Seems to me that this raises the question of whether BITNIC should be part of the LISTSERV backbone. As Marty pointed out, BITNIC is the nearest LISTSERV backbone node to the CUNY INTERBIT gateway. It is also the nearest backbone node to the point where EARN is plugged into BITNET (CUNY too). As I see it, it follows that all DIST/DIST2 traffic from EARN to BITNET, from BITNET to EARN, and from BITNET/EARN/NETNORTH/etc near CUNY to the Internet reaches CUNY, is directed up the 9.6 kbit/sec wire to BITNIC, and is returned to CUNY before continuing on its way. Of course, I understand that the BITNIC LISTSERV does some useful processing, and doesn't just reflect the traffic back to CUNY. However, it does seem to me that, if CUNY can't become part of the LISTSERV backbone, then BITNIC shouldn't remain part of it. I may be way off beam, but didn't we just have a crisis? Niall