Remarks on the last of Harry's suggestions: 1. There is no such thing as a "neighbour LISTSERV" unfortunately. The LISTSERV topology is fixed, unlike the NETSERV one. This has advantages and drawbacks. 2. PEERS NAMES and LINKSWT FILE are maintained ONLY on the backbone servers. If a server refuses a PUT command on these files, I will get notified and may track the problem down. The only problem is with postmasters who chose to disable remote installation of these files and forget to update them manually. DIST2 is able to life in an environment where each server has its own versions of the three files. The server processing the DIST2 request defines the complete routing followed by the file. The only thing that can happen is a problem because of a server that no longer exists (--> recipients transferred to the local server), or inefficient distribution because links have moved, and this is not fatal. Eric