Habitat said:
My e-mails to distribution lists I have been faithfully using for years have
suddenly started getting stuck in my outbox. I've turned off my firewall
just like I always have, but to no avail. The only thing changed is I
updated my internet security software, but tech support has looked into it
and says the security suite is not causing the problem.
And what are the sizes of these stuck e-mails? Do they exceed the quota
for your e-mail service regarding maximum size of messages? Remember to
look at the Size column in the Drafts folder (you'll have to save a
draft to see one in that folder) to determine what is the actual size of
the e-mail that will get sent. When you attach files, they will bloat
by 137%, or far more, due to encoding them into a long text string
(everything e-mail gets sent as text, including attachments [inline or
attached disposition], HTML, RTF, etc). Could be you are trying to send
an over-sized message.
Also check what is the mail poll interval that you configured in
Outlook. If the interval is too short, you could end up stepping atop
an existing mail session (aborting it) because the next scheduled mail
session started. If you are receiving or sending large-sized e-mails,
it takes longer for the transmission of that traffic. You don't get the
full speed of your network connection when connecting to e-mail servers.
You get the speed that the server decides to give you. With the high
load and resources needed for e-mail transactions, the servers typically
throttle the bandwidth to provide responsiveness to a large number of
concurrent mail sessions. So data transfer via e-mail (with their
throttling) is slower than you'll get with web servers (which employ
their own throttling) and that is slower than you get with your own
servers (where you probably don't throttle their connections lower than
the rates attainable by the hardware). If you are polling at 1 or 5
minute intervals then expect some of your mail sessions to get aborted
(without error) because you stepped on them with the next mail session.
Don't use overly short mail poll intervals. It is rude to the e-mail
provider because it is likely that you generate far more mail polls than
would qualify for the level of traffic to your mailbox. The mail poll
interval should be around 10 minutes, or longer (especially if you
normally receive or send large-sized e-mails). You want the mail poll
interval to be longer than not just your typical mail session to
transfer e-mail traffic up and down but also to encompass the occasional
receive or send of really big e-mails (several of them up to the max
size allowed by the quotas established by your e-mail provider).
Could be the fault of whatever unidentified anti-virus program you are
using on your host. Have you tried disabling its superflous e-mail
scanner? Sometimes that is not sufficient because e-mail traffic will
still pass through their transparent proxy (but no longer be
interrogated). You have to uninstall the security suite and then do a
*custom* install where you elect to NOT include their e-mail scanner
component. Some AV products do not interrogate on-the-fly the e-mail
traffic (byte by byte). Instead they pretend to be the mail server to
the e-mail client and accept all of the message. This means the e-mail
client gets an +OK status so it assumes the message got accepted okay
(by the real mail server but which was really the pretend mail server).
The AV program then inspects the entire message. Then the AV program
pretends to be the client and connects to the real mail server to
hopefully complete the transmission of your e-mail to the real mail
server. However, if there is a failure in the AV program acting as
client in its mail session with the server, your e-mail client will
never know about it, plus the AV program probably never alerts you to
the failed mail session. You have to [enable and] go look at the AV
program's logs to see the failure but most users won't know to look
there, especially since they never got an alert about the failure from
the AV program. So the e-mail gets sent okay by the e-mail client (but
not to the real mail server) but disappears into the bowels of the AV
program's proxy without the user knowing about it. So get their AV
program's e-mail scanner out of the way.
Note for your future posts that details are very important so
respondents don't have to waste time digging out the details from you a
post at a time or making guesses or generic responses. Details would
include which version of Outlook, which version of Windows, what type of
e-mail account(s) (POP, IMAP, HTTP/Deltasync with add-on, Exchange), how
many accounts are defined in Outlook, type of network connection (dial-
up, DSL, cable), security products installed (anti-virus, anti-spam,
firewall, HIPS, filtering proxies, or anything that may interrogate your
e-mail traffic), or anything else that you know about your setup so we
also know it and can respond with a more focused answer.
--- Posting Hints ---
ALWAYS REVIEW your message before submitting it. You want someone OTHER
than yourself to understand your post. Also remember that no one here
is looking over your shoulder to see at what you are pointing. If you
don't well explain your situation by providing the DETAILS that you
already know, don't expect others to know what is your situation.
Explain YOUR computing environment and just what actions you take to
reproduce the problem.
Often you get just one chance per potential respondent to elicit a reply
from them. If they skip your post because you gave them nothing to go
on (no details, no versions, no OS, no context) then they will usually
move on to the next post and never return to yours.
What is Usenet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsgroups
http://www.masonicinfo.com/newsgroups.htm
http://www.mcfedries.com/Ramblings/usenet-primer.asp
When using a webnews-for-dummies interface (e.g., Microsoft's
Communities, Google Groups, or a leech site using a forum-to-Usenet
proxy), those are gateways to Usenet. Despite the pretense of a forum,
you are participating in a newsgroup (aka Usenet).
How to post to newsgroups:
http://66.39.69.143/goodpost.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
http://users.tpg.com.au/bzyhjr/liszt.html
http://www.mugsy.org/asa_faq/getting_along/usenet.shtml
Regarding error or status messages:
- Do NOT omit the message.
- Do NOT describe the message.
- Do NOT summarize the message.
- Do NOT paraphrase the message.
- Do NOT truncate the message.
- Do show the ENTIRE message (but munge or star out personal info,
like your username in an e-mail address but not the domain).
And DETAIL the steps to reproduce the error or problem.
