The problem

Gordon J. Holtslander (holtslander@skyway.usask.ca)
Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:13:17 -0600 (CST)

Hi all:

Our systems people did make a change to our email system. They have set
up something to decrease the amount of spam (unsolicited email) people get
on this campus, a big inconvenience.

One effect of this was that it messed up all the mailing lists operated
here with offcampus subscribers (like altphoto)

I was likely the only one receiving any mail from the list recently.

They are going to fix the problem, but it cannot be done overnight.
It should be fixed in a week, so please be patient.

See below for more information

The alt-photo-list is operated by the university more or less as a public
service - so please don't flame the sysadmin people here.

I will sent a note to the list when it is running properly again.

If you feel you have something the must go out to the list immediatedly
please send it to me, I will forward it to the list

Sorry for any inconvenience

Gord

________________________________________________________________________
Gordon J. Holtslander 112 Science Place
HOLTSLANDER@SASK.USASK.CA Department of Biology
URL: http://duke.usask.ca/~holtsg University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Tel (306)966-4433 S7N 5E2
FAX (306)966-4461 Canada
________________________________________________________________________

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 15:53:08 -0600 (CST)
To: "Gordon J. Holtslander" <holtslander@sask.usask.ca>
Subject: Re: alt-photo mailserv list

On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, Gordon J. Holtslander wrote:

> I have been getting a lot of questions from list members indicating they
> have not received mail from the alt-photo mailing list for a week or two.

Sorry, I have investigated the matter further and it turns out that there IS a
problem with the mailing lists. Due to lack of resources, it won't be resolved
until next Monday.

There is currently a problem with the mailing list setup on campus,
related to the recent implementation of the spam blocking code.

The spam blocking program prevents a client from off-campus (not in the
usask.ca domain) from sending a message through our router to another
off-campus client. However, we've just discovered that if a mailing list
on campus contains members who are off-campus, and the off-campus members
send email to the list, the mail only gets delivered to the members of the
list who are on campus. The mail message will also bounce back to the
off-campus sender if there are any listmembers with off-campus addresses.

Of course, this means that if an off-campus listmember sends to the list,
the other off-campus listmembers will NOT receive the email.

If someone on campus sends to the list, everything is fine.

What this means to you is that if you see a complaint from an offcampus
email address, that they keep getting bounced messages, or aren't
receiving email from a list... please tell them that it will be resolved
next Monday.