Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!vector!telecom-request
From: telecom-request@vector.uucp (comp.dcom.telecom Gateway Administrator)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: {{{ administrative note -- Welcome to comp.dcom.telecom! }}}
Message-ID: <745@vector.UUCP>
Date: 17 Mar 89 01:04:55 GMT
Sender: news@vector.UUCP
Lines: 57
Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp

Welcome to comp.dcom.telecom.

The discussions in this newsgroup are about telecommunications -- from
the technical aspects of communications equipment and networks to personal
experiences with the service providers.  The messages in comp.dcom.telecom
come from the [TELECOM Digest], a digest which is distributed by an Internet
mailing list.  That makes this newsgroup a bit different from most.  Here
are some things you need to know and some you might be curious about.

- Although the [TELECOM Digest] is distributed in a digest format,
  comp.dcom.telecom readers see it as individual articles, because that's
  the format which works best with most USENET software.  You will see
  the same messages that the mailing list subscribers do, just formatted
  differently.  Every comp.dcom.telecom message contains an
  "X-TELECOM-Digest" header which indicates the digest issue the message
  came from.

- In order to post a message to comp.dcom.telecom, you must do so through
  the [TELECOM Digest].  Please mail your TELECOM submissions to
  "telecom@eecs.nwu.edu".  Shortly after your message is published in the
  digest, it will be gatewayed into comp.dcom.telecom.

- Modern versions of the news software support a "mailpaths" file.  If
  yours does *and* you have the following entry in it:

	comp.dcom.telecom	telecom@eecs.nwu.edu

  then you can use your news posting program (Pnews, postnews, etc.) to
  submit comp.dcom.telecom messages; they will automatically be routed
  via mail.  This also means that you can do followups from your news
  reader (rn, readnews, vnews, etc.)  In other words, if your local news
  administrator has an up-to-date "mailpaths" file, then you won't have
  to worry about all of these complexities.

- You can't use the "Path" field in a comp.dcom.telecom news article to
  mail a reply back to the author of the message.  This is true for any
  moderated newsgroup, not just comp.dcom.telecom.  The "Path" takes you
  back to where the article entered USENET, and in the case of a moderated
  newsgroup this is *not* the message's author.  Instead, you must use
  the "From" and "Reply-To" fields.  If you try to use the "Path" field
  you will get back a (hopefully polite) note saying that you blew it.

- The "From" fields in all messages are checked for (1) USENET syntactic
  validity and (2) routability before posting.  By "routability" I mean
  that the message can be routed by "smail" based upon the most recent
  data posted to comp.mail.maps.  If a "From" line is rewritten, an
  "X-Originally-From" header will contain the original information.

- The [TELECOM Digest] is moderated by Patrick Townson.  The USENET gateway
  is administered by Chip Rosenthal.  If you have any questions or
  administrative issues, you may reach them at addresses:

      telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu	Patrick for [TELECOM Digest] issues
      telecom-request@vector.uucp	Chip for USENET gateway issues

- Suggestions for and corrections to this message are encouraged and
  should be sent to me at "telecom-request@vector.uucp".