On Sat, 30 Jan 1993 [log in to unmask] wrote: > Paul: > you began to answer a question i had re: listserv addreses but > cut yourself short saying i did not subscribe and did not have access to > something. what is it i need to subscribe to ? how do i ? i am connected > thru aol and am looking for lists on windows programming and c++. > (i am also on compuserv at 71004,27 if that helps any). > any help you could give to a newcomer here would be appreciated!! Actually, I thought I'd cancelled the message. To take a bitnet list, you simply have to know the name of the list and either where it is or the name of a Bitnet server. List names are shown in the left column of the master list of 3000+ lists. The center list is the address and domain of that list. You need this in order to post a message or to subscribe. The part before the @ indicates the name of the list. For example, the list ABLE-L ABLE-L@ASUACAD ABILITY Journal Is named "ABLE-L". There are two ways to subscribe to it. One is to send a request direct to that location; the other way is to one of the seven bitnet mail servers. The two most common ones are PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU (that's where MCI Mail gets its BITNET messages from bitnet hosts without direct internet names). The other one is CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU. To subscribe to this list, you'd send a message, NOT to the ABLE-L list, but to the List Server, LISTSERV; the message would be: SUBSCRIBE ABLE-L Firstname Lastname Like this: TO: LISTSERV@ASUACAD SUBSCRIBE ABLE-L Firstname Lastname This might be someting similar to what you tried. However, you are not on BITNET, so you have to reach the host via a domain. To send a message to a bitnet host, if you are not on bitnet (and America On Line certainly isn't) the name has to be translated. If your system is smart enough, you can simply indicate the unofficial BITNET domain, like this: TO: [log in to unmask] However, since BITNET is not an official Internet domain (and no less than Jon Postel, the editor of the Internet RFC list sent me back a personal message saying so), you have to "route" it through a gateway if your system doesn't support it (ever since I sent a message to the Internet contact for MCI I notice some mail coming in with the domain of ".BITNET" which it never did before). To do this, you change the @ sign to a %, and tack on the gateway at the end with an @ in front of it. So the address [log in to unmask] becomes [log in to unmask] I hope this helps.