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On Thursday 31 May 2007 09:28:50 Kim Geiger wrote:
> We run our own mail server.   Recently, one user in particular has failed
> to receive email from a Hotmail and an AOL address.  Both were replies to
> mail from her, so presumably the addressing was correct.  Logs show lots of
> other mail from Hotmail and AOL, but nothing from the address of this
> user's correspondents--no blocks, no refusals, nothing.
>
> Can anyone think of a reason why this might be happening?  It's hard to
> diagnose a non-event...  I have a vague recollection of AOL having some
> issue with mail from MSU, but that was a while ago and wasn't with them
> sending to us, but of us to them.
>
> Anyway, thanks for any ideas.

Unfortunately, this might just be random happenings because of overloaded
bad smtp machines.  I have seen exactly this with Yahoo.  The receiving 
system I know was fine, but every once in a while a Yahoo originated email
juts goes away.  It's been going on for at least a year now.  One of the users
of the system thinks thats just the way email is, things get lost.  In this
case he seems to be right.

I'm also noticing more and more weird behavior in email systems in
general.  One nice trick is that my address at various places doesn't
seem to exist when someone sends mail to it.  I've seen the bounce
messages.  People who administer the receiving systems can't
explain it (though they don't use sendmail, which I am convinced is
among the best mailers, despite its own quirks).

Have you been able to get anything like a bounce message from
the person trying to send mail to that person?

Let us know if you find anything.  Diagnosing the bizarre is a useful
talent these days.

--STeve Andre'
Political Science