Mail delays, but only when sent through forms/scripts

c4therine · 30th August 2004

Hello kind people of the hosting world,

Not sure if this is the best place to ask this question...

We have an online store using oscommerce (PHP) on Clara Host's Soho package.

Sometimes order notification e-mails come instantly, and sometimes they'll take up to a week.

Same with a PHP form I was playing with last night, 7 tests came through within 10 minutes, and the rest still aren't here.

When I write myself a message from Outlook it always comes right away in my inbox.

Has any one here had a similar experience, or know what could be causing this?

Thanks,

Cat

c4therine · 30th August 2004

Here's a quick update, I am sending the form to a different mail account, and it comes through instantly.

But that mail account is on an identical package at Soho.

So why would one mail delivery system be intermittent, and another regular, if they are on the same server? Or am I looking at this the wrong way?

Cheers

racksense · 30th August 2004

Are both destination mailboxes hosted with Clara? Or only the 2nd test account?

If the recipient account you are having trouble with, is external to Clara, I would guess that Clara's mail system is having intermittent trouble connecting to the provider, and then queuing the mail, and then taking a while to re-try delivery.

It sounds odd, I would ask Clara to look into it and see if they can see why the mail is being delayed.

c4therine · 30th August 2004

Hi Paul,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul-Xensia

Are both destination mailboxes hosted with Clara? Or only the 2nd test account?

Both recipient accounts are at Clara, on identical hosting accounts, and the form is hosted on Clara.

It is very odd, yes I'll try calling them.

Cat

racksense · 30th August 2004

Definitely the way forward.. as both sender and recipient are on Clara's network, then they shouldn't be able to try and fob you off.

If you can, have a look at one of the delayed messages. You should be able to have a look at the message headers, there will be Received: lines with time stamp, you can use those as evidence to show where the mail got stuck and how long for.

c4therine · 30th August 2004

Thanks, will look at message header on the delayed mail when it comes in.

Clara's closed for bank holiday, and so will my kitchen be for tea tonight if I don't
get to the shops before closing time!

:-)

pelinor · 30th August 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4therine

Thanks, will look at message header on the delayed mail when it comes in.

Might be an issue sending mail from an anonymous account - what's in the from part of the email? If it's anonymous@server.com (automatically set by the script) I find these messages take longer to deliver...

blacknight · 4th October 2004

If you could provide a sample header it would make it a lot easier to analyse your situation.