Dear List Members, We (the list admins) have been seeing a significant number of members being monitored by the Listserv error checking process. There are two main causes of this monitoring. One is that the IEEE server is being blocked because some mail systems think we are a source of SPAM. We cannot do a lot about this problem except to ask various mails systems to allow our list emails to pass through. These are handled on a case by case basis.
Another reason for the errors we are seeing is mail loops. Loops can be caused by a number of different issues, typically a mail that is being bounced back and forth between the sender and the receiver. These are really difficult to determine where the actual problem started. But when a loop is detected, we can detour the mail and break the loop. The problem is that some member mail might not make it to the distribution point if it is detected to be part of a loop and we send it to the detour. About a year ago, we were having some problems with this and were not able to ever clearly resolve them. So we changed some error checking settings and stopped checking for mail loops. That was okay for a while, but in the past month, we have been seeing about 45 members monitored every day because of mail loops (half the total errors reported). If we let this continue, eventually these members would be automatically deleted due to the errors. In the past week or so, we have done some more research and have decided to turn loop checking back on in order to break the loops that have been started. We will monitor this closely and expect the error rate to decrease significantly within a week. And once the loops have been cleared, it is expected that the SPAM score of the IEEE servers will decrease accordingly and we will see much less blocking of list emails as SPAM. That, then, should decrease the other major error number by a likewise large amount. This may take another week. The goal is to get back to our normal error rate of less than 5 per day. I give this long winded dissertation so you might know that we are trying to keep the list flowing to all members, both on the send and receive sides, without having our list blocked as SPAM or having members automatically deleted in error. But you should know that with loop checking turned back on full, some members with non-compliant email systems may well see an error message sent by the Listserv. Or you may find your message detoured and not posted to the list. If either of these things happen, please contact one of the list admins right away so we can try to determine the cause and find a solution. As always, we appreciate your patience and cooperation as we try to adapt to the ever increasing noise on the Internet. -- Best Regards, Scott Douglas EMC-PSTC Administrator email: [email protected] - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________
