As per my original message to Eric on this topic - I am leaning towards OFFLINE meaning OFFLINE even for incoming files to LISTSERV. Yes, it would appear that an OFFLINE LISTSERV is a black hole - but, LISTSERVs should not be kept OFFLINE for too long unless there is a network problem (unless I am missing something here). Let me share what happened to me that made me question all this; RUTVM1 was OFFLINE, determined when I sent an INDEX command to it. Then I figured, "Ok, send mail with INDEX as a command and LISTSERV will process it when it comes back ONLINE - I'll get my output tomorrow morning". The next morning I came back to find a piece of mail from LISTSERV@RUTVM1 telling me it was OFFLINE. Comments? - Michael Gettes, Boston University