Mitch,
First, if you want to test, rename the user.* files and create new ones,
with just a couple of addresses and you won't bother all those people. If
this works (it should!), then I suspect you have some problems with the
original files. Check them closely for non-standard characters. User.lst
should have email addresses only (possibly with <> surrounding the address),
no spaces and each line terminated with <CRLF>. Users.txt has email address
and names, so it can have spaces. Again each line ends with <CRLF> and has
space between address and name (if first, last name, then another space
between).
Another technique is to split the files in half and use just one of the
halfs to test. If that works OK, then you know that part is good. If bad,
then half again and test each half. Continue until you locate the bad
line(s). On very rare occasions, I have seen unprintable characters show up
in the file. This means that one cannot cut/paste these lines into a new
file and they need to be typed anew.
Unless you have the SMTP set to 100 tries, it would be unlikely that IMail
would send that many times, although, if it is failing on one of the lists
messages in the Queue, it is possible that the 'Tries' counter is not being
incremented, so IMail thinks it has not tried that message, causing it to
resend endlessly (very rare and usually causes SMTP32 processes to build up!
Open Task Manager and observe).
Blank messages are also rare (in older versions of IMail, could happen when
one runs out of disk space), but possible if one of the D files is also
empty (missing?).
Check the Queue and each of the files 'Tries' counter. If this is non-zero,
then that message has been tried that many times and should increment when
observed at a later time. Also look to assure that each file has some
addresses in the To and From fields. You might also look at the dates of the
files, looking for ones that are much older than the rest. This could
indicate that it is hanging around much longer than others indicating some
problem.
You could also move all the Q and D files, to another directory, then move
back same named pairs, one at a time, to see if it gets sent. If it does,
good. If not, then you may have located the problem message files or maybe
even the bad address lines in the User.* files.
User.lst and user.txt do not have to match. As a matter of fact, having only
the user.lst is enough for the List to send to those users. However, if not
in both files, then a user may not be able to unsubscribe via email (but you
don't use that method).
Daniel Donnelly
________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mitch Harhay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 5:36 PM
Subject: [IMail Forum] List Server Problems
> Hello,
>
> We are running into a problem with our list server. The list contains
about
> 22,000 names. It is a private list, so only the admin can send to the
list.
> The problem is that sometimes people receive 4 to 5 copies, others have
> received over 100 copies of the message, while others will only receive
the
> subject line and the rest of the message is blank. Checking the users.lst
> file, the people receiving multiple copies are only subscribed once. It
> appears like the list is looping over and over. If the users.lst and
> users.txt files do not match, would this cause some sort of problem?
>
> I am lost at what to do and testing is difficult because I don't want to
> upset 22k of people again and again.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Mitch Harhay
> Computer Surplus Outlet
> http://www.computersurplusoutlet.com
>
> Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
> to be removed from this list.
>
> An Archive of this list is available at:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/
>
Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
to be removed from this list.
An Archive of this list is available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/
