(This may be useful to more than Joel, so I'm sending a copy to CSG-L.)
Joel,
Administrators where you are may be trying to curb private use of email
on their systems, if they are clever, or if they are not they may just
have screwed up your internet connectivity. In either case, you may be
able to get around the problem by making your outgoing mail to
name@picky_address look like mail to name@proper_internet_address. The
way to do that is to make the mail host at proper_internet_address do the
work of interpreting picky_address, using a mechanism that exists for
forcing packets to follow a particular route through the internet. In
essence, you put your message, with its addressed "envelope," inside
another "envelope" with the kosher address on the outside. All your
local mailer sees is
(complex_name)@proper_internet_address
It never looks inside to see that (complex_name) itself has the form
name%picky_address. When the message is received by the mail host at
proper_internet_address, that host unpacks (complex_name), substitutes @
in place of the rightmost % in it, and puts on a new address,
name@picky_address, which (unlike your local mail host) it can interpret.
If you can get to pucc.princeton.edu or vmd.cso.uiuc.edu, (addresses from
my incoming CSG-L message header), try a c/o address. For example, the
following address appears in the header of your message as I received it:
CSG-L%UIUCVMD.BITNET@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU
(The CSG listserv software appears to be sending mail via a BitNet hop
for some reason.) In place of CSG-L%UIUCVMD.BITNET, substitute
name%picky_address in place of your favorite name@picky_address.
E.g. for name@foo.bitnet substitute:
name%foo.bitnet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU
Or in general:
name%picky_address@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
name%picky_address@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU
And so on.
Hope this helps.
Bruce