4 ms·
smtp will eventually give up retrying, and if you're not willing to "always" respond within a few hours, you're going to lose emails.
by uhhhhhhh 9y ago
smtp will eventually give up retrying, and if you're not willing to "always" respond within a few hours, you're going to lose emails.
- icebraining 9y agoIs there any server with such a short default? The RFC recommends at least 4-5 days.
- yosamino 9y agoWell, yeah... but if you have any people actually using the server, they will start calling you around day One asking about their mail. At least if the the mail get's bounced after a few hours only, they get some sort of feedback, instead of being left wondering.
- ams6110 9y agoTo be fair, the post is about running your own email server. But yes, if you're running one for a business or other group of people, things become more complicated and demanding.
- uhhhhhhh 9y ago24-72 hours is common from my experience, but that likely varies widely and depends on volume and resources. If you're running this in the cloud and properly automated everything, and its not a billing issue, responding and fixing things could be as simple as a few hours. If you're running your own physical machine, repair times for hardware issues can be days. If you're on vacation for a week or longer, and are making a concerted effort to step away from technology and lines of communication, or worse hit by a small bus and in the hospital for any length of time, you may not be aware of issues for some time.
- jlgaddis 9y agoI've seen Exchange bounce an email after receiving a 450 on the first attempt, although it's quite possible that was due to clueless Exchange admins. Postfix default is 2d, Exim 3d, and sendmail 5d, last I knew.
- jenkstom 9y agoThe default is 72 hours. Not to say that all SMTP servers everywhere use it, but it's the norm.