On Thu, Nov 01, 2001 at 05:37:16PM -0500, Daniel H Lannom wrote:
> My new postfix server [ 20010228-pl05 ] bounces email with a from
> of "<>". Sometimes legimate email being is rejected by AOL.
>
> Here's an anonymosized exampled:.
>
> In: 250 rly-ye02.mail.aol.com OKThu, 01 Nov 2001 13:32:58 -0500

AOL says, "Hi, I'm rly-ye2!"

So postfix figures it should introduce itself:

> Out: HELO mail1.umd.umich.edu

> In: 220-America Online (AOL) and its affiliated companies do not
> In: 220- authorize the use of its proprietary computers and computer
> In: 220- networks to accept, transmit, or distribute unsolicited bulk
> In: 220 e-mail sent from the internet.

Note the lack of '-' there? Postfix (rightly, according to RFC's) says
"oh, AOL is done sending me stuff, I guess I can talk now!"

> Out: MAIL FROM:<>

"Hi, AOL, I have a bounce for you!"

> In: 250 rly-ye02.mail.aol.com OK

AOL says. "Okay, now I'm ready for input."

> Out: RCPT TO:<someone403aol.com>
> In: 503 BAD SEQUENCE OF COMMANDS
> Out: RSET
> In: 250 OK
> Out: QUIT
>
> I've seen discussion on this list that indicates
> that "FROM:<>" is normal for bounces. But since,
> I've had very little luck in getting a response from
> AOL postmaster in the past, I'd like suggestions
> of how to justify to them that they should not
> reject such email.

Tell AOL that their stupid firewall setup is broken. It is mangling
packets randomly. It has been doing this for a few months (though I
usually see it to 'netscape.net' addresses, for some reason... but
that's just random since it's the same machines...)

You (and Postfix) are doing everything correctly. It is their firewall
that is mangling stuff.

What AOL SHOULD have sent (and does.. most of the time) is like this:

220-rly-xd05.mx.aol.com ESMTP mail_relay_in-xd5.2; Thu, 01 Nov 2001 19:16:02 -0500
220-America Online (AOL) and its affiliated companies do not
220- authorize the use of its proprietary computers and computer
220- networks to accept, transmit, or distribute unsolicited bulk
220 e-mail sent from the internet.

the whole smear there is the greeting... but on the connect above the
first line was missing the '-', so, according to RFC's, postfix figured
it was time to say HELO. (Note the lack of 'ESMTP' in your greeting?
Postfix didn't try EHLO because AOL's server didn't advertise it.)

On the fubar'd connections, AOL throws in an 'OK' in the middle of that
string for no reason. Note it's not there in normal connections.

Why is it this way? Who knows: only AOL can answer such things about
their configuration, and considering their behavior (things like probing
every host that sends them 'too much' mail: fun if you have a mailing
list with 25 or more AOL customers on it) and that this has been broken
for months, I doubt they're in a hurry to fix it.

AOL isn't rejecting the mail from:<>. They're rejecting random pieces
of mail for the simple reason that AOL Sucks.

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