sendmail

[Barry Brimer]

Quoting Joy Methew <ml4joy at gmail.com>:

> here is two systems both are "mta" A and B with sendmail.
> A is mine and B is gmail mat.
> when i telnet my mta means A --->>telnet 127.0.0.1 25
> helo hi
> mail from:root at yahoo.com <from%3Aroot at yahoo.com>
> rcpt to:ml4joy at gmail.com <to%3Aml4joy at gmail.com>
> i recived mail very easly.
> it means my mta "A" telnet indirectaly to gmail mta.
> but when i try to telnet directly to gmail mta its give error like.
>
>
> 220 mx.google.com ESMTP t26si1434066ele.4
> helo gmail.com
> 250 mx.google.com at your service
> mail from:ml4joy at gmail.com <from%3Aml4joy at gmail.com>
> 555 5.5.2 Syntax error t26si1434066ele.4
>
> Any idea why the "Syntax error".?

Mail servers that are run by knowledgeable people are very picky about SMTP
conversations.  The first problem is that you helo'd with gmail.com .. Google
knows which servers are gmail.com servers and which are not .. and you're not. 
I also expect that their mail servers are all using ehlo and not helo.  I doubt
that was the issue.  The syntax error was most likely your "mail from" line.  I
believe the correct syntax would have been "mail from: <ml4joy at gmail.com>". 
Your sendmail server most likely does not have any such restrictions in place,
and as such was willing to accept the less than standard syntax for the "mail
from" statement.  Your sendmail server does know how to form a proper SMTP
conversation, which is why your sendmail server had no issue talking to the
gmail servers.

Barry