On Wed, 01 Oct 1997 23:23:00 PDT, [log in to unmask] said:
> Can someone help me out with just what a remote user is??? Are we talking
> about traveling laptops checking in at hotels or something and deciding to
> sign on/off??

In the Listserv context, a 'remote user' is just one who is at a different
hostname than the machine hosting the list.  This is a throwback to
Listserv's origins on VM, where users on the same host as the Listserv
could use the 'tell' command to send interactive messages that had
essentially no chance of being forged (as opposed to e-mail, which is
quite easy to forge).

Listserv doesn't require password authentication for the VM 'tell' style
of interaction.  If you're interacting via e-mail, it can require a password
to help insure the mail isn't forged.
--
                                Valdis Kletnieks
                                Computer Systems Senior Engineer
                                Virginia Tech