>OK all you HPDESK wizards out there (esp. you HP folks in GB),
 
Most of them are now in Colorado.
 
>  However, there are a few distribution lists that
>are common to all classes.  Is there any way to set it up so that I
>don't have to log on as each General Delivery user to update all the
>lists?
 
We have 82 mailnodes (41 local / 41 for gateways to the Internet) on 32
HP3000s and these are the few options we have used:
 
1).  We have a job that does this automatically.  The job mails the
Distribution list to a user call DISTJOB on each mailnode.  The job
later (must wait for mail to be delivered) logs on to each computer and
goes into Desk as DISTJOB for each mailnode and copies the list from
the intray to the PUB of CAB.  (If updating a list will first delete
the old list).
 
2).  Set up a separate mailnode (DISTLIST).  Create bogus users that
are the names of the list  (777team/DISTLIST).   Set up each one of
these bogus users to have the mail forwarded to the actual list of
users.   Since all your 7 mailnodes can send to this mailnode, you only
need to maintain the list in one place (even if the mailnodes are on
separate computers).      However, there is one catch.  OpenDesk only
allows a message to be autoforwarded once.  If any of the users on the
list autoforward their mail they will not get it.    (If it is
autoforwarded more than once, Desk assumes the message is in an endless loop).
 
3). Send it to an alias on a UNIX box that contains the list of users.
Obviously, this creates a lot of extra network traffic.
 
OpenDesk II contains a Bulletin Board similar to the Notice Board.
With the Bulletin Board all users on the same computer can access this
information, it is not restricted by mailnode.     Currently, you can
not put Lists in this area, but maybe that will be a future enhancement
or a separate computer-wide list area could be created.
 
- Chris Rice
Communications Technology Center
Redmond, WA
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