On Tue, 10 Jul 2001, Jacob Haller wrote:

>Regardless, this:
>
>>Your message
>>
>>   To:      [log in to unmask]
>>   Subject: Probe failure for COMPETITION
>>   Sent:    Tue, 10 Jul 2001 15:36:41 -0400
>>
>>did not reach the following recipient(s):
>>
>>[log in to unmask] on Tue, 10 Jul 2001 12:34:33 -0400
>>     The recipient name is not recognized
>>         The MTS-ID of the original message is: c=us;a=
>>;p=bluestone;l=CONAN0107101634M821HKNA
>>     MSEXCH:IMS:Bluestone:Mount Laurel:CONAN 3550 (000B09AA) 550
>><[log in to unmask]>: User unknown
>
>kind of message is not generated by LISTSERV.  It's generated by
>something else, and LISTSERV is just passing it along to you.


True, but Listserv is tacking it onto a PROBE2 message, which is
delivered (or attempted to be delivered) to a user when a probe fails,
and this looks like successful delivery of a PROBE2 message.  It does
that so that the hopefully the recipient can show his sysadmin what
Listserv is getting back in response to a probe.  Actually seeing
these PROBE2 messages in one's mailbox means that messages are being
both bounced to the sender and delivered to the user in one fell
swoop -- a sure sign of a mail system screwed up somewhere.

I'm not sure why this message has another PROBE2 message embedded in
it, but I would suspect that this is being caused by internal mail
configuration errors of the sort that Jacob is writing about.

As for why the probes are being sent in the first place, while
subscription renewal is disabled by default, Listserv does *not*
necessarily default to "Auto-delete= No".  From the manual:

'By default, lists with "Validate= All" are set "Auto-Delete= No",
while all other lists are set "Auto-Delete=Yes,Semi-Auto,Delay(4),Max(100)"'

I don't remember the rules, I think it depends on the number of list
subscribers, but for some lists the latter will activate passive
probing; for others it will not.

Dennis