# My incoming email messages are delayed. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2007, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-incoming-email-messages-are-delayed-why/421122 "2007-10-01T06:18:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-incoming-email-messages-are-delayed-why/421122/1 "2007-10-01T06:18:37Z")
Can someone wise in the ways of email, or just generally wise, help me figure out what might be causing me to receive messages several hours late? Things to note: [ul][li]It’s not happening _all_ the time – which is good, of course, but it’s also bad because I know such irregular occurences are hard to figure out. [/li][li]It has only occured over the past several months. Perhaps notably, in this time I’ve moved to a new computer w/Vista and am using Norton, the latter of which may be the culprit right there.[/li][li]My host also has SpamAssassin enabled.[/li][li]My ISP is Verizon/Yahoo DSL. [/li][li]There’s nothing consistent about the ISPs of the senders whose messages sometimes get delayed – one might use AOL, another uses a tiny ISP called taconic, and so on. [/li][li]There’s usually nothing in the delayed messages that would be flagged as spam – no attachments, images, HTML other than very basic (e.g. bold/italic/colors) stuff.[/li][li]I have my own website/domain, and thus my POP3 incoming server is my domain, hosted by HostingMatters. This host is excellent and generally trouble-free, FWIW.[/ul][/li] I know it might not be possible for you guys to exactly pinpoint the problem – I’m just wondering whether y’all think this might be an issue with my ISP, my webhost, or my computer. This way I know whom to bug about this. 🙂 If it helps, here’s a header from an example message that was delayed. The message was sent at 4:28PM EST. I didn’t receive it until 11:53PM EST. Of course, relevant identifying info has been redacted. For my email address I’m using “[choie@choiesdomain.com](mailto:choie@choiesdomain.com),” which isn’t real. > [@](#): > > Return-path: \ > Envelope-to: [choie@choiesdomain.com](mailto:choie@choiesdomain.com) > Delivery-date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 **23:53:40** -0400 > Received: from [63.247.xxx.xxx] (port=34126 [helo=helios.hmdnsgroup.com](http://helo=helios.hmdnsgroup.com)) > by [daphne.hmdnsgroup.com](http://daphne.hmdnsgroup.com) with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) > (Exim 4.68) > (envelope-from \) > id 1IbMSC-0008JP-FR > for [choie@choiesdomain.com](mailto:choie@choiesdomain.com); Fri, 28 Sep 2007 **16:28:52** -0400 > Received: from [dsl-216-227-xxx-xx.taconic.net](http://dsl-216-227-xxx-xx.taconic.net) ([216.227.xxx.xx]:50675 helo=[10.0.0.4]) > by [helios.hmdnsgroup.com](http://helios.hmdnsgroup.com) with esmtpa (Exim 4.66) > (envelope-from \) > id 1IbMPY-0006yw-LQ; Fri, 28 Sep 2007 **16:26:09** -0400 > User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/11.3.6.070618 > Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:28:39 -0400 > Subject: FW: After Conference On-line Survey > From: xxxxx \ > To: choie \ > Message-ID: \ > Thread-Topic: After Conference On-line Survey > Thread-Index: Acf7mdgtvSxR/xD3SdO+wwg7S8uGWgGdE79M > In-Reply-To: \<005b01c7fb99$d9e3c6e0$0500000a@xxxxxLaptop\> > Mime-version: 1.0 > Content-type: multipart/alternative; > boundary=“B\_3273841722\_5510557” > X-HMDNSGroup-MailScanner: Found to be clean, Found to be clean > X-HMDNSGroup-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (not cached, > score=-3.002, required 5, ALL\_TRUSTED -1.80, BAYES\_00 -2.60, > HTML\_MESSAGE 0.00, MIME\_QP\_LONG\_LINE 1.40), not spam, SpamAssassin (cached, > score=1.498, required 5, BAYES\_50 0.00, HTML\_MESSAGE 0.00, > MIME\_QP\_LONG\_LINE 1.40, RDNS\_NONE 0.10) > X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report > X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - [helios.hmdnsgroup.com](http://helios.hmdnsgroup.com) > X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - [choiesdomain.com](http://choiesdomain.com) > X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12] > X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - [xxxxxx.com](http://xxxxxx.com) > X-HMDNSGroup-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information > X-HMDNSGroup-MailScanner-SpamScore: s > X-HMDNSGroup-MailScanner-From: [xxxxx@xxxxxx.com](mailto:xxxxx@xxxxxx.com) > X-MSK: BYS=0.000000,RUL=0.000000 Whew. Anyone have any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-incoming-email-messages-are-delayed-why/421122/2 "2007-10-01T07:25:15Z")
It’s just likely that it has taken almost 7 hours to be processed by your isp’s mail queue. SMTP email is not instant or point-to-point - it was never intended to be such and the protocol is designed around unreliable connections and queued up hosts. Sometimes ISP email servers have lots of traffic to deal with (most of it spam) so email gets queued up and takes a few hour to get through. Sometimes they have underpowered email servers, too. Contact your ISP, but if this only happens occasionally, don’t expect too much of a response. It’s just how email works. Si ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-incoming-email-messages-are-delayed-why/421122/3 "2007-10-01T07:41:28Z")
> [@si\_blakeley](#): > > Contact your ISP, but if this only happens occasionally, don’t expect too much of a response. It’s just how email works. Thanks! (Ironic, but this notification I got instantly!) So you think it’s most likely an ISP issue? Oy that was my least favorite possibility, because … Verizon isn’t likely to be that helpful. What with being a huge conglomerate and all. You’re definitely right about it being how email works, and normally I’d figure “yeah, the system’s not perfect,” but these delays have affected two or three messages a day over the past few months. It’s getting ridiculous when I check my email inbox (Windows Mail, btw) and suddenly a ‘new’ message will appear among my list of messages from several hours ago, which of course have already been read. It’s worrisome, especially since this is my work-related email and my clients get pissy if I don’t respond in a timely manner. (Also it’s “gaslighting” me, because now when I see an unread message from several hours ago, I have to wonder whether I’m losing my marbles and forgot to read it, or whether it’s yet another time traveler that I just received now!) ---
**Author:** ![Racer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@Racer1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Racer1)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-incoming-email-messages-are-delayed-why/421122/4 "2007-10-01T12:01:32Z")
[QUOTE=choie] I have my own website/domain, and thus my POP3 incoming server is my domain, hosted by HostingMatters. This host is excellent and generally trouble-free, FWIW [/QUOTE] In many setups like the above, the hoster will provide you with some kind of webmail access that will allow you to browse to **[mail.choiesdomain.com](http://mail.choiesdomain.com)** (or some such), and check your email directly on their server without downloading it via POP3. Seems to me that this would allow you to send some test emails and ascertain if the issue is with your host or with your local computer (thus ruling out Vista/Norton, etc). For example, if the emails are sitting there in webmail but not coming down when you run Outlook, chances are it’s your machine (or ISP, though less likely). If not, it sounds like your host (who is presumibly controlling the flow of email to the account you hold with them). If the issue is with your host, I’d bet it’s to do with the spam/virus checking, like **si\_blakeley** suggests.