To summarize: there are two kinds of hops: 1) those that involve the atomic unit of the Internet: IP packets that travel over the ether perhaps never to reach their target host 2) mail messages that pass through too many mail host proceses, either because of a loop or other misconfigurations. The former is 'caught' via the router code, the latter by typical SENDMAIL-type configs. -- co-owner: INFOSYS, TQM-L, CPARK-L, ERAPPA-L, JANITORS, LDBASE-L, et -L URL:mailto:[log in to unmask] "Are you a bandwidth bandit?"