On Tue, 4 Jun 1996 16:37:05 -0400 Mike Holloway <[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM  has been  having problems  delivering to  one address,
>DHHS.GOV, from which a user  is trying to subscribe. VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM is
>reporting  that "Domain  "OSASPE.DHHS.GOV"  doesn't  exist" despite  the
>admin there insisting that the system  has not been down and that e-mail
>to and from other sites has not been a problem.
 
VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM delivers  between 1,500,000  and 2,225,000  messages per
business day. When something is wrong with this machine, we find out VERY
QUICKLY because the phone rings seconds  after we drop it back. There are
many domains with  flaky DNS servers that our servers  attempt to deliver
to and  for which they get  this error. In  the present case, there  IS a
definite  problem  with  the   DHHS.GOV  domain,  specifically  with  the
HHS-CUSTOS.dhhs.gov name  server, which claims that  OSASPE.DHHS.GOV does
not exist.
 
>I've often been  frustrated by the lack  of control over how  my list is
>distributed when problems occur. I  can't even diagnose the problem most
>of the time since I have no  idea how the messages are being distributed
>in the LISTSERV system.
 
The  reason DHHS.GOV  is routed  through our  machines is  that the  site
hosting your  list is taking advantage  of L-Soft's offer to  deliver all
the  LISTSERV mail  of existing  BITNET  VM sites  that do  not have  the
necessary  horsepower to  deliver it  locally. We  deliver this  mail for
FREE, even when the beneficiary is  not a customer and doesn't contribute
a cent to  our bottom line (as is  the case with your list).  We did this
because the  BITNET core was about  to explode, sites were  dropping from
INTERBIT every  month, and we  had the  technology to solve  this problem
elegantly  and wanted  to  demonstrate  to the  many  skeptics that  this
technology actually works and is not  just an electronic glossy. I am not
complaining or blaming  anyone, we've made this decision a  long time ago
and we're standing by  it, but this *is* costing us  real money (call the
ISP of your choice and ask how much they charge for 10Mbps). So, it would
be nice if the beneficiaries did not keep flaming us in public every time
they  experience a  delivery problem  that  we can't  do anything  about,
especially without first  checking if the site in  question doesn't maybe
have a problem after all.
 
  Eric