[colug-432] Email slower than snail mail.

[Rob Funk]

On Saturday, May 05, 2012 12:31:37 AM Thomas W. cranston wrote:
> Friday, May 04 2012 11:12:14 PM I just logged in to my ISP and after
> downloading my Gmail I got an email dated May 04 2012 8:34AM.
> 
> I received about 20 emails between 8:34 AM and 3:48 PM. They came in in
> a timely manner.

For email, even within 12 hours should be considered "timely", and I wouldn't 
even consider 15 hours horrible. Email wasn't designed to be instant; it's a 
store-and-forward protocol, and for various reasons that forwarding can be 
delayed.

(This is part of why I get annoyed when someone sends me an email to schedule 
a meeting in 30 minutes.)

> Sometimes I get emails that are days and even a week or more late.

When a receiving mail server is unavailable for some reason (e.g. overloaded, 
graylisting, or just down for maintenance), the sending server should keep 
trying for a few days. It may not try very often though. Few keep trying for a 
whole week before giving up, but they should keep trying for several days. If 
it still can't be delivered after that, the sender should get a "bounce" error 
message.

> I am wondering if this is a Gmail problem, and if anybody else has this
> happening? Could it be a problem w/ my ISP?

Ignoring the clock issues already mentioned, it's always an issue somewhere 
between the machine initially sending the mail and the machine receiving the 
mail. If the sender is using Yahoo Mail and the receiver is using Gmail, then 
the issue is somewhere between Yahoo and Gmail.