Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!husc6!wjh12!maynard!campbell From: campbell@maynard.BSW.COM (Larry Campbell) Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Subject: Re: Returned Network Mail; Message-ID: <943@maynard.BSW.COM> Date: Sun, 28-Jun-87 23:52:07 EDT Article-I.D.: maynard.943 Posted: Sun Jun 28 23:52:07 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 30-Jun-87 05:30:19 EDT References: <8706281701.AA21630@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Reply-To: campbell@maynard.UUCP (Larry Campbell) Distribution: world Organization: The Boston Software Works, Inc. Lines: 35 Keywords: gateways bitnet Summary: BITNET nodes out of control I think it's time to admit that there are several gateways through which comp.os.vms (a.k.a. INFO-VAX) passes that are completely out of control. It's bad enough seeing dozens of messages every week with the useless header line "Subject: (none)", but when an ignorant or inconsiderate user sends mail to the WHOLE LIST requesting his removal from the list, and his message gets bounced at a relay point and the gateway then broadcasts the bounced mail message to the WHOLE LIST, well, things are out of control. It's only a matter of time (probably weeks rather than months) before we get yet another infinite loop where some berserk mailer starts causing every disk in the free world to overflow. Maybe it's just selective recall, but it seems to me that the most broken gateway software in the world is at BITNET sites. At least some of these BITNET nodes have the good taste, humor, or cynicism (pick one) to add the following "Comment:" header to articles they forward: > X-Bitnet-Sender: General Delivery > Comments: This is gatewayed mail. Warning: Mail may not > necessarily be returnable through this path. I won't even bother to discuss the ridiculous routing some of these messages take; the one from which the above header lines were excerpted was posted at the University of New Hampshire (USA) and arrived here, a distance of about seventy miles, via Amsterdam, Geneva, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. (I can understand odd paths in the USA, where interstate calls are often cheaper than intrastate, but the trip across the ocean and back makes little sense.) Is it too much to ask the BITNET people to get their gateways working more robustly before the comp.os.vms (INFO-VAX) distribution goes completely berserk and fills up everyone's disk? -- Larry Campbell The Boston Software Works, Inc. Internet: campbell@maynard.BSW.COM 120 Fulton Street, Boston MA 02109 uucp: {husc6,mirror,think}!maynard!campbell +1 617 36 An An