Recently we have had complaints from various listserv subscribers and
users that they were receiving duplicate messages from us.  We have
investigated this problem and believe we have found the problem.
 
A couple of weeks ago the Library of Virginia went through a
transformation process conducted by Northrop-Grumman (NG) on behalf of
the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA).  We were attached
to the COV network and now access the internet through NG.  Compared to
a highway, we used to have our own HOV lane, but now we've had to hop
back into the regular lanes.  Our email gets sent out onto the internet
along with all other state agency emails and regular internet traffic.
Our email programs were set up to send out another message 30 seconds
after the first if it thought the first message had not arrived at it's
destination.  To continue the highway analogy, let's say we're in
Northern Virginia on a Thursday afternoon and there is a traffic jam.
The first email is sent out and gets hung up in the traffic jam and
since our programs were set to send out another message in 30 seconds it
would send out another one, and in some cases another one until the
email program was satisfied that at least one got through in 30 seconds.
However, once the first finally arrives, the others have already been
sent and continue their journey to their destination, arriving
approximately 30 seconds or so later than the original. 
 
To cope with the likelihood of periodic heavy internet traffic, we now
have set the time limit to 5 minutes and hope this helps.
 
Rose M. Schooff
Technology Consultant
Library Development and Networking
The Library of Virginia
(804) 692-3772
<blocked::http://www.lva.virginia.gov/> 

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