sep 92 15:09:13 -0500

clearly indicates that the message has been transferred. Once the message is
transferred PMDF no longer has responsibility for it. This is therefore
definitely NOT a PMDF problem.

The error messages

  >>> HELO risc55.dichi.unina.it
  <<< 553 Local configuration error, hostname not recognized as local
  554 <avitab@[192.135.165.26]>... Service unavailable: Bad file number

indicate that sendmail on risc55.dichi.unina.it is misconfigured.  It
apparently does not know its own IP address.

I am not sure why you are trying to send to the machine's IP address anyway.
sendmail is notorious for not supporting this sort of thing correctly.
You might want to change the rules:

  risc55.dichi.unina.it                   $U%$D@mtcp-daemon
  [192.135.165.26]                        $U%$D@mtcp-daemon

to read:

  risc55.dichi.unina.it                   $U%risc55.dichi.unina.it@mtcp-daemon
  [192.135.165.26]                        $U%risc55.dichi.unina.it@mtcp-daemon

This will avoid the use of the IP address that sendmail cannot handle.

I note, however, that the DNS is incorrectly configured for this machine. There
is no A record pointing risc55.dichi.unina.it to [192.135.165.26] and there is
no PTR record pointing [192.135.165.26] to risc55.dichi.unina.it. The machine
is in fact on the Internet and reachable at its IP address. The lack of this
information may actually be what's confusing sendmail.

> My machine is chemna.dichi.unina.it running VMS 5.5, PMDF 4.0
> and Multinet 3.1.

Your machine is also not registered in the DNS. You do have an MX record, but
MX records are no substitute for correct DNS information. Correct DNS
information should be provided for all systems that are directly connected
to the Internet.

> An example of delivery failure follows. I mailed a message to
> risc55.dichi.unina.it, an IBM RISC6000, and I got the following
> mail, stating the failure.

I beg to differ. The mail was sent to avitab@[192.135.165.26], not
avitab@risc55.dichi.unina.it. Use of avitab@[192.135.165.26] is in fact
working insofar as reaching the remote host goes, but the remote host is then
failing to deliver the mail properly. This is not a PMDF problem.

> 1) Failures like this one happen with any destination

I quite frankly don't believe this is true either. In any event the example you
provide does not demonstrate that such problems exist.

> 2) The RISC6000 machine is able to receive mail by SMTP at the
>    same address I used, coming from other hosts

This is also incorrect. I sent mail not using PMDF to this system using its IP
address and had similar problems with it. This simply confirms that the IBM
system is not properly configured.

> I enclose my PMDF.CNF file. Any help will be appreciated.

There is nothing wrong with your configuration that I can see. You can
make the change indicated above and it may serve to work around the
problems with domain literals. However, the fact that the DNS doesn't know
about risc55.dichi.unina.it may then prevent delivery. (You may have host
tables that work around this problem -- I would not know about that.) But this
is a DNS issue and not a PMDF issue.

                                Ned
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU