Weird SMTP server behavior

[theo@fungus.mit.edu (Theodoros Kritikos)]

I would appreciate any hint for fixing the following problem with our
SMTP server (or maybe with our namespace database).  The problem was
pointed to me in the following message I received via e-mail
(fungus.mit.edu is our namespace server machine): 

------ The Problem	

There appears to be a serious problem with the mail system on
fungus.mit.edu. In particular, the SMTP server generates an error in
response to the HELO command if the argument is a name of the form
host.mit.edu. This makes it difficult for certain hosts to send mail
to fungus (see example below). I've just special-cased fungus.mit.edu
in our mailer configuration file so that our system sends HELO CBGRLE
rather than HELO cbgrle.mit.edu when connecting to your system.
Evidently, that allowed this message to go through. There was also
mail for fungus queued up here from another site, which was delayed
because of this problem. Sorry for the inconvenience. If at all
possible, however, you should try to alter the behavior of your SMTP
server so it accepts any legal HELO command (that is, if you want to
receive mail).

Matt Power
M.I.T. Sensory Communication Group
postmaster@cbgrle.mit.edu

>% telnet fungus 25
>220  fungus.mit.edu SMTP service ready.
>helo cbgrle.mit.edu
>451- In "cbgrle.mit.edu",
>451-    
>451- The host named #<NETI:NAME MIT-LISPE|CBGRLE 12204470> was not found.
>451- No host with that name is already known by the local machine,
>451- but it is not certain that there is no such host.
>451  Some namespace server did not respond.
>mail from:<power@cbgrle.mit.edu>
>503  Please give a HELO command first.
>quit
>221  Goodbye
-------------------------- End of the problem
----------------------------------

I looked at our namespace object (MIT-LISPE) and I found out that we have put
		mit.edu
	as its Internet Domain Name
	with search rules: MIT-LISPE, and Internet.

Our server host object (fungus) has an explicit internet domain name
attribute:
			fungus.mit.edu

We don't have an MIT namespace object in our namespace.

You may disregard this information if you feel it is irrelevant (I
suspect that this setup may be buggy and possibly the source of the
problem, but it may be something else  which I don't know)

Send your responses directly to me theo@fungus.mit.edu.

			Thanks in advance,
				Theo