Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!crackers!m2c!wpi.WPI.EDU!wpi!aej From: aej@manyjars.WPI.EDU (Allan E Johannesen) Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers Subject: Re: Message Deferred Message-ID: Date: 31 Dec 90 19:10:29 GMT References: Sender: news@wpi.WPI.EDU (News) Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609-2280 Lines: 25 In-Reply-To: richb@railnet.UUCP's message of 28 Dec 90 18:58:10 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: manyjars.wpi.edu On 28 Dec 90 18:58:10 GMT, richb@railnet.UUCP (Richard Banks) said: richb> I was trying to send to my account at another site, a few days later, richb> the letter bounced with the explaination that it had been deferred. richb> What exactly does that mean, and what would cause that to happen. On our system, UNIX 4.3 with Berkeley sendmail 5.65, Internet links only, messages are marked deferred if they are not successfully delivered and the mailing process determines that it may be successfully delivered on future retry. e.g. A network link was down so the connection attempt timed out. The remote host load was too high so it refused connection at the time. The remote host was "slow" so our mailer decided that it was dead. The remote host was down. In our configuration, deferred messages are retried hourly, with a three day delay before "bouncing" a message as undeliverable. You will have to ask your system administrator (or the postmaster at the relay point, if it was returned from some other location "part way" to your destination) if you want more information.