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My business has a small office of 5 computers and our email access is vital on a daily basis as we receive orders and other important details, from a range of companies.
The problem started a couple of months ago when for some reason we weren't receiving emails for around 2 or 3 hours then they all come flying in together later in the day, now it's becoming more regular (almost every day) and for longer periods of time. I have spent too much of my time looking into this problem which is conflicting with my work, so far I have:
- Spoken to the company that hosts our domain, in turn they have contacted the "hosting" company to check for discrepancies with the server, errors between sender to server to us, the white list...nothing appears to be wrong.
- Spoken to my ISP, no issues with the internet, no result.
- Checked the server settings incoming and outgoing, there is definitely no issue there as at some point we do receive the emails.
- Checked for sufficient storage on the server.
I have never come across anything like it, generally errors sending and receiving can be resolved without a problem and being an IT professional I find this very annoying, and I will not believe that this is any trafficking issue as we haven't had this problem for years.
I am in the middle of moving to a new premises with new computers, new ISP and all the rest, but until the move date this needs to be fixed, it's creating serious issues. Any suggestions would highly be appreciated. Please let me know if you require additional information.
EDIT: There are no rules set in the account settings, the OWA doesn't hold the emails. Another company I work alongside with (local) has had a similar problem but on rarer occasions.
Arazio
Posted 2016-02-04T12:25:06.213
Reputation: 101
Clearly sounds like a problem outside of your control... you're receiving emails at some point so 1) nothing wrong with software, 2) nothing wrong with your Internet, 3) Internet works so ISP not at fault, 4) your email and domain is hosted with "A" company -> sounds like they've got some issues that they're not telling you... – Kinnectus – 2016-02-04T13:28:12.087
The hosting company is local and I maintain good communication with them and have spent hours trying to help. Today this problem occurred for four hours and the emails have just flooded in... – Arazio – 2016-02-04T13:46:50.880
Do you run an in-house email server such as Exchange? – Kinnectus – 2016-02-04T14:01:45.553
No, it's a third party – Arazio – 2016-02-04T14:12:22.547
I'm seriously leading this to be an issue with your email provider... even your "webmail" (OWA) doesn't show your emails so it's not a client issue (Outlook)... if they're telling you it's not their problem ask them to come out and witness the problem (and show them OWA, too)... – Kinnectus – 2016-02-04T14:22:05.037
When I asked them to come out earlier they said it's useless, thanks for your help I'll make sure they come and witness the problem when it occurs again – Arazio – 2016-02-04T14:28:32.653
Arm yourself with as much evidence of the problem as you can. Even show them your emails not in your mailbox on a non-work device (such as your personal computer using OWA). – Kinnectus – 2016-02-04T14:32:14.557
Mails that cannot be delivered will keep on trying until it eventually delivers or untill the timeout has been reached (in most cases 2 or 3 days). This means that every time a mail is offered to the recipient mail server and it's not accepted, the next try time will increase. You can witness this behavior when mails start to come in gradually. Mails which have been sent last (f.e. 5 minutes before the problem resolves itself, will get to you quicker than mails sent 3 hours ago). Try to capture that behavior, it's good evidence towards you mail hoster. – Terry – 2016-02-04T14:55:16.567
I have access to the mail server's activity and each and every email has been accepted, but that kind of behavior is relative, we do tend to receive the mail in that pattern, thanks for the advice – Arazio – 2016-02-04T15:41:38.923
If you have access to the server and can see the mails coming in, ate their times what you'd expect, or are they stamped around the time you receive them? Again, more evidence. – Kinnectus – 2016-02-04T17:01:07.027
Thanks again, I've just taken a look on the server again and there are an unusual amount of bounce's – Arazio – 2016-02-05T09:35:00.327