How can I tell what is causing an emails delay?

Question asked by Patrick Hedgepath - 1/22/2016 at 12:27 PM

Unanswered

I have a client with an e-commerce site where when an order is placed they need to get the emails pretty soon after. However we have been seeing random unexplained delays. In the delivery logs it shows this.

[2016.01.22] 10:47:58 [21467] Delivery started for orders@domain.com at 10:47:58 AM
[2016.01.22] 10:48:29 [21467] Skipping spam checks: No local recipients
[2016.01.22] 12:17:24 [21467] Sending remote mail for orders@domain.com

How can I figure out why there is such a delay from the time it gets the email to the time it actually delivers it?

9 Replies

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Bruce Barnes Replied

1/22/2016 at 2:17 PM

Right click on the delayed e-mail in the message queue.

Check the RECIPIENT's option.

This will give you a good idea of what's going on.

Bruce Barnes ChicagoNetTech Inc brucecnt@comcast.net Phonr: (773) 491-9019 Phone: (224) 444-0169 E-Mail and DNS Security Specialist Network Security Specialist Customer Service Portal: https://portal.chicagonettech.com Website: https://www.ChicagoNetTech.com Security Blog: http://networkbastion.blogspot.com/ Web and E-Mail Hosting, E-Mail Security and Consulting

Patrick Hedgepath Replied

1/22/2016 at 2:56 PM

Problem is these are emails that are sent by the time I find out about them.

Patrick Hedgepath Replied

1/25/2016 at 10:58 AM

Ok today I saw some sitting in there. Posted a screenshot below.

Most of them look like this with the exception of the first one.

What is also strange is I even setup a priority override for and emails for this domain and it does not appears to be working because in the screenshot they still has a priority of 5.

Any idea how I can get any emails that have anything to do with the holidayproducts.com domain name to go out right away and not get throttled or delayed?

Bruce Barnes Replied

1/25/2016 at 1:54 PM

What version of SmarterMail are you running? SmarterMail 14.4 resolves a lot of delivery issues, several of which are related to DNS and SPF record lookup issues.

Have you searched both your SMTP and DELIVERY LOGS for the RECIPIENT'S e-mail addresses? They must be set to DETAILED to capture any additional information.

Have you tried to telnet to HOLIDAYPRODUCTS.COM?

They have two MX servers,

mx1.emailsrvr.COM 10
mx2.emailsrvr.COM 20

Go to a COMMAND prompt and type:

telnet mx1.holidayproducts.com 25 and then see what happens?
- Do you get a connection?
- Does your response look like this? "220 mx1.emailsrvr.com ESMTP - VA Code Section 18.2-152.3:1 forbids sending spam through this system"

telnet mx2.holidayproducts.com 25 and then see what happens?

Do you get a connection?
Does your response look like this? "220 mx1.emailsrvr.com ESMTP - VA Code Section 18.2-152.3:1 forbids sending spam through this system"

Baring anything else in the logs, there are several things which can cause this, and you should check them all:

Is the SENDING DOMAIN properly bound to a VALID IP ADDRESS under DOMAIN ===> EDIT?
Do you have PORTS properly mapped to the IP address to which your domain is mapped?
1. SETTINGS ===> BINDINGS ===> IP ADDRESSES:
NOTE: THIS REQUIRES THAT THE PORTS ARE PROPERLY BUILT, FIRST
1. SETTINGS ===> BINDINGS ===> PORTS:
Do you have DNS servers set in your SmarterMail server's configuration?
1. SETTINGS ==> GENERAL SETTINGS ===> SERVER INFO:
  
  If you don't put DNS server information in there, SmarterMail will attempt to use the DNS server settings of the local NIC card on the server on which SmarterMail is installed. I seen more than a few of these which were corrupted, and, one case where the DNS server IP address(es) were pointing to non-existent DNS servers - causing delivery problems with e-mail.
Do you have DNS CACHING turned on? Some busy MX server operators like DNS caching, but it's too easily poisoned by dDOS attacks to be reliable:
SETTINGS ===> PROTOCOL SETTINGS ===> SMTP OUT:
Do you have the FQDN of your SmarterMail server setup properly under the HOSTNAME box in SETTINGS ===> GENERAL SETTINGS?
Do you have rDNS mapped to the FQDN mapped in the box above? It is NOT done via your DNS, you must contact the ISP who allocated your STATIC IP ADDRESS range to have them setup rDNS to the FQDN used in step 7..
Do you have a HOSTNAME ENTRY built under SETTINGS ===> BINDINGS ===> HOSTNAMES, and does it match the FQDN used in step #8 and the IP ADDRESS mapped to your PORTS?
Do you have a #HostName# variable in all three of the following:

IMAP:

POP:

SMTP IN:

YAHOO! demands this now, or they will reject your e-mail.

Patrick Hedgepath Replied

1/25/2016 at 2:03 PM

I'll check all this out. Then get back to you thank you. I am running

SmarterMail Enterprise Edition
Version 14.4.5801

Also something else I noticed is I have a Priority Sender Override setup for this email address but it appears to be getting ignored.

Hemen Shah Replied

9/8/2016 at 5:28 AM

Hi Bruce,

query on your above steps 7-8-9
if valid fqdn in point 7 is mail.abc.com
if hostname in point 9 is mail2.abc.com (this is rdns set for mail.abc.com)
does above works ok or both to be mail.abc.com

thanks