On Sat, 30 Jan 1993 [log in to unmask] wrote:
 
> Paul:
>    you began to answer a question i had re: listserv addreses but
> cut yourself short saying i did not subscribe and did not have access to
> something.  what is it i need to subscribe to ? how do i ? i am connected
> thru aol and  am looking for lists on windows programming and c++.
> (i am also on compuserv at 71004,27 if that helps any).
> any help you could give to a newcomer here would be appreciated!!
 
Actually, I thought I'd cancelled the message.
 
To take a bitnet list, you simply have to know the name of the list and
either where it is or the name of a Bitnet server.  List names are shown
in the left column of the master list of 3000+ lists.
 
The center list is the address and domain of that list.  You need this in
order to post a message or to subscribe.  The part before the @ indicates
the name of the list.  For example, the list
 
ABLE-L   ABLE-L@ASUACAD  ABILITY Journal
 
Is named "ABLE-L".  There are two ways to subscribe to it.  One is to
send a request direct to that location; the other way is to one of the seven
bitnet mail servers.  The two most common ones are PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU
(that's where MCI Mail gets its BITNET messages from bitnet hosts without
direct internet names).  The other one is CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU.
 
To subscribe to this list, you'd send a message, NOT to the ABLE-L list,
but to the List Server, LISTSERV; the message would be:
 
SUBSCRIBE ABLE-L Firstname Lastname
 
Like this:
 
TO:  LISTSERV@ASUACAD
 
SUBSCRIBE ABLE-L Firstname Lastname
 
This might be someting similar to what you tried.  However, you are not on
BITNET, so you have to reach the host via a domain.
 
To send a message to a bitnet host, if you are not on bitnet (and America
On Line certainly isn't) the name has to be translated.  If your system
is smart enough, you can simply indicate the unofficial BITNET domain,
like this:
 
TO:  [log in to unmask]
 
However, since BITNET is not an official Internet domain (and no less than
Jon Postel, the editor of the Internet RFC list sent me back a personal
message saying so), you have to "route" it through a gateway if your
system doesn't support it (ever since I sent a message to the Internet
contact for MCI I notice some mail coming in with the domain of ".BITNET"
which it never did before).
 
To do this, you change the @ sign to a %, and tack on the gateway at the
end with an @ in front of it.  So the address
 
[log in to unmask]
 
becomes
 
[log in to unmask]
 
I hope this helps.