Question

Why all the messages in C:\Inetpub\mailroot\Queue?

Asked by: jjones2002

I am running Windows server 2003 sp2 and using the IIS- SMTP service to send email.  Last time we sent out emails it's was around 30000 and for some reason 6800 of those are stuck in the C:\Inetpub\mailroot\Queue folder.  How do i figure out why those got stuck in this folder, how do i get them sent out, and how can i prevent this from happening in the future?

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Asked On
2007-11-15 at 08:37:03ID22963322
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stuck

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Email Servers

,

Microsoft IIS Web Server

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Answers

 

by: chaferPosted on 2007-11-15 at 08:47:13ID: 20290359

Here is one possibility.  When mail ends up in the badmail queue, it means that it was undeliverable to a recepient in your domain, but notice could also not be sent back to the sender.  If you are sending 30,000 e-mails and it is not a carefully vetted list, you may have a lot of bad addresses.  Some of these servers will then send notice back to you.  Many people sending out to a large list use an address for sending that will not receive a reply.  If this is the case, these non-delivery notices will return to your domain, but will have nowhere to go, thus they end up in the badmail queues.

 

by: jjones2002Posted on 2007-11-15 at 09:09:26ID: 20290553

HI - thanks for the comment - I agree that we should get some bouncebacks, but not 1/5 of the emails we send out.  That seems way too high a number, especially since these are customers who have signed up with us and put in their own correct email addresses.
I'm wondering whether it's an issue with the email address we are sending these from.
This server is not located on our LAN and has a different ip address than that of the mail server associated with the email address that all these 30000 emails come from.
Should email you are sending come from the domain associated with the ip address of that server in DNS records?

 

by: chaferPosted on 2007-11-15 at 09:28:48ID: 20290684

Your sending server could be a problem.  For example, if it has no reverse DNS record, all the large ISPs will reject your e-mail and you'll end up with a lot of bounce backs.  As to sending from a different domain, technically this is not a violation of the rules for DNS.  However, many ISPs block e-mail for this reason even though it is technically valid.
Another possibility is that if the server being used for sending is sending a lot of other people's e-mail as well, the IP address could be blacklisted.  Even though it is not your specific e-mail causing it, the fact that the address is blacklisted can cause a lot of bouncebacks.  Whatever the reason, it rally does sound like the root cause is undeliverable bouncebacks.

 

by: jjones2002Posted on 2007-11-15 at 11:48:32ID: 20291782

Ok - so i setup an mx record for the domain that the points to the server that is sending the emails and i changed the fqdn in the Delivery properties for the sending smtp server to reflect that mx record.  Was that the right thing to do?  Should i put the domain only there?
I don't see the queue shrinking at all though - how do i get those emails that are stuck sent out?

We are also setting up a reverse DNS entry - is that the right thing to do in this case?

 

by: jjones2002Posted on 2008-02-05 at 08:07:13ID: 31428150

After implementing a reverse DNS record our bounce backs dropped by a large percentage, we do still get bounce backs caused by sending email from a email address that is associated with a different server than the one sending.

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