[09] WHY IS INCOMING EMAIL SOMETIMES DELAYED? WHERE IS MY MAIL?

    SDF has used UUCP (UNIX to UNIX CoPy) to transfer both incoming
    and outgoing mail since the late 1980s.  This is referred to as
    a 'Store and Forward' method, so it is not always instantaneous.

    SDF does receive email directly using SMTP, but at the same
    time also uses a secondary host which queues up email via UUCP
    for pick up each hour via 'uucico' using the 't' protocol.  The
    result: sometimes you get your mail in a few seconds, sometimes
    you have to wait a bit.  This also means that if for some reason
    the primary SMTP server at SDF is down, offline for maintenance
    or on fire, email will still be written to an SDF UUCP queue for
    future delivery rather than sit waiting in a foreign outbound
    SMTP queue where it may be deleted or returned.

    All SDF hosted email domains use the SMTP primary and UUCP secondary
    MX (Mail eXchanger) method with the except of VHOSTed domains which
    have the option to use the UUCP secondary via 'mkvhost'.

You are viewing proxied material from sdf.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.