Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsu!mark
From: mark@cbnewsu.att.com (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: ATT replies
Summary: Please report such problems to the postmaster
Keywords: cbnews
Message-ID: <1990Aug20.202415.28965@cbnewsu.att.com>
Date: 20 Aug 90 20:24:15 GMT
References: <1990Aug19.205508.16479@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 50

In article <1990Aug19.205508.16479@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>, wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) writes:
> Does anyone else out there have a hard time sending replies to att-ites?
> 
> Here's how it goes for me:
> 
> 	1) Article is posted from "bell@cbnews.att.com (alex.g.bell)"
> 	2) I attempt to reply to that address
> 	3) My reply bounces, for various reasons, at cbnews.
> 
> All this comes about because, of course, Alex does not REALLY have an
> account on cbnews, but instead on another att machine that lets cbnews
> do all the postings.

Last time I checked, Alex was no longer an AT&T employee.  However, for
employees who do post to Netnews, they really DO have logins on cbnews*
machines.

> Has anyone figured out how to include an offering to the gods within
> cbnews's mailer so that replies really work?

Replies really *do* work most of the time.  However, due to internal
implementation concerns, occasionally you'll get a reply bounced back
as undeliverable from the mailer.  This usually means that they
need to have some mail forwarding information updated in a database
on cbnews.  No mail is read on cbnews, it is all forwarded to the
users home machine.

> I should note that when I have asked help from cbnews's postmaster, he
> has sent my mail on. But ISTM that it is pretty stupid to have to annoy
> him virtually every time.

Not at all - we want to catch problems like this ASAP so we can correct
them.  If you get mail to cbnews*!user bounced back to you as undeliverable,
please do send a copy back to postmaster so we can look into the problem.
By having such problems all reported to one central location we can track
overall trends and solve problems that come up.

> Or discovered a way to
> find a posters' REAL address? (Note- I've had no hassles with the
> people with real {non-cbnews} addresses) One thing that would cure the
> problem is to get cbnews to include the poster's address as a
> 'Reply-To:' header.

You can, as a rule, address email for any AT&T employee to
	firstname.i.lastname@ATT.COM
and it will be delivered.  See the name on the Netnews From: line to see
the user's full name.  Including this as Reply-To would break replies
to names such as John.R.Smith, which matches 5 AT&T employees.

	Mark Horton