> Many Internet hosts are not in a position -- whether technically, > operationally, or administratively-- to offer email service. If an > SMTP client (sender) attempts to open a mail connection to a system > that does not have an SMTP server, the connection attempt will time > out. How about just making it "will be rejected or time out." SMTP requires that timeouts result in the client queuing the "that timeouts" -> "that such failures" > message and retrying it for an extended period. That behavior will > result in wasted resources and long delays in getting an error > message back to its originator. It's shorter, says what needs to be said. R's, John