In reference to checking the email addresses, there are low cost, bulk email programs that will verify the address without sending the message. If anyone is interested, I can supply the source. Burr Stephens L-Soft list server at Indiana University (1.8e) wrote: >Fri, 22 Aug 2003 06:00:00 > >This message is a "probe" for your subscription to the STEPHENS-L list. >You do not need to take any action to remain subscribed to the list, and >in particular you should not reply to this message. Simply discard it >now, or read on if you would like to know more about how this probing >mechanism works. > >A "probe" is a message like the one you are reading, sent to an >individual subscriber and tagged with a special signature to uniquely >identify this particular subscriber (you can probably not see the >signature because it is in the mail headers). If the subscriber's e-mail >address is no longer valid, the message will be returned to LISTSERV and >the faulty address will be removed from the list. If the subscriber's >address is still valid, the message will not bounce and the user will not >be deleted. > >The main advantage of this technique is that it can be fully automated; >the list owner does not need to read a single delivery error. For a large >or active list, the manpower savings can be tremendous. In fact, some >lists are so large that it is virtually impossible to process delivery >errors manually. Another advantage is that the special, unique signatures >make it possible to accurately process delivery errors that are otherwise >unintelligible, even to an experienced technical person. > >The drawback, however, is that this method lacks flexibility and >forgiveness. Since the Internet does not provide a reliable mechanism for >probing an e-mail address without actually delivering a message to the >human recipient, the subscribers need to be inconvenienced with yet >another "junk message". And, unlike a human list owner, LISTSERV follows >a number of simple rules in determining when and whether to terminate a >subscription. In particular, a common problem with automatic probes is >mail gateways that return a delivery error, but do deliver the message >anyway. LISTSERV has no way to know that the message was in fact >delivered, and in most cases the subscriber is not aware of the existence >of these "false" error reports. If this happens to you, LISTSERV will >send you another message with a copy of the delivery error returned by >your mail system, so that you can show it to your technical people. > > >