Normal time delay on email delivery?

BritTim · 22 Nov 2005, 03:29 PM

I have been assuming that, under normal circumstances, delivery of mail to a fastmail.fm account should only take a couple of minutes. However, I have been waiting 25 minutes now on a mail from one fastmail account to another (testing functionality). I am not yet seriously concerned. However, I am wondering, in general, how long one should wait (in the absence of other reports of problems) before contacting support in such cases.

**Sherry** · 22 Nov 2005, 03:52 PM

Hi BritTim,

Good timing asking that question now. I have just finished testing a message with a picture inserted from one FM account to another. The message arrived in the receiving account even before the sending account finished telling me the email was sent. In fact I did this 3 different times and it arrived each time instantly. They were sent from server4 to server3 if that means anything?

Sherry

BritTim · 22 Nov 2005, 05:05 PM

One email from <user1>@fastmail.fm to <user2>@f-m.fm immediately (within seconds) sent an SMS notification. However the email was not delivered to <user2>'s Inbox for 90 minutes (it did eventually arrive).

Meanwhile, during the intervening period, two emails from <user3>@myrealbox.com to <user2>@f-m.fm both generated the SMS notifications and were delivered to the Inbox almost immediately.

Is the delayed delivery of the first email a symptom of a possible problem?

Heartz · 22 Nov 2005, 09:30 PM

The only way to find the real cause of the slowdown is to check the headers. Could you post the headers of the test messages here. That'll help the FM admins as well as us to see where the real problems are.

BritTim · 23 Nov 2005, 06:38 AM

The headers do not reveal much:

Quote:

Return-Path: <user1@fastmail.fm>
Received: from frontend1.internal (frontend1.internal [10.202.2.150])
by server3.messagingengine.com (Cyrus v2.3-alpha) with LMTPA;
Tue, 22 Nov 2005 02:12:35 -0500
X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.3
X-Spam-known-sender: yes
X-Spam-score: 0.0
X-Spam-hits: ALL_TRUSTED, BAYES_00
X-Resolved-to: <user2>@f-m.fm
X-Delivered-to: <user2>@imp-asia.com
X-Mail-from: <user1>@fastmail.fm Received: by web4.messagingengine.com (Postfix, from userid 99)
id 6413813CF; Tue, 22 Nov 2005 02:12:35 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <1132643555.27126.248067196@webmail.messagingengine.com>
X-Sasl-Enc: LFAoCY9dGJfkmUUCE4wYwcstc2tYPFOu9WYXyy7rBWPb 1132643555
From: "Tim Bolshaw" <<user1>@fastmail.fm>
To: <user2>@imp-asia.com
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: MIME::Lite 1.5 (F2.73; T1.15; A1.64; B3.05; Q3.03)
Subject: Test of SMS forwarding
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:12:35 +0700

To clarify the above: <user2>@imp-asia.com is an alias for <user2>@f-m.fm. The headers seem to confirm what the SMS notification already had. The email had been received and processed, but for some reason did not appear in the user's Inbox until about 03:45 (EST).

robmueller · 5 Dec 2005, 02:22 PM

That doesn't sound right. That last header is added by cyrus as it delivers it to the mailbox.

Received: from frontend1.internal (frontend1.internal [10.202.2.150])
by server3.messagingengine.com (Cyrus v2.3-alpha) with LMTPA;
Tue, 22 Nov 2005 02:12:35 -0500

That suggests that it did go effectively instantly into the mailbox, there's just no place it could "sit" for a while. Were you using the web interface or an IMAP client? Was the IMAP client definitely connected?

Rob

22 Nov 2005, 03:29 PM	#1
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,093	Normal time delay on email delivery? I have been assuming that, under normal circumstances, delivery of mail to a fastmail.fm account should only take a couple of minutes. However, I have been waiting 25 minutes now on a mail from one fastmail account to another (testing functionality). I am not yet seriously concerned. However, I am wondering, in general, how long one should wait (in the absence of other reports of problems) before contacting support in such cases.

22 Nov 2005, 05:05 PM	#3
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,093	Eventual result One email from <user1>@fastmail.fm to <user2>@f-m.fm immediately (within seconds) sent an SMS notification. However the email was not delivered to <user2>'s Inbox for 90 minutes (it did eventually arrive). Meanwhile, during the intervening period, two emails from <user3>@myrealbox.com to <user2>@f-m.fm both generated the SMS notifications and were delivered to the Inbox almost immediately. Is the delayed delivery of the first email a symptom of a possible problem?

22 Nov 2005, 03:52 PM	#2
Sherry Moderator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: USA Posts: 8,687	Hi BritTim, Good timing asking that question now. I have just finished testing a message with a picture inserted from one FM account to another. The message arrived in the receiving account even before the sending account finished telling me the email was sent. In fact I did this 3 different times and it arrived each time instantly. They were sent from server4 to server3 if that means anything? Sherry

22 Nov 2005, 09:30 PM	#4
Heartz Essential Contributor Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Selangor, Malaysia Posts: 460	The only way to find the real cause of the slowdown is to check the headers. Could you post the headers of the test messages here. That'll help the FM admins as well as us to see where the real problems are.

5 Dec 2005, 02:22 PM	#6
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,102 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	That doesn't sound right. That last header is added by cyrus as it delivers it to the mailbox. Received: from frontend1.internal (frontend1.internal [10.202.2.150]) by server3.messagingengine.com (Cyrus v2.3-alpha) with LMTPA; Tue, 22 Nov 2005 02:12:35 -0500 That suggests that it did go effectively instantly into the mailbox, there's just no place it could "sit" for a while. Were you using the web interface or an IMAP client? Was the IMAP client definitely connected? Rob