Email going AWOL

[ornamentlady]

My apologies if I have posted this to the wrong forum. Email addressed to our domain is forwarded to our email address with our ISP. About once a week a bunch of email goes AWOL for several hours. I'm trying to determine if the problem is with our web host or our ISP. I can see from the headers the time lapse but I don't know how to tell why it occurs. Headers from one of these emails follow;

Return-Path: <www@cancart.net>
Received: from priv-edmwaa11.telusplanet.net ([209.5.212.47])
by priv-edmwes50.telusplanet.net
(InterMail vM.7.05.01.01 201-2174-106-103-20060222) with ESMTP
id <20061219234917.GRFK11034.priv-edmwes50.telusplanet.net@priv-edmwaa11.telusplanet.net>
for <hmmarin@telus.net>; Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:49:17 -0700
Received: from www.gdcdev.com (www.gdcdev.com [209.5.212.47])
by priv-edmwaa11.telusplanet.net (BorderWare MXtreme Infinity Mail Firewall) with ESMTP id 09UVC0S774
for <hmmarin@telus.net>; Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:49:16 -0700 (MST)
Received: from www.cancart.net ([209.5.212.39]) by www.gdcdev.com
(Post.Office MTA v3.6 release 102 ID# 1001-63362U200L110S0V36)
with ESMTP id com for <marg@treetreasurescanada.com>;
Tue, 19 Dec 2006 12:22:21 -0500
Received: from www.cancart.net ([127.0.0.1]) by www.cancart.net
(Post.Office MTA v3.6.3 release 109 ID# 1001-51241U10L2S100V36)
with SMTP id net for <marg@treetreasurescanada.com>;
Tue, 19 Dec 2006 12:22:20 -0500
Received: from phpmailer ([207.6.50.156])
by www.cancart.net with HTTPS (PHPMailer);
Tue, 19 Dec 2006 12:22:20 -0500

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I would appreciate any input into where the problem lies, or better yet, learn how to figure it out myself. Thank you.

[optimalwebsite]

Try googling your ISP or hosting company with "email problem" or similar and see what comes up.... chances are others will have had the same problem and will have posted somewhere online....

[ornamentlady]

optimalwebsite,

Thank you for your suggestion. I tried but it shed no light on the problem.

[Ne0]

I'm not sure what exactly your using there for your email client... but it looks like it's bouncing back off of your local 127.0.0.1 (home) PC???

Have you thought about setting up some alias' in Gmail and using that as a hub for your website?

[ornamentlady]

NeO,

Thank you for the Gmail suggestion. I have thought of trying something like that but was hoping that somehow I could find out what is causing the problem. We had the same problem when we were with a different ISP. That makes me think that it is a strange coincidence or that the problem is with our web host. If the problem lies with our host, using Gmail won't solve the problem.

We use Outlook Express and our ISP is Telus (the telusplanet addresses). Our web site host is CanadaCart which is owned by GDC Development so the cancart and the gdcdev addresses are our web host.

I don't know if that info is at all helpful.

[DrTandem1]

Does your host allow you to forward to two different email addresses? If so, create a Hotmail or Yahoo account and also forward the email there. If it goes missing from both your ISP and the added email account, then the problem is with your host. If it only fails towards your Outlook client, the problem is with your ISP.

If your host does not allow more than one forwarding address per email alias, then just switch the forwarding to a Hotmail or Yahoo account and see, if the trouble still continues. If it does, the trouble is probably your host. If it doesn't, then it is your ISP.

[wige]

Something doesn't look right in the headers you posted, specifically the loopback address mentioned above (127.0.0.1) which may just indicated that the e-mail is going from one program on the server to another, or it may mean that the program is looping...

What is the exact process that e-mail follows to get to you? From your description, is it going to an SMTP server on your web server, which then forwards the message to your ISP?

If the e-mail is passing through your web server then going to your ISP, how much control do you have over the server (shared or dedicated)? Checking the logs for the e-mail system would give you an idea of the cause of the delay. It may be losing contact with the ISP e-mail server, the ISP may be refusing the connections, the e-mail may be delayed before reaching your web server...

[ornamentlady]

DrTandem1, Thank you, I like your idea of having the mail forwarded to both our ISP and Hotmail or Yahoo. I emailed our web host to see if it can be done but, as yet, haven't heard back.

wige, Thank you for your response. I'm out of my element here but my understanding is that our mail goes to an SMTP server with our web host and they then forward the message to our ISP. We have no control over the server. In whose logs would the information be found? Our web host or our ISP? (I'm assuming our logs would show only what transpires between us and our ISP.)

Note: Change that previous statement, "I'm out of my element here.." to "I'm completely and utterly out of my element here..."

[wige]

In that case, forget about the logs, I doubt either company will show you the log files for the e-mail server.
The headers that you posted, was that from an e-mail you sent to yourself? I am trying to get a handle on the route the message took, and making some guesses what is happening at each step....

207.6.50.156 > www.cancart.net @ 21:22:20 GMT
(The sender sends the message to his/her ISP)
www.cancart.net > www.cancart.net @ 21:22:20 GMT
(The sender's ISP passes the message through their network)
www.cancart.net > www.gdcdev.com @ 21:22:21 GMT
(The sender's ISP sends the message to your host)
www.gdcdev.com > priv-edmwaa11.telusplanet.net @ 23:49:16 GMT
(TWO HOURS LATER your ISP(?) gets the message, addressed to your real e-mail address)
priv-edmwaa11.telusplanet.net > priv-edmwes50.telusplanet.net @ 23:49:17 GMT
(Your ISP passes the message to your local mailserver)

So a few questions, assuming you sent this e-mail to yourself....
Was the e-mail written in a web based webmail type interface or did you send it from the web server or your own computer?
What is your domain name?
Is cancart.net your ISP or hosting company?
What about telusplanet.net?

[ornamentlady]

Wige, The email in question is generated through our web site to let our customer know that their order is complete. So it is web based. Our web site host is Canada Cart, a division of GDCDev. Essentially the cancart and gdcdev addresses are our web host. Our domain is www.treetreasurescanada.com and the email address we use for business is marg@treetreasurescanada. com. All the mail to marg@treetreasurescanada. com is forwarded to our ISP address which is hmmarin@telus .net . The telusplanet address would be our ISP.

Hopefully we can soon figure out what is going on. The suggestion from DrTandem1 is a go. Our web host will forward all mail to our ISP address and a Hotmail address. And our web host is willing to provide us with log info. So now, it's a case of waiting until some more email goes AWOL and comparing headers and/or logs. While my problem probably isn't huge in the way of general interest, I will post the outcome and whatever knowledge i can glean from the process. Thank you all.