first of all, I want to thank those who suggested ways for me to delete a user whose address took up more than the usual 80 columns that listserv expects for commands,. I used Melvin Klassens solution and it worked, but the others would also have worked and I am surprised I never thought of them myself as they seem to be something straightforward that I should already know. Thanks. So now more mysteries--- this time Mailers which seem to be attempting to mail to people who are NOT on my lists, and then giving me error messages if the destination is no good. I have three users who have long been deleted from my mailing lists, but somewhere, somehow, a mailer somewhere keeps trying to mail to them, and is generating bounces. I would like to know how this can happen. If the person is NOT on my my list, where is the downstream mailer getting the material to attempt to send on? Is it maintaining an independent copy of the list and not using mine?? Or not accepting updates?? This has happened on three different lists.. One I have solved. Two are a mystery still. Let me go through them and try to explain: 1) CERFnet was bouncing back mail addressed to user 'may1' who is not on my list at all. In fact no one from CERF was on the list. With sufficient probing, I found that the user was really registered under a totally different name on SDSC.Edu -- I have now deleted that user and pray for no more bounces from CERFNET. I guess he had a forwarding system that was shipping on his mail from SDSC.Edu to a CERFnet address, which was later invalidated. So the bounce came back from CERFnet. And I had no idea who it involved. My question is why bounces like that do not trace back to the real user, so that we can avoid days of detective work??? Two more cases from different lists and different countries. The postmaster at compuserve.com cannot figure out why mail is being sent to a mailbox that is full, when that user is also NOT on the list involved. I would gather once again that the user is on the list under a completely different name on a completely different machine, and is getting his mail forwarded. Any ideas how automatic tracing can be done?? (for the tekkies among us, here follows the bounce. there is no user 100012.674 on the list at all, and the only other users with compuserve addresses give the list no problems.) --------------------------------- From @UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU:[log in to unmask] Wed Jun 23 15:18:54 1993 Return-Path: <@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU:[log in to unmask]> Received: from UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu by alfred.ccs.carleton.ca (4.1/SMI-4.0) id AA06110; Wed, 23 Jun 93 15:18:48 EDT Received: from UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU by UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 5678; Wed, 23 Jun 93 15:16:48 EDT Received: from UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@UBVM) by UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 8519; Wed, 23 Jun 1993 14:45:47 -0400n Received: from UBVM (NJE origin SMTP@UBVM) by UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 8517; Wed, 23 Jun 1993 14:45:47 -0400 Received: from iha.compuserve.com by UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP; Wed, 23 Jun 93 14:45:44 EDT Received: by iha.compuserve.com (5.67/5.930129sam) id AA11009; Wed, 23 Jun 93 14:47:16 -0400 Date: 23 Jun 93 14:42:09 EDT From: Electronic Postmaster <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: ? EMDNRM - Mail Delivery Failure. No room in mailbox. >EPX [100012, 674] Re: Wishful thinking Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]> Status: OR Re: ? EMDNRM - Mail Delivery Failure. No room in mailbox. >EPX [100012,674] Re: Wishful thinking Your message could not be delivered as addressed. --- Returned message --- (text deleted) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Now the third case, which is even sillier. User [log in to unmask] is not on the Journet list under any name or any combination. He was on the list as [log in to unmask], but was deleted long ago. Later, AFTER his deletion, that domain changed to CIS.VUTBR.CS A mailer somewhere is still sending him mail from Journet to the old address, which generates a bounce. I cannot delete him under either old or new address as my listserv tells me he is not on the list, which is quite correct. Even he is baffled. See the following messages: ---------------------------------------------- From [log in to unmask] Mon Jun 14 07:31:29 1993 Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]> Received: from rhino.cis.vutbr.cz by alfred.ccs.carleton.ca (4.1/SMI-4.0) id AA05909; Mon, 14 Jun 93 07:31:08 EDT Received: by rhino.cis.vutbr.cz (5.67/1.05 VUT Brno) id AA13360; Mon, 14 Jun 93 13:30:37 +0200 From: Bowyer Jeff <[log in to unmask]> Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]> Subject: error (fwd) To: [log in to unmask] Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1993 13:30:34 +0200 (MET DST) Reply-To: [log in to unmask] Jan: I received the following message, and quite frankly, I don't know what to do about it. If I have been "long cancelled from the journet list," why is it still trying to send mail to me? Thanks for your assistance. Jeff *========================================================================* Jeff Bowyer EMail: Computing Center [log in to unmask] Technical University of Brno Udolni 19, 602 00 BRNO Czech Republic *========================================================================* Forwarded message: > From @vm.ics.muni.cs:[log in to unmask] Mon Jun 14 08:59:14 1993 > Resent-Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]> > Resent-Date: Mon, 14 Jun 93 08:58:43 MET > Resent-From: Oldrich Sapak <[log in to unmask]> > Resent-To: [log in to unmask] > To: [log in to unmask] > Date: Mon, 7 Jun 93 22:12:05 EDT > > > ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > dear postmaster > the user jbowyer has been long cancelled from the journet list. > Would you be able to make sure that your mailer ceases to try sending > him mail?? it only returns as an error. thanks. > see following: > -------------------------- > > Received: from vm.ics.muni.cs by uga.cc.uga.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP; > Mon, 07 Jun 93 14:58:56 EDT > Date: Mon, 07 Jun 93 20:57:45 MET > From: <[log in to unmask]> > To: <@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU:[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Undeliverable Mail > Status: OR > > vm.ics.muni.cs unable to deliver following mail to recipient(s): > <[log in to unmask]> > 550 Host 'ovc.vutbr.cs' Unknown > > ** Text of Mail follows ** (text deleted) --------------------------------- this does not seem to be a case of him being on the list under a different name, as in the previous two postings. And there is no point putting him on the list at the new domain and deleting him, as that does not seem to solve the problem of attempted delivery to the old domain. Any ideas? Yes, I am trying to work with the postmasters also but there seems to be something generic in this.