Issue: 1.0
File: C:\Documents And Settings\User\My Documents\Worddata\Becfaq\Emailproblemsfaq.Doc
INTRODUCTION
“E Mail – Can’t live without it, but it drives me mad”.
These are the normal problems:
· I cannot send any E Mail to anyone
· I cannot send a particular e mail to the intended recipient
· I am unable to receive e mail from anyone
· I am unable to receive a particular e mail from one person
· I get too much Spam.
· I have too many mails stored and I cannot find what I want.
This note is written for 2 audiences – people who want it simple, and those prepared to dig a bit deeper. Keep reading and drop out when you are bored or lost.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
It’s simple at the top level. There are 4 computers involved. The Sender, the Mail Server used by the Sender, the Mail Server used by the Recipient, and the Recipient.
Assuming everyone is set up correctly,
1. The Sender prepares the mail and chooses the Recipient.
2. The mail is sent to the sender’s Mail Server.
3. The sender’s Mail Server makes contact with the Recipient’s Mail server and sends the mail on to it.
4. The Recipient checks with his Mail Server and downloads the mail.
For all this to work, the 4 computers involved must be able to talk to each other over the Internet, and the “conversations” must be successful.
The Sending part uses a computer protocol called SMTP. The send is a “Push” – it is initiated by the computer with a mail to send.
The Receive part uses a different protocol – usually POP3 (although IMAP can also be used). This is a “Pull”.
WHY DOES IT BREAK?
Assuming all the hardware is working and has an adequate connection to the internet, the most common failure is in the Sending part of the sequence. This is the part using the SMTP protocol. Normally the e mail programme being used by the Sender will receive and display an Error Message. This is written in a very user unfriendly way, but if you are persistent, the reason for failure is in that message somewhere….
Later in this FAQ, there is a list of what the 3 digit SMTP Error Codes stand for.
Interestingly, it is attempts to solve the Spam problem that cause many of the other difficulties encountered.
Here are the most common responses to the normal problem, always assuming the computer and internet are running properly, operations have been satisfactory hitherto, and no recent changes have been made.
1. CANNOT SEND ANY MAIL
The mail server is down – call the provider.
Your mail client is broken - call support.
Your mail client has an incorrectly addressed e mail in a queue of mails to be sent – check the queue.
Somehow your mail client or the mail server has changed your e mail user name or password.
2. CANNOT SEND MAIL TO ONE PERSON
(but all other operations are normal).
Incorrect e mail address specified
Recipient has left and the address is no longer recognised.
Either your mail server or the recipients mail server has been blacklisted (see below).
Your attachments are “illegal”” and the recipient’s mail server will not accept them.
Your attachments are too large (typically 10 MB is the limit) and either your server will not accept them from you, or it is unable to send them on because they cannot be accepted by the recipient’s server.
Another problem with attachments can be that they have a very long file name. Some mail programmes can only cope with file names of up to 72 characters, and chop off everything else including the file extension (pdf or doc or xls or whatever) which means the attachment cannot be opened.
3. UNABLE TO RECEIVE ANY MAIL
Your internet connection is down
Your address may have been Blacklisted
4. UNABLE TO RECEIVE MAIL FROM ONE SENDER
Your address may have been blacklisted on just his Mail Server (but not on many others).
He may be suffering from one of the problems set out in (2) above.
If you can receive Mail from other people, the problem is almost certain to be the Sender.
5. TOO MUCH SPAM
Agreed – too much for all of us.
Hastingwood is working on a proprietary solution to this curse but this will only work with our Hastingwood Mail Servers.
There are some things a User can do to reduce the amount of spam received. One is to never reply to any incoming spam – doing so makes you a better and confirmed target. Another is to set up Rules in your mail programme to filter out or reject incoming spam from known or unwelcome senders or with suspicious message headers. Thirdly, choose an e mail provider which operates a server level spam filter.
The problem with all of these techniques is that the bar has to be set at a low trigger point so that “good guys” are not killed along with the bad ones. Hence a lot gets through.
Blacklisting. A word on this. There are perhaps a hundred or so open source or commercial organisations who compile Blacklists of known spammers. These services are used by Mail Server providers to avoid spam. There are lots of cross references from one list to another so if you get on one blacklist, it is normal to be put on many others automatically.
The trouble is that spammers can pretend to be reputable companies who are then blacklisted by mistake. Or, users computers can be infected and used as a spamming source without them even being aware of it. It is all too easy to get on a blacklist – it is much harder to get off.
6. ACCESS & ARCHIVING
This is becoming a bigger and bigger issue to coin a phrase. E mails used to be mainly text – in small files. Now, they have photos or videos or power point presentations as attachments – huge files.
The ubiquitous use of “threads” where each Reply quotes all of what went before adds to this problem.
All of this material has to be stored, which is one issue, and searched for retrieval, which is another.
Tips:
Be ruthless in filing or deleting.
Be organised in filing – use an Explorer like filing structure.
Archive old stuff, for example by Year.
Talk to support people.
SMTP ERROR CODES
A mail server will reply to every request a client (such as your email program) makes with a return code. This code consists of three numbers - XYZ
The first X generally tells whether the server accepted the command and if it could handle it. The five possible values are:
· 1: The server has accepted the command, but does not yet take action. A confirmation message is required. Currently, this is not used.
· 2: The server has completed the task successfully.
· 3: The server has understood the request, but requires further information to complete it.
· 4: The server has encountered a temporary failure. If the command is repeated without any change, it might be completed. Mail servers can use such temporary failures to keep untrusted senders at bay.
· 5: The server has encountered an error.
The second Y number gives more information. Its six possible values are:
· 0: A syntax error has occurred.
· 1: Indicates a informational reply, for example to a HELP request.
· 2: Refers to the connection status.
· 3 and 4 are unspecified.
· 5: Refers to the status of the mail system as a whole and the mail server in particular.
The last number Z is even more specific and shows more graduations of the mail transfer status. This leads us to the detailed list of ESMTP server response codes, as laid down in RFC 821 and later extensions.
· 211 - A system status message.
· 214 - A help message for a human reader follows.
· 220 - SMTP Service ready.
· 221 - Service closing.
· 250 - Requested action taken and completed. The best message of them all.
· 251 - The recipient is not local to the server, but the server will accept and forward the message.
· 252 - The recipient cannot be VRFYed, but the server accepts the message and attempts delivery.
· 354 - Start message input and end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>. This indicates that the server is ready to accept the message itself (after you have told it who it is from and where you want to to go).
· 421 - The service is not available and the connection will be closed.
· 450 - The requested command failed because the user's mailbox was unavailable (for example because it was locked). Try again later.
· 451 - The command has been aborted due to a server error. Not your fault. Maybe let the admin know.
· 452 - The command has been aborted because the server has insufficient system storage.
The following error messages (500-504) usually tell you that your email client is broken. It's probably best to let the program's author know.
· 500 - The server could not recognize the command due to a syntax error.
· 501 - A syntax error was encountered in command arguments.
· 502 - This command is not implemented.
· 503 - The server has encountered a bad sequence of commands.
· 504 - A command parameter is not implemented.
· 550 - The requested command failed because the user's mailbox was unavailable (for example because it was not found, or because the command was rejected for policy reasons).
· 551 - The recipient is not local to the server. The server then gives a forward address to try.
· 552 - The action was aborted due to exceeded storage allocation.
· 553 - The command was aborted because the mailbox name is invalid.
· 554 - The transaction failed. Blame it on the weather.
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