G'day all

I'm seeing a lot of bounces being generated by list traffic that are due to
hop counts being exceeded.  When I examine the headers I can see that often
there are 4-6 Received: entries for many organisations so it would only take
a couple of these to make some MTA think a loop exists and reject the email.
It seems that a typical route looks like this:

Internet --> External relay -> Virus scanner -> Internal mail exchanger ->
LISTSERV ->
Internal MX -> External relay --> Internet

In our own organisation I've cut out the internal MX and made LISTSERV
communicate directly with the external relay machine, making a savings of 2
or 3 hops in the process.  Is there anything else I can do?  Is there some
way of configuring LISTSERV so it can trim out any excessive SMTP header
info before it resends back to the list?

The worst offenders appear to be government departments who sit behind large
enterprise gateways.  I've seen some mail that gets passed around like a
football, up to 9 or 10 times, before it even gets to see the Internet.
Unfortunately, it's also these same departments that seem to have the
strictest rules regarding hop counts.

Hoping in vain....

Michael Shannon
Webmaster
[log in to unmask]

"Nature has provided us with two ears, two eyes, and one tongue, to the end
that we should hear and see more than we should talk." - Socrates

Note: Opinions expressed on this list are my own and do not reflect the
views, opinions or position of my employer.  If swallowed, seek medical
advice.