A curious problem has occurred with sprint.ca. Messages from our
LISTSERV to established subscribers get through with no difficulty.
However, service messages to new subscribers are bounced, with an
error message advising

  "553 Authentication is required to send mail as
  <"L-Soft list server at The LINGUIST List. (1.8d)">"

Support at sprint.ca say that a 'glitch' on their mail servers stops
any mail that contains a parenthesis in the 'From:' ID string.

Two questions:

a) Is this a known problem anywhere else? (Is this, in fact,
   likely to be the cause of the problem?)
b) Is there a cure, apart from getting Sprint to do something
   about their mail server or altering the ID string (the
   latter hardly seems necessary)?


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <[log in to unmask]>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>