email Disconnect after HELO

Hi there.

I'm trying to troubleshoot my middleware (Lasso) that's trying to send emails into my mail server. Both the middleware and the mail server are on the same machine. The log states the following:

Jan 2 15:53:16 alpha.mydomain.com postfix/postscreen[43828]: CONNECT from [192.168.1.7]:58759 to [192.168.1.7]:25

Jan 2 15:53:16 alpha.mydomain.com postfix/postscreen[43828]: PREGREET 20 after 0 from [192.168.1.7]:58759: HELO [192.168.1.7]\\r\\n

Jan 2 15:53:16 alpha.mydomain.com postfix/smtpd[43829]: connect from alpha.mydomain.com[192.168.1.7]

Jan 2 15:53:16 alpha.mydomain.com postfix/smtpd[43829]: lost connection after HELO from alpha.mydomain.com[192.168.1.7]

Jan 2 15:53:16 alpha.mydomain.com postfix/smtpd[43829]: disconnect from alpha.mydomain.com[192.168.1.7]

The middleware's log states that it couldn't connect to the mail server (under directives for alpha.local and alpha.mydomain.com), and I am assuming that its log is less informative due to the lack of feedback from the mail server. The mail server's log above indicates that a HELO was received, then the disconnection happens. Over and over again, under all kinds of scenarios.

There's a valid username and password for a user on the server that's being used for authentication. I've loosened up the authentication methods on the server, set to "automatic". Didn't work. Set it up to "Custom" (APOP, CRAM-MD5 and Digest-MD5). Didn't work. A developer for the middleware wants me to test to see if it's an authentication issue. I don't think it is, but I want to make sure.

Just for comparison, I tried setting it up using smtp.gmail.com and it worked. There is no un/pw combination needed for that SMTP system, and it went through just fine.

Is there a way to take away authentication? Yes I know it's a real problem, but it's for a couple of minutes for testing purposes only. This might lead to them reviewing their protocol for authentication if I can prove it's their software.

Thanks for any insight. Truly appreciated.

Cheers