Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL
From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Twelve is enough
Message-ID: <8807151522.aa00434@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>
Date: 15 Jul 88 01:08:11 GMT
References: 
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 46

>     By my count, "Do You Need The Ultimate Text Editor?" has appeared
>an even dozen times in my mail since July 1.

I (we) sympathize, but I don't believe it's Dan's fault (he's probably
REAL puzzled by the flame).  That message appeared EXACTLY ONCE (well,
maybe twice - but it was the SAME message -- I mean the identical
message ID number, not a reposting) on the BITNET distribution which
means it went through brl.arpa ONLY ONE time.

What's going on here are some communications timing problems on arpanet
(also at the gateways between the Internet and other nets - hence the
problem could be occuring between crash.cts.com and uiuc.edu or
trout.nosc.mil which are Internet mailforwarders which transfers mail
between .cts.COM and the Internet.

The usual effect is mail is sent across a gateway but either a hardware
or software glitch prevents the sending station from getting a final ACK
(acknowledge) from the other end (we've seen this both ways across gates).
The receiving end "THINKS" it's acknowledged and the sending end "THINKS"
the message was lost -- so it gets sent again.  As you might imagine,
the problem is far more likey to occur if the message is long than if the
message is short.

Chris and I have received LOTS of bounce messages from all over arpa saying
APPLE2-L mail "hasn't been delivered for 3 days because of inability to
connect to host .ARPA."  I'd guess you have been the victim of
an unfortunate series of mail transfer glitches (possibly even between
your node and the next one over whether Dan's mail HAS or HAS not been
delivered).

Take a REAL CLOSE look at the headers (and check with your postmaster).
You can usually identify the node responsible for the duplication(s)
by checking the times received by each node in the header (when the times
start to differ, you've found the culprit).

IF (biggest word in the English language) Congress doesn't cut the budgets,
an upgrade, currently under way, is supposed to "solve" the problem.

Murph Sewall     Sewall@UCONNVM.BITNET
Business School  sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu          [INTERNET]
U of Connecticut {rutgers psuvax1 ucbvax & in Europe - mcvax}
                 !UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL                        [UUCP]

-+- My employer isn't responsible for my mistakes AND vice-versa!
            (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)

"It might help if we ran the MBA's out of Washington." - Adm Grace Hopper