Basically, the LISTSERV DISTRIBUTE backbone only works perfectly if everybody
is singing in unison.  To sing in unison in this case requires that everyone
sing out of the same "book", ie, in a perfect world, everyone's tables
would be up-to-date and identical.

What happens in the real world is something more like the following:

* Registered sites have up to date tables and DISTRIBUTE mail correctly.
  (This includes LISTSERV Lite Free Edition sites, which self-register
  and use one of our servers for TABLELESS lookups.)

* Some other sites who aren't registered but keep their tables updated
  manually also DISTRIBUTE mail correctly.

* Other sites who installed the 1.8d kit back in February 1999 and
  never touched it since are probably still running with 9902 tables,
  and don't always send DISTRIBUTE mail correctly.  Some sites have
  even earlier versions (although I don't think there are still any
  1.7 sites running, but I could be wrong) and even more out-of-date
  tables.  This can cause breakage for up-to-date sites if the DISTRIBUTE
  path in a job coming from an out-of-date server doesn't match the
  path found in the up-to-date tables.  This is when you get the the
  "VIA list" errors even though YOUR tables are current.

How do we fix the third class of sites?  They need to either

* Register; or

* Periodically update their tables manually; or

* Set their RUNMODE to STANDALONE (losing CataList along the way).

L-Soft does have prerequisites for registration--among them are that
a site must be running 1.8d Classic or Classic-HPO release version
(Feb. 1999) or later, and that the site must have an unlimited points
LAK (UNITS=0) or must be licensed as a DISTRIBUTE-only site (sites
that are should know this).  Sites with graduated licenses can
either run in STANDALONE runmode or update tables manually (or if
you have a large number of points, say >=30, and a high level of
traffic through your lists, you can contact [log in to unmask] to
request an exception.

If there is any question about table updates you can look at

 http://www.lsoft.com/table-updates.html

and if you are interested in registering (or if you need to change or
remove an existing registration), you can look at

 http://www.lsoft.com/regform.html

which contains the complete set of requirements for registration as
well as a web form for submitting registrations.

Hope this is helpful.  FYI we can also accept ALIASES NAMES registrations
at http://www.lsoft.com/regaliases.html now.

Nathan