dbm@icarus.jsc.nasa.gov (Brad Mears) (04/19/91)
My HP 9000/370 occaisionly forgets how to receive mail. When this happens, it refuses all incoming mail with the following error message : > ----- Transcript of session follows ----- > >While connected to deltahp.jsc.nasa.gov [134.118.141.8] (tcp): >>-> HELO deltahp ><<< 553 deltahp I refuse to talk to myself > >554 <dbm@deltahp.jsc.nasa.gov>... Service unavailable I have to restart sendmail to get it working right. Any ideas why it might do this? BTW, I thought the HELO line was of the form HELO <calling machine>. In the case above, deltahp is the destination. Is that part of the problem? Please excuse the cross-posting of this msg, I wasn't sure where it fit best. -- Brad Mears dbm@icarus.jsc.nasa.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Opinions are expressly forbidden. | "It is better to die on your feet I speak for myself and no other. | than live on your knees" | - Dolores Ibarruri ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (04/19/91)
In article <1991Apr19.051644.14246@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> dbm@icarus.jsc.nasa.gov (Brad Mears) writes: >My HP 9000/370 occaisionly forgets how to receive mail. When this happens, it >refuses all incoming mail with the following error message : > >> ----- Transcript of session follows ----- >> >>While connected to deltahp.jsc.nasa.gov [134.118.141.8] (tcp): >>>-> HELO deltahp >><<< 553 deltahp I refuse to talk to myself >> >>554 <dbm@deltahp.jsc.nasa.gov>... Service unavailable > >I have to restart sendmail to get it working right. Any ideas why it might do >this? > >BTW, I thought the HELO line was of the form HELO <calling machine>. In the >case above, deltahp is the destination. Is that part of the problem? You are confusing yourself here. The transcript show BOTH sides of the "conversation". Since your 'sendmail' is talking to itself, the identification you saw is correct. What is happening is that the address 'dbm@deltahp.jsc.nasa.gov' is not being recognized as a local address. Thus sendmail is finding its IP address, and opening a connection. The trouble is it is connecting back to itself. It then recognizes the error and reports the error message. You seem to imply that this is an intermittent fault. If so, it is probably related to the way 'sendmail' determines its own name. It should normally use: gethostbyname(gethostname()) When your name server is running this consults the DNS records. When your nameserver is not running this consults your host table. Your /etc/hosts is probably set up with the short name first, and the `hostname` command probably returns the unqualified name. You either need to reconfigure your system so that gethostbyname(gethostname()) always returns the fully qualified name, no matter what the status of your network connections, or you need to define $w with sendmail.cf, as in Dwdbm@deltahp.jsc.nasa.gov By the way, I added comp.mail.sendmail back on the newsgroups, since I have no intention of subscribing to comp.sys.hp. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science <rickert@cs.niu.edu> Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115 +1-815-753-6940
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (04/19/91)
In article <1991Apr19.132241.28391@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes: >In article <1991Apr19.051644.14246@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> dbm@icarus.jsc.nasa.gov (Brad Mears) writes: >>My HP 9000/370 occaisionly forgets how to receive mail. When this happens, it >>refuses all incoming mail with the following error message : In my original response I said: >what the status of your network connections, or you need to define $w with >sendmail.cf, as in > >Dwdbm@deltahp.jsc.nasa.gov > > By the way, I added comp.mail.sendmail back on the newsgroups, since I have >no intention of subscribing to comp.sys.hp. Oops. That was a goof. The 'dbm@' part shouldn't be there. I should have said: Dwdeltahp.jsc.nasa.gov (Thanks to Kark Kleinpaste <karl.kleinpaste@osc.edu> for noticing my mistake). -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science <rickert@cs.niu.edu> Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115 +1-815-753-6940
hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) (04/20/91)
I use the following solution which works without problems on my 9000/370: I keep a small /etc/hosts.smtp file for hosts I connect directly to, and a /etc/resolv.conf file which lists three campus nameservers. In addition all unresolved mail is handled by one the campus mailservers, all uuc-style addresses are sent off by smtp to uunet.uu.net. The only occasions when mail bounced were when the return-pat was incorrect. Greetings, Hardy -------****------- Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy); Department of Physics, University of California Irvine CA 92717; (714) 856 5543; hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu or MMAYER@UCI.BITNET