Messages sent to the Internet are returned to the sender with a 501 invalid hostname error

  • 7001843
  • 10-Mar-2009
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell GroupWise 5.5 Enhancement Pack (EP)
Novell GroupWise 5.5
Novell GroupWise 6
Novell GroupWise 6.5
Novell GroupWise 7
Novell GroupWise 8

Situation

Messages sent to the Internet are returned to the sender with a 501 invalid hostname error.

550 HOST UNKNOWN is seen on the GWIA.

Resolution

Invalid hostname after the /HN switch in the GWIA.CFG. In this case, "HOSTNAME/DNS" was added to the GWIA.CFG file. Which caused receiving mail servers to respond with a 501 error after the initial HELO.
 
Other error messages that could be seen because of this are:
  1. 504 5.5.2 Helo command rejected: need fully-qualified hostname
  2. Send Failure: 550 Access denied - Invalid HELO name (See RFC2821 4.1.1.1)

Insert the proper domain name in the proper format after the /HN, such as novell.com, in the GWIA.CFG file and the errors will be resolved