The number of "Undeliverable" notices is also staggering. Normally, I
give these only the most cursory look. If I see notices for an address
over several days, I remove that address from the list.
There are a couple of things I would like all subscribers to know and pay
attention to. Then, the balance of this message is just for those interested.
--> EVERYONE: You can Help <--
If your address is changing, please unsubscribe from the old address. If
it's too late, send me a note ASAP saying which address to remove. "Orphan"
addresses take time that's non-productive.
We send mail every day, six days a week, usually in the evening. If you
don't get mail for 72hrs, you should become suspicious. Check to see if
outside mail is flowing OK into your site first. Then, contact me by
email. If you don't get a reply in 24 more hours, then there is a real
problem with mail; check your site and hold on.
--> The rest is for THOSE INTERESTED <--
As a test, I collected "Undeliverable" notices for a seven day period
recently. During the seven days I received 833 "Undeliverable" notices and
several hundred "Warning: Msg delayed" notices totaling 5 million chars.
There are 1500 subscribers to Learning-org.
>From these I calculate that 1-2% of our outgoing mail never reaches the
recipient.
The non-deliveries are "lumpy." When a site has a problem, all mail to
that site is affected until it is corrected which usually requires some
person to do something.
Are you missing mail? From what I observe, it can happen to anyone.
Government, corporate, AOL, Compuserve, everyone. Please become
suspicious if you do not receive Learning-org mail for a few days; we
send mail six evenings a week (US Eastern time). If you are suspicous,
watch the LO### of messages or the Edition # of the Digest. These are
continuous.
Why does mail fail? I believe the systems on the internet are generally
very good. I doubt that an individual item will slip through the cracks.
But, things break. A phone line goes out. A gateway computer crashes. A
disk runs out of room. A person types the wrong thing on a keyboard. A
well-intentioned change messes up something else.
Whose mail fails? Could happen to anyone. I believe the failure rate is
related to 1) how seriously your org treats internet email, and 2) the
volume pressures. From the returns I see, I find that many gov't and
organizations and companies (including some large ones) are treating
internet email pretty casually, putting up a gateway computer and
assuming it will work (which it does most of the time).
The large national services are not immune. I have seen short periods
during which all our mail to AOL subscribers has been delayed and most
returned "Undeliverable." Ditto for Compuserve. When I check on these, it
has been a failure combined with high volume.
What you might want to know about internet email: Mail passes from one
computer to another to get to you. Most links look for an "authoritative"
response (is this address OK?) and give up if the response is negative.
The receiving site may be overloaded and refuse a connection, most sending
sites try for three days to move the mail, then give up. When any link
gives up, it sends an "undeliverable" notice back up the chain to me.
Down below are some examples of the notices I get; I believe most of
these are temporary failures at the subscriber site. Some of the notices
are bizzare. (These are not meant to cast stones at any specific
organization; the names will be different each week.)
Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash>
Innovation Associates, Inc. | email: rkarash@world.std.com
3 Speen St, Framingham MA 01701 | Host for Learning-Org Mailing List
(508) 879-8301 and fax 626-2205 | <http://world.std.com/~lo>
Report on your message to:
/C=AU/ADMD=TELEMEMO/PRMD=BHPMEL04/O=BHP/S=ivancic/G=maria/I=ml/OU=SMTP02/@x400.b
hp.com.au
Reason: Failed to transfer; communications failure (0)
Diagnostic: Maximum time expired (5)
Extension-id: 1
----------
User Bo_Warburton@mail is not defined
Original text follows
----------
This report relates to your message: Beer Game Wri...
Your message was not delivered to
Peter.Dale@HHLGCS.ausgovhhcs.telememo.au
for the following reason:
Message timed out
----------
[002] Mail was received that was addressed to unknown addresses.
Mail item was not delivered to:
DILHR/CSSPO/ELLIOTH
----- Transcript of session follows -----
<LHITCH@VMSVAX.SIMMONS.EDU>... Deferred: Connection timed out during
initial connection with vmsvax.simmons.edu.
Message could not be delivered for 3 days
Message will be deleted from queue
----- Transcript of session follows -----
<emmonsk@ncr.disa.mil>... Deferred: Name server: host name lookup failure
Message could not be delivered for 3 days
Message will be deleted from queue
----- Transcript of session follows -----
<bohlul@Glue.umd.edu>... Deferred
Message could not be delivered for 4 days
Message will be deleted from queue
----- Transcript of session follows -----
554 <bohlul@Glue.umd.edu>... Service unavailable
----- Transcript of session follows -----
451 <wcox@inet.guthrie.org>... reply: read error from inet.guthrie.org.
550 <cjimeapm@200.4.10.5>... Host unknown (Name server: 200.4.10.5: host
not found)
451 <TRICHARD@acinfo.up.ac.za>... reply: read error from inet.up.ac.za.
<TRICHARD@acinfo.up.ac.za>... Deferred: Connection reset by peer during
client greeting with inet.up.ac.za.
----- Transcript of session follows -----
451 <allen@atlas.socsci.umn.edu>... reply: read error from
atlas.socsci.umn.edu.
<allen@atlas.socsci.umn.edu>... Deferred: Connection reset by peer during
client greeting with atlas.socsci.umn.edu.
451 <gor6027@dgscg4.dgsc.dla.mil>... reply: read error from
dgscg4.dgsc.dla.mil.
<gor6027@dgscg4.dgsc.dla.mil>... Deferred: Connection reset by peer
during client greeting with dgscg4.dgsc.dla.mil.
550 <pdennehy@telecom.ie>... Host unknown (Name server:
mailgate.telecom.ie.: host not found)
----- Transcript of session follows -----
451 <lkahwah@starnet.gov.sg>... timeout waiting for input during client
greeting
451 <lkahwah@starnet.gov.sg>... reply: read error from
mercury.starnet.gov.sg.
<lkahwah@starnet.gov.sg>... Deferred: Connection reset by peer during
client greeting with mercury.starnet.gov.sg.
550 <pdennehy@telecom.ie>... Host unknown (Name server:
mailgate.telecom.ie.: host not found)
<100606.1752@compuserve.com>... Deferred
... while talking to mx01.ca.us.ibm.net.:
>>> DATA
<<< 451 System problem
451 <gordon@SWNETWORKS.COM>... timeout waiting for input during client
greeting
451 <gordon@SWNETWORKS.COM>... reply: read error from
swnet20-01.swnetworks.com.
<gordon@SWNETWORKS.COM>... Deferred: Connection reset by peer during
client greeting with swnet20-01.swnetworks.com.
----- Transcript of session follows -----
<<< RCPT To:<sauder@siast.sk.ca>
<<< DATA
mr_talker: OK, MRIF Service V0.2
554 <sauder@siast.sk.ca>... Internal error
----- Transcript of session follows -----
uux failed ( -1 )
554 <douglas.wolfe@step2.com>... unknown mailer error 1
-----
After 3 days (49 hours), your message has not yet been
fully delivered. Attempts to deliver the message will continue
for 2 more days. No further action is required by you.
Delivery attempts are still pending for the following address(es):
ekruth
Problems usually are due to service interruptions at the receiving
machine. Less often, they are caused by the communication system.
-----
User mail failed mailing to mailbag (file contention):
18WG/CCQI/gainesd
--------
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 18:16:59 PST8
From: CCGATE_IMPORT@CCGATE.HAC.COM
To: learning-org-approval@world.std.com
Subject: cc:Mail SMTPLINK Undeliverable Message
Status: O
X-Status:
Message undeliverable at this time
Original text follows
----- Transcript of session follows -----
421 notes7sa.apcc.com (tcp)... Deferred: Connection refused by
notes7sa.apcc.com
Lisa_Hosack.APCC@notes7sa.apcc.com... Deferred: Connection refused by
notes7sa.apcc.com
----- Transcript of session follows -----
451 <DUBEAUR@ccourt.canadorec.on.ca>... reply: read error from
msmailgate.canadorec.on.ca.
<DUBEAUR@ccourt.canadorec.on.ca>... Deferred: Connection timed out during
initial connection with msmailgate.canadorec.on.ca.
Message could not be delivered for 3 days
Message will be deleted from queue
----- Transcript of session follows -----
550 <DUBEAUR@ccourt.canadorec.on.ca>... Host unknown (Name server:
ccourt.canadorec.on.ca: no data known)
----- Transcript of session follows -----
<InterNews@aol.com>... Deferred
<SIMMEDIATO@delphi.com>,<PNNNNOB@delphi.com>... Deferred: Connection
timed out during initial connection with delphi.com.
... while talking to dns.cpa.state.tx.us.:
>>> RCPT To:<Q4000DJ0@macnet.cpa.texas.gov>
<<< 550 <Q4000DJ0@macnet.cpa.texas.gov>... User unknown: No such file or
directory
550 <Q4000DJ0@macnet.cpa.texas.gov>... User unknown
>>> RCPT To:<Q4000A1P@macnet.cpa.texas.gov>
<<< 550 <Q4000A1P@macnet.cpa.texas.gov>... User unknown: No such file or
directory
550 <Q4000A1P@macnet.cpa.texas.gov>... User unknown
----- Transcript of session follows -----
554 too many hops 19 (17 max): from <learning-org-approval@WORLD.STD.COM>
via relay1.UU.NET, to <Firoza.Mistry@ncal.kaiperm.org>
--Boundary (ID qmO/Q5HQLln6w6UVXrBX0w)
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
These addresses were rejected:
maria.m.l.ivancic@msmail.bhp.com.au: cannot match recipient with known MTA
--Boundary (ID 9sKz3NvFKLQwG4QHOZilhw)
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
These addresses were rejected:
andrews@qut.edu.au translated to illegal address: andrews@melia.qut.edu.au
Reason translated address failed: unknown or illegal user
----------
Your message cannot be delivered to its destination, and has been returned
to you by the SMTP-OpenVMS delivery agent for the following reason(s):
Error sending mail to <WEITZD%DNRWD.decnet@dnr.state.wi.us>:
Error creating network link to node DNRWD
Network partner exited
----------
Your message cannot be delivered to its destination, and has been returned
to you by the SMTP-OpenVMS delivery agent for the following reason(s):
Error sending mail to <WEITZD%DNRWD.decnet@dnr.state.wi.us>:
Error creating network link to node DNRWD
Remote node is not currently reachable
-----
The message that you sent was undeliverable to the following:
TOTHILL%MAIN_PMB@gate.cc.unp.ac.za
----- Transcript of session follows -----
451 <ahk@nynexst.com>,<ritter@nynexst.com>... reply: read error from
texas.nynexst.com.
<ahk@nynexst.com>,<ritter@nynexst.com>... Deferred: Connection reset by
peer during client greeting with texas.nynexst.com.
550 <ntarshis@ca0009wp.caso.ca.blm.gov>... Host unknown (Name server:
mail.blm.gov.: host not found)
----- Transcript of session follows -----
554 <R.N.Courtney@city.ac.uk>... Remote protocol error
---- message ----
Router: Unable to open mailbox file TRELN4001 mail.box: You are not
authorized to use the server
--Boundary (ID lYlA4dKk/C5hsM2lB093Yg)
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
A transmission failure has occurred.
Addressees:
SENGUPTU@crl1.crl.aecl.ca
Reason: 552 Error in local delivery
----------
This report relates to your message: Subject: learning-org-digest V1 #266
Message-ID: <199510071650.AA22438@world.std.com> Date: Sat, 7 Oct
1995 12:50:34 -0400 To: learning-org-digest@world.std.com
Your message was not delivered to: J.P.G.Thewissen@HDW.RWS.minvenw.nl
for the following reason: Unable to transfer
MTA error: Latest delivery time expired
----------
Dear Sir/Madam,
We have been experiencing Mail server problems from
6 the October 19:00 hr to 7th October 19:00 hr (Singapore Time).
If you have tried sending mail to any user at SIN-APIT.DHL.COM,
Kindly resent the same.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Your co-operation will be highly appreciated.
Best Regards
----------
error: unresolvable: ntarshis@ca0009wp.caso.ca.blm.gov
----------
Your message was not delivered to philiph@ucscarb.ac.uk
for the following reason:
Unknown Address
DATA transfer to host failed permanently
----------
Date: Sat, 07 Oct 95 07:54:24 +0000
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <MAILER-DAEMON@apcc.com>
Subject: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 1 day
To: <learning-org-approval@world.std.com>
Status: O
X-Status:
421 notes7sa.apcc.com (tcp)... Deferred: Connection refused by
notes7sa.apcc.com
Lisa_Hosack.APCC@notes7sa.apcc.com... Deferred: Connection refused by
notes7sa.apcc.com
----- Transcript of session follows -----
553 ra.isisnet.com config error: mail loops back to myself
554 <ac200@ccn.cs.dal.ca>... Local configuration error
----------------------------------------
/var/mail/dg81590.lock: File exists
mail: /var/mail/dg81590.lock not creatable after 10 tries
550 <dg81590@saturn.cosd.fedex.com>... Can't create output
----- Transcript of session follows -----
<peakers@cam.logica.com>... Deferred: Connection refused by
bernard.logica.com.
Warning: message still undelivered after 4 hours
Will keep trying until message is 5 days old