Re: OT - E-mail slowdown

My isp told me they have put 7 extra SMTP servers on due to the recent =
virus incidents and are making some emails low priority due to the mail =
volumes they are experiencing.

the Sobig Virus alone has sent around 100 million emails in august ( and =
it only started on the 19th), according to Scientific American. =
Hopefully it's switched itself off yesterday (10 sept) i didn't get my =
usual 100 viruses this morning so fingers crossed.

so it's possible your isp is having problems keeping up or mail is =
delayed because other mail servers are busy dealing with this volume of =
mail.

Best Wishes

Paul Roberts
mail at paul-roberts dot com
----- Original Message -----=20
From: "Missy Scott" <mbscott(at)d-assistance.com>
To: <hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 3:40 PM
Subject: OT - E-mail slowdown


I thought possibly someone else out there might be having the same =
problem
and could shed some light on it.  Hopefully, it's not too off-topic.

I have a client who has an opt-in newsletter that he sends out about =
once a
month.  He tried sending it Tuesday, but it didn't work (although, the
script worked, no one got any newsletters).  He tried again Wed. morning =
and
same result.  So, Wed. afternoon, I cleaned out his database (not all =
email
addresses had confirmed their subscription) because I thought possibly =
it
was timing out.  Maybe it was taking too long to look through the =
database
and find those entries with a 'y' in the confirmation field.  He made a
third attempt on Wed. afternoon at 3:15.

That one worked, but it was some time before they were actually relayed. =
 He
says:

"They all are timestamped 3:15 but it clearly took upto a
half-hour for the newsletters to be transmitted.  Clearing up the data =
base
may have helped, I remember that when I did the newsletter from Outlook, =
the
broadcast would be blocked if any one of the email address had an =
obvious
problem ( like a comma instead of a period).  Or it could have been that =
you
brought the number of email address below at threshold - like 500.
At any rate I'd like to get a better handle on:  Why the newsletter was =
not
broadcast the first two attempts, why it did go the third attempt, and =
why
it took so long to transmit when finally did."

This morning, I've recieved e-mail that was sent as long ago as =
yesterday
morning... a couple were spam and a few were from a list I'm on at
yahoogroups.  Again, these were labeled as being sent long ago, but I =
just
got them.

Is anyone else noticing this?  Or is it just me?  Also, for those of you =
who
may run your own servers that include email, is there a priority among
email... like, would bulk email take a backseat to other email (that =
doesn't
make any sense)?

Any light anyone can shed would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

Missy

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