"LISTSERV list owners' forum" <[log in to unmask]> wrote on
09/17/2004 02:08:30 PM:

> I posted the original message in this thread. What I am looking for
> is notification when a subscriber does not receive a message
> (permanent error). We need to investigate each case since this a
> distribution list and it is critical that all parties receive the
> announcements. What I am trying to avoid are messages short of a
> complete delivery failure to cut down on work load. Does Listserv
> attempt to resend a message if it gets an initial failure?

If it is critical that each party receive the message, then SMTP may not
be the protocol to use.  It has no mechanism to truly confirm/trace
delivery.

ListServ doesn't do the final delivery, a mail relay does that, so it
depends on your relay's configuration.  Many people use sendmail.  It
retries for several days.  I use Domino, it tries for 24 hours by default.
 Groupwise (at least older version) have a known issue where if it gets a
failure (temporary or permanent) on all RCPT TO commands, it fails the
message and returns it to the sender.  I would imagine LSoft's LSMTP
follows the standards and retries, but I havbe no experience w/ it.