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Archiver > Listowners > 2003-03 > 1047126360


From: "Andrew Billinghurst" <>
Subject: Re: [LO] [Fwd: Returned mail: see transcript for details]
Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2003 23:26:00 +1100
In-Reply-To: <3E691256.9090904@pacifier.com>


ISP hiccough. They were probably doing work on the server, I
wouldn't be overly concerned about a once, especially if the bounce
was accepted shortly thereafter.

To explain the "User unknown in virtual alias table."
Mail has to get to you somehow through the servers and there are a
couple of ways of doing this.
1) Create a user account on receiving server
2) Create a user account on internal server and route mail through
the receiving server to internal server (usual way as this allows for
redundancy and maintenance). To get mail from external to internal
the external has to know that you exist in the system (accept or
reject the mail), so they have a file "aliases" that has names in it
and internal directions to where to send mail.
3) Extra email addresses that point to the same mailbox that involve
the previous two methods, again using "aliases" file. Very common.
Very useful for generic addresses like listmaster, postmaster,
LISTNAME-admin, so one doesn't have to retrain users when there is a
change.
4) Other more obscure ways that don't need explaining today.

Regards, Andrew


On 7 Mar 2003 at 13:42, Shirley <> wrote:

> Ummm, this is MY address. And I received the bounce message...so I don't know
> why the original post didn't come through to me. I've never seen the reason
> before, either: "User unknown in virtual alias table."
>
> thanks,
> shirley
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Returned mail: see transcript for details
> Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:26:56 -0700
> From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <>
> To:
>
> This is a MIME-encapsulated message
>
> --h27LLU2F016123.1047072416/lists5.rootsweb.com
>
> The original message was received at Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:21:30 -0700
> from
>
> ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
>
> (reason: 550 <>: User unknown in virtual alias table)
>
> ----- Transcript of session follows -----
> ... while talking to mx2.pacifier.net.:
> >>> DATA
> <<< 550 <>: User unknown in virtual alias table
> 550 5.1.1 ... User unknown
>
> --h27LLU2F016123.1047072416/lists5.rootsweb.com
> Content-Type: message/delivery-status
>
> Reporting-MTA: dns; lists5.rootsweb.com
> Arrival-Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:21:30 -0700
>
> Final-Recipient: RFC822;
> Action: failed
> Status: 5.1.1
> Remote-MTA: DNS; mx2.pacifier.net
> Diagnostic-Code: SMTP; 550 <>: User unknown in virtual alias
> table
> Last-Attempt-Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:23:05 -0700
>
> --h27LLU2F016123.1047072416/lists5.rootsweb.com
> Content-Type: text/rfc822-headers
>
> Received: (from )
> by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id h27LLU2E016123;
> Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:21:30 -0700
> Resent-Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:21:30 -0700
> X-Original-Sender: Fri Mar 7 14:21:30 2003
> Message-ID: <>
> Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 17:23:29 -0500
> From: Charles Langley <>
> Reply-To:
> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 (Macintosh; U; PPC)
> X-Accept-Language: en
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Old-To:
> References: <>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854";
> x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> Subject: [HS] Columns,
> Resent-Message-ID: <>
> To:
> Resent-From:
> X-Mailing-List: <> archive/latest/126993
> X-Loop:
> Precedence: list
> Resent-Sender:
>
> --h27LLU2F016123.1047072416/lists5.rootsweb.com--
>
>
>
> .
>

--
Andrew Billinghurst <>
Genealogy mailing lists: http://lists.rootsweb.com/
Ancestry.com--Your #1 Source for Family History Online
http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=702&sourceid=1241

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