>
> > Recently my server received a subscription request from a user at
> > CUNYVM.  For reasons unrelated to this query, the subscription request
> > bounced.  What I'm trying to understand is:  how did a real mail origin
> > of CUNYVM become "CUNYVM.HARVARD.EDU"????
 
One reason for this is a site running HUJI-NJE or
UREP on a Unix system, which simply passes the NJE user/node name
to the Unix mail system as user@node -- no qualification at all,
which permits the Unix mail system to treat it as Internet mail
and (incorrectly) assume the local domain -- thus the
CUNYVM.harvard.edu. I believe that Harvard has been making an
effort to move most mail processing to Unix systems, so you may
be getting caught in that.
 
The fix (for HUJI-NJE) is to have the header construction
routines add an explicit .BITNET before the message is passed to
the Unix MTA. This prevents the misinterpretation, as only NJE
files enter the MTA through that channel and require the
qualification. I don't know whether UREP has this problem or not.