On Sat, 13 Feb 1993 13:41:18 -0500, Joan Korenman <Korenman@UMBC2> wrote: > There is a subscriber on my list whose > e-mail domain is recorded as @helios.uwc.edu. But most of the mail sent to > her from the list bounces, with an error message like the following: >> Date: Sat, 13 Feb 93 02:09:56 EST >> From: <[log in to unmask]> >> Subject: Undeliverable Mail >> >> pucc.PRINCETON.EDU unable to deliver following mail to recipient(s): >> <[log in to unmask]> >> 550 Host 'HELIOS.UWC.EDU' Unknown > > I've deleted her twice, most recently today. > But almost as soon as I deleted her, she resubscribed. Hmm. How did Linda know that you had deleted her? Two possibilities: - Linda didn't get the response from LISTSERV, so she just tried again. - you used 'DELETE listname user@node' rather than 'QUIET DELETE ...', and the "non-quiet" command sent notification to Linda that you had removed her. If Linda **did** receive the notification, she could have reacted, by repeating her subscribe request. > I then tried to write to her to explain why I deleted her and to ask her to > talk to the computer support people at her institution, but my message to her > (sent from a system different from that of my list) also bounced for similar > reasons. In the first case, it was the SMTP-server at PUCC which couldn't deliver E-mail to her. When you tried to send E-mail to her, it (probably) was your local(!) SMTP-server which couldn't deliver E-mail to her. Take the fact that two different servers couldn't deliver the mail as a hint that something is wrong at the "far" end, or somewhere along the path to the "far" end, rather than a hint that there's a problem **both** at PUCC and at UMBC2. When I query the Internet name-servers, I find that the host 'HELIOS.UWC.EDU' has an IP-address of 143.235.1.12, and the name-servers running on the hosts named 'UWCMAIL.UWC.EDU' and 'DOGIE.MACC.WISC.EDU' are listed as the "authoritative" name-servers for the 'UWC.EDU' domain. If I explicitly ask the 'UWCMAIL' host for the IP-address of 'HELIOS', it returns the correct result. If I explicitly ask the 'DOGIE' name-server, it returns a "non-existent domain" error-message. Huh? Strange! So, in this case, depending on which name-server you ask, you obtain different answers! I suspect that the name-server system on 'DOGIE' is "sick", i.e., misbehaving, or that the IP-addresses for all the hosts within the 'UWC.EDU' domain have not been loaded into this name-server. Thus, although 'DOGIE' is listed as being "authoritative" for the 'UWC.EDU' domain, it has no information stored, so, all queries can only return a result of "unknown". I'm sending a copy of this E-mail to [log in to unmask], which is the ID of the person(s) responsible for the name-servers within the 'WISC.EDU' domain. Hopefully, they'll investigate the behaviour of 'DOGIE'. (Bad-joke: should we ask Doogie Howser to consult on DOGIE's illness?) Also, when I enter 'PING 143.235.1.12', it **does** respond. Thus, the machine at that IP-address is "alive". Also, when I enter 'TELNET 143.235.1.12', it responds: UNIX System V Release 4.0 Version 3.0 (helios) That's more proof that the machine is "alive". > Also, is there a way to delete someone so that they can't resubscribe? No, "list-owners" don't have that privilege -- only "listserv-managers" can. However, you could do a 'QUIET SET WMST-L NOMAIL FOR [log in to unmask] She would then be "subscribed", but LISTSERV won't send any E-mail to her. :-( Thus, no "bounce" messages would be generated. :-)