That's what I thought they were, which is why I was confused by the softbounces I got. SOME of them were the non-permanent (like 4.4.6 errors), but I also got a bunch in the 5.x.x range. Here are more examples that are in that 5.x.x range: SOFTBOUNCE [log in to unmask] 5.1.0 Unspecified; unknown or unusual error code SOFTBOUNCE [log in to unmask] 5.6.1 554 5.6.1 Body type not supported by Remote Host The unknown user errors are strange: SOFTBOUNCE [log in to unmask] 5.0.0 550 5.1.1 <[log in to unmask]>... User unknown SOFTBOUNCE [log in to unmask] 5.0.0 550 5.1.1 <[log in to unmask]>... User unknown BOUNCE [log in to unmask] 5.1.1 Mailer mail02.COLOHFA.ORG said: "550 5.1.1 User unknown" Could it be that some mail servers are responding with a non-standard response which the listserv interprets as NOT being fatal errors? Thanks, Jim -----Original Message----- From: LISTSERV site administrators' forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Valdis Kletnieks Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 4:00 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: BOUNCE vs. SOFTBOUNCE?? On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:40:44 EDT, "Gartner, James" said: > Folks, > What is the difference between a BOUNCE, and a SOFTBOUNCE in a bounce > report?? For example: > 20060406103345 BOUNCE [log in to unmask] 5.1.1 Mailer vaemail2.abc.com > said: "550 5.1.1 <[log in to unmask]>... User unknown" > 20060406103626 SOFTBOUNCE [log in to unmask] 5.3.0 553 5.3.0 > <[log in to unmask]>... Unknown user - sorry. A BOUNCE is, in SMTP parlance, the response from a "permanently failed" attempt that will in all likelyhood *not* succeed until a human takes manual intervention (for instance, a "no such user" error, end user mailbox full, or a permanent permissions issue on a mailbox). A 'Soft Bounce' is a *temporary* failure that has a high chance of succeeding if retried - network outages, full spool disks on the inbound receiving area, excessive mail server load, and so on... Having said that, I'm not clear why your example got flagged as a 'softbounce' - usually failures have 5XX and 5.y.z errors, while temp fails have 4XX and 4.y.z codes (in fact, the 4/5 distinction is defined as how to tell one from the other). ----------------------------------------- The information contained in this e-mail message, and any attachment thereto, is confidential and may not be disclosed without our express permission. If you are not the intended recipient or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this message in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message, or any attachment thereto, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify us by telephone, fax or e-mail and delete the message and all of its attachments. Thank you. Every effort is made to keep our network free from viruses. You should, however, review this e-mail message, as well as any attachment thereto, for viruses. We take no responsibility and have no liability for any computer virus which may be transferred via this e-mail message.