It is very possible that any two emails sent to a single email address might be delivered through different mail processes (MX hosts) and/or Domain Name Servers (NS) lookups. Likewise, the time-of-day could be a factor in the preceeding PLUS the non-availability of file (AFS, NFS) and/or security/authorization servers. I can tell you with a list of 4000+ userids on 1800+ hosts, mail delivery IS unpredictable, especially for certain hosts. If were all so simple, then they wouldn't need "us" and I'd be out of a job ;-) /Pete -- mailto:[log in to unmask] Tel: +1 814 863 1843 31 Shields Bldg; University Park, PA 16802-1202 USA Powered by: LISTSERV, Eudora, Netscape, mIRC, FreeAgent "Are you Y2K compliant?"