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Frequently Asked Questions:
List Owners
List Members
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How do I deal with Bounced Mail?
Bounced mail is one of the most time-consuming tasks a list owner can have and may be one of the more confusing issues, since mail bounces back with as many different error messages as there are mail systems. The list owner can pretty much ignore the initial message that LISTSERV sends saying that the mail has been directed to the listname-owner mailbox because of an error. The error itself will be farther down in the message past the second set of mail headings that usually appear. Generally the error content will mention one of just a few things. The wording may not be exactly the same, but the concept will be. Remember, too, that you will get an error for *every* posting that goes to that address, so you may have multiple errors for the same address, especially if you own a high traffic list. It also may take a day or so for the errors to flush out of the system once you've deleted the problem address.
Host unknown
- The system to which this mail was addressed has left the Internet. The only thing you can do is delete the subscriber from the list. There is no easy way to track if the subscriber has a new mailing address on another system.
User unknown
- The userid to which this mail was addressed has been purged from the receiving system. The only thing you can do is delete the subscriber from the list. There is no easy way to track if the subscriber has a new mailing address on this or another system.
Host unreachable
- The system to which this mail was addressed is off-line (for perhaps an indeterminate amount of time). Most systems come back up after a few days. It may be a break or a holiday. You can ignore this error unless it becomes overwhelming, then the answer is to either delete the subscriber or set them to NOMAIL (SET listname NOMAIL FOR userid@node.domain).
User's mailbox full
- The subscriber has exceeded the disk quota on their machine. You can ignore this error, or, if the error messages become overwhelming, delete them from the list or set them to NOMAIL (SET listname NOMAIL FOR userid@node.domain).
"Sender:", "From:" or "Reply-To:" field pointing to the list has been found in mail body.
- This is a very specific error message that occurs when a list member tries to forward a mail message to the list. When forwarding the message, the original header is included in the forwarded message. LISTSERV will not permit forwarding the original header since this may cause a looping problem depending on how your mailer handles forwarding messages. In order to send a forwarded message, your list member must delete the original mail header before sending to the list.
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