ravi@duke.cs.duke.edu (Ravi Subrahmanyan) (02/01/88)
In article <22802@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu (Erik E. Fair) writes: >Failing that, you can complain to >INFO-ATARI16-REQUEST@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, which is the address of the >ARPANET mailing list coordinator. > > > Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu Before we're innundated with gobs of flames, I'd like to point out that Bill Westfield (he's the chap who puts the digests together) has added a "SENDER" field to the outgoing digests, in the hope that the errant BITNET mailer(s) will bounce mail back to the address in the SENDER field, and not to the name in the "FROM" field. The SENDER field is set to "info-atari-request" so that we'll get the bounced digests and take action. The "FROM" field remains "info-atari", so that BITNET folks who use the REPLY function to send notes to info-atari will be able to do so without swamping the "request" address with mail that should go to the list. Of course, all this assumes some sort of rational behaviour on the part of the BITNET mailers... >P.S. there is a special place in purgatory for the people > responsible for BITNET's so-called mail system. I just wanted everyone to read that again.. -ravi
fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu (Erik E. Fair) (02/01/88)
Lately in comp.sys.atari.st there has been a flurry of bounced digests and other cruft being posted by my gateway from the bowels of BITNET. Sorry that I took so long to respond folks, but I don't read comp.sys.atari.st and I didn't know about it until the middle of last week. Quick explanation: comp.sys.atari.st is bi-directionally gatewayed to INFO-ATARI16@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU. Among the other addresses on this list are redistribution points for BITNET. Unfortunately, someone on BITNET is not doing his/her header hacking right, and when delivery fails, the digests get bounced back to the whole list, instead of to the responsible administrator. Ah, if they'd only convert to netnews, we wouldn't have this problem... Fortunately, my gateway can filter stuff, and now that I am aware that this is happening, there is a filter in place to stop it from ever reaching those of us fortunate to be on USENET. I have also posted cancel control messages for those errant articles, so they will be removed from your disk as soon as the control messages arrive on your system. The responsible BITNET site, so far as I am able to determine is CANADA01, and as soon as I know who the site contact is, I'll post his/her address here as a followup to this article to let you all know who to bitch at. Failing that, you can complain to INFO-ATARI16-REQUEST@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, which is the address of the ARPANET mailing list coordinator. keeper of the ucbvax USENET gateway, Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu P.S. there is a special place in purgatory for the people responsible for BITNET's so-called mail system.
biep@cs.vu.nl (J. A. "Biep" Durieux) (02/02/88)
In article <11005@duke.cs.duke.edu> ravi@duke.UUCP (Ravi Subrahmanyan) writes: >Bill Westfield has added a "SENDER" field to the outgoing digests, >in the hope that the errant BITNET mailer(s) will bounce mail back >to the address in the SENDER field, and not to the name in the "FROM" field. >The SENDER field is set to "info-atari-request" (...). >The "FROM" field remains "info-atari", so that BITNET folks who use >the REPLY function to send notes to info-atari will be able to do so >without swamping the "request" address with mail that should go to the list. >Of course, all this assumes some sort of rational behaviour on the part >of the BITNET mailers... I think the "From: " field should contain the address of the person who wrote the article. Hitting the whole newsgroup/mailing list/whatever should never be the default. >>P.S. there is a special place in purgatory for the people >> responsible for BITNET's so-called mail system. [-Erik Fair] > I just wanted everyone to read that again.. -ravi -- Biep. (biep@cs.vu.nl via mcvax) Never confound "power", "command" with "right", especially not when it concerns our own body!
fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Erik E. Fair) (02/02/88)
As promised, the site administrator/postmaster of CANADA01.BITNET (that BITNET site which is apparently responsible for the bad mail header munging that causes bounced INFO-ATARI16 digests to go back out to the whole world) is Les Dennis <DENNIS@CANADA01.BITNET> (use your favorite BITNET gateway to get there; "psuvax1" for those of you in UUCP land, "cunyvm.cuny.edu" for those of you on the Internet). Be polite, but insistent; we musn't let them get away with this sort of highly improper network behavior. Where is Mr. Protocol when I need him? Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu
ravi@mcnc.org (Ravi Subrahmanyan) (02/03/88)
In article <980@klipper.cs.vu.nl> biep@cs.vu.nl (J. A. "Biep" Durieux) writes: > >I think the "From: " field should contain the address of the person who >wrote the article. Hitting the whole newsgroup/mailing list/whatever >should never be the default. The stuff referred to in the original articles (which info-atari sends out to bitnet) is in the form of DIGESTS, so there isn't any one author. The sender is therefore "info-atari", and replies to that address are sent out to the newsgroup. That's how it all works, and except for occasional glitches, it's pretty reasonable overall.. -ravi
ralph@lasso.UUCP (Ralph P. Sobek) (02/05/88)
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that in RFC 822 (I don't have
a copy at hand) it states that the error returns will go to the "Return-Path: "
header. So, wouldn't a field such as
Return-Path: <info-atari16-request@score.stanford.EDU>
alleviate the problem of errors being rebroadcast over the network? Maybe,
BITNET can't handle such headers; otherwise I would suggest that the return
path on BITNET would point to the Redistribution Manager on BITNET.
Ralph P. Sobek | UUCP: uunet!mcvax!inria!lasso!ralph, or
| ralph@lasso.uucp
LAAS-CNRS | Internet: ralph@lasso.laas.fr, or
7, avenue du Colonel-Roche | ralph%lasso.laas.fr@uunet.UU.NET
F-31077 Toulouse Cedex, FRANCE | ARPA: sobek@shadow.Berkeley.EDU (forwarded\
+(33) 61-33-62-66 | BITNET/EARN: SOBEK@FRMOP11 \ to UUCP )
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