This appeared on the AOL-LIST-OWNERS listserv:

I frequently get cases where people can't post to the list because the
listserv doesn't recognize the sender.

I'd like to have a standard response which I send out in these cases, which
explains the situation so that an e-mail novice can figure out how to talk
to a network manager about the problem, and trouble-shoot it.  Has anyone
else prepared such a form letter?

Before I could attempt to write one myself, if needed, I'd need to
understand the problem a bit better.

Which field in the message header does the listserv look at to see if it
recognizes the sender.  The "from" field?  "Reply-to"? "Sender"?  I'm
conscious of this, because I often send mail from my bway.net account
(where I am "[log in to unmask]" but use "[log in to unmask]" as the
"reply-to" address.  [I don't use bway.net to post to listservs].

Which one does the listserv use to decide if this is a legitimate poster?
Which one appears in a listserv digest, for example, as the "from" field?

While we're at it, can anyone explain to me what a firewall is and how it
relates to these issues?

Thanks.

Harriet Bograd, Attorney/Consultant <[log in to unmask]>
Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York
Coordinator, Cyber-Accountability Listserv (to join, e-mail [log in to unmask])
Web site: http://www.bway.net/~hbograd/cyb-acc.html