Lost emails

Did anyone lose any emails from Britain in the last month or so?

Two sent to me didn't arrive.
The person who sent them is a computer expert, so it wasn't his mistake.
He did exactly what he always does.

I blame sunspots or the satellite. Or did xtra have any problems?

XP, Outlook Express. But I don't think it was my computer.

 

Geo, there are no guarantees with email. If something is important you
either should not send it by email or make sure that it is received by
phoning or something. We are so used to it just working that we are
surprised when it doesn't, but really, it's just like paper mail - it
can get lost.

I suspect Yahoo/Xtra though.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

If an e-mail cannot be delivered (by an e-mail server), then it (the
server) will generate a response message back to to the sender -
hopefully with not too much of an esoteric message explaining why.

So if your Brit sender has not got one of the above, then presumably, it
has been delivered.

So... check your Xtra spam (Junk) folder, both locally (Outlook
Express), and online, via Xtra's Webmail (as it may be in there).

 

xtra's email is yahoo, who generally are the problem.

In an ideal world that will happen, but as spammers use those bounces to
deliver spam, most mail servers now are configured by someone smart
enough to not bounce messages that fail SPF.

Its a possibility its in the xtra inaccessable other than webmail spam
folder that 90% of their customers have no idea about, other than that
it just never made it. Like SMS, email is a best effort service with no
easy ability to track what happened since mail servers will usually not
log a whole lot since it would just generate gigs and gigs a day of logs
of spam being discarded by the filter.

 

Yahoo/Xtra is perfectly capable of dropping the email all by itself. It
may have been delivered and then lost by Yahoo/Xtra. I seem to recall a
mention of email problems in the paper recently but I thought that that
was business emails.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

Tell us, apart from the content, what seperates business emails from
persoanl ones, or spam for that matter.

 

There are some e-mails which I receive, which are not addressed to my e-mail
address. Some of them are from people I do not know, spammers excluded. I
ignore them all.

Good start. Increases the chances of a missed delivery.

 

Before Xtra hooked up with Yahoo, I got a phone call from someone with
whom I was working on a project to ask why I hadn't responded to his
emails. In those days, Xtra totally refused to admit any mistakes and
spun a line about it being impossible for emails to be lost.

Later, when I had proof that emails had been lost, they gave me a
hefty credit on my account. Even so, they still refused to acknowledge
that losing emails was not only possible, but obviously a problem -
albeit a rare one.

When Xtra turned over responsibility for email to Yahoo, I experienced
so many problems that I've been subscribed to an independent email
provider ever since (fastmail.net).

Of course Xtra/Yahoo can lose emails.

 

The minimum difference is that businesses have a number that they can
ring to get hold of someone who will care about the problem because that
is their role. While an individual may call the help desk, the help desk
person may try to help the person (and usually does), the help desk
person is not employed to care about it (though many do, so far as the
system lets them).

In addition a business may be provided with dedicated servers or
services and may be provided with logs. Also a higher level of backup of
the mail server may be provided for a business user.

This of course costs the business user big bucks.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

They didn't get any message, and it wasn't delivered.

The spam comes on a page saying Yahoo. Is there another one for xtra? I
googled xtra junk mail

The emails aren't on the Yahoo one. Aren't Yahoo and xtra now the same
firm?

of dropping the email all by itself. It
These are private emails sent from a business address. (The sender owns the
business).


working on a project to ask why I hadn't responded to his

It looks as though they are having a lot of problems. But I'm none the
wiser. He re-sent the emails, so I expect we will just do that when there
is a big gap.

I found this website
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/7588923/No-guarantees-for-YahooXtra-email-service

Thanks to all
Geopelia

Sorry this is pink, the computer has gone mad.

 

Very normal the Internet is not 100% I always keep emails until they
are replied to..

 

Yes, I keep the sent emails in case I have to resend them.

 

Well, technically it was delivered to the email servers, but it wasn't
there when you checked later, so it got lost after it was delivered to
the email servers. Your computer checks in to the Yahoo/Xtra email
servers when you retrieve and read an email.

It works like Post Office boxes do - a letter is sent by someone, sent
through the system to the Post Office box and is then considered
delivered to you. But you don't receive the letter until you have
retrieved it from the PO box.

No, Yahoo runs email servers for Xtra.

As regards the 'private' versus 'business' emails thing, the business
will only get preferential treatment if the business owner has paid for
it. If the emails are private emails sent from a business account then
the sender would have to go through business channels for it to be
investigated. I'd suggest that they would not do that for a private
email sent through a business account.

Sending private emails through a business account could be considered
dubious, but most employers wouldn't care (unless the employee was
running a business through it of course).

Cheers,

Cliff

 

May be its the GCSB that is intercepting your mail, may be they think
that Dot Com is one of your friends. -

 

Did you look?

Try this page - login using your Xtra credentials...

http://www.telecom.co.nz/webmail/

And go to the Spam or Junk folder.

 

Yup. That's where I discovered several hundred legitimate emails Yahoo
had classified as spam. Just one of the reasons I dumped Xtra/Yahoo
and use an independent email provider.

I could also use a free email provider such as Gmail (webmail, POP3,
IMAP & SMTP) and am considering it. From what I'm hearing hear and
elsewhere, Xtra/Yahoo isn't going to be getting any more reliable.

 

Gmail works fine for me. But some people are worried by the security of
their data with Google.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

Thank you. I found that, but the missing emails are not there.

I found a Trend Micro newsletter in the spam though, and marked it Not Spam.

I can't find anything about allowing Trend micro messages. There is an entry
in the index for "allow list" but it only involves blocking messages. Where
do I look for allowing messages please?

 

Ha! I've stuck up for Dot Com in a newsgroup, though I've never met him or
had any dealings with him.
Perhaps there is some government program that picks up all messages about
him.
The Americans are said to read all emails with bomb or gun in them (they
must read this one!)

But I think it's just Yahoo or Xtra making a mistake.
They put a Trend Micro newsletter in the spam file. But the missing emails
are not there.

 

Typically, Spam/Junk folders have a small retention period. Perhaps a
month, or maybe two. I don't know what Xtra's retention period is for
the Junk/Spam folder. And I can't help with the allow bit either - I
haven't visited any of their e-mail accounts on webmail for a couple
years now. Hopefully someone else that uses Xtra (Yahoo) e-mail can
help with the details. It might (should) be possible to even set the
retention period. Perhaps your computer man can remote on and show you?

Could be prudent to check the webmail Junk/Spam folder at least once a
month.