The two SMTP servers ...

rakhesh · 13 Dec 2002, 09:28 PM

Hi,

I had changed my emailaddress on the EMD forum, and got a confirmation mail from EMD. My domain is hosted at fastmail, and so I expected the mail to come in instantaneously. Surprisingly however, the mail took about 5 mins to come in.

Once I got the mail, I checked its headers to see where a problem could have occured. This particular line caught my attention:

Quote:

Received: from [64.21.139.178] (helo=genki.genkiproductions.com)
by smtp.eu.fastmail.fm with esmtp (Exim 4.11)
id 18MpX5-0004UW-00
for rakhesh[at]twofriends.org; Fri, 13 Dec 2002 13:07:11 +0000

For some reason, my mail had gone to smtp.eu, instead of smtp.us. Thereupon, I checked the DNS settings for my domain:

Quote:

twofriends.org 1 NS ns1.everydns.net 86400s
twofriends.org 1 NS ns2.everydns.net 86400s
twofriends.org 1 NS ns3.everydns.net 86400s
twofriends.org 1 NS ns4.everydns.net 86400s
twofriends.org 1 MX preference: 0
exchange: smtp.us.messagingengine.com
86400s
twofriends.org 1 MX preference: 5
exchange: smtp.eu.messagingengine.com
86400s

As you can see, smtp.us is the mailserver with a higher preference. Why then did my mail get routed to smtp.eu? Is smtp.us down for some reason? OR was it a temporary thing?

Another doubt: Are smtp.us and smtp.eu identical in all respects? As in, in terms of speed, software etc? Or is smtp.eu necessarily slower than smtp.us? (Basically, is there any reason why my mail should come slower just because it got handled by smtp.eu; barring the possibility that there is a huge mail queue at smtp.eu?)

I hope I expressed myself clearly.

Thanks,
Rakhesh

Onno · 13 Dec 2002, 10:51 PM

One of the many DNS server of zoneedit has for some reason cached old information, and is still sending stuff to the old IP. Because of this very rarely some mail will end up at smtp.eu, which is fine, cause that's what it's there for.

smtp.eu is a very different server on a different system in a different continent. This ensures we're unlikely to be bitten by the same bug on both smtp.us and smtp.eu, amongst other things. smtp.eu may be a little slower than us, I don't really have insight in that.

Either way, in a few hours your mail will go through smtp.us again as per normal.

nikyboy · 13 Dec 2002, 11:08 PM

I had one single email sent to my hosted domain name go via the EU SMTP server early this morning GMT when all previous messages went via the US SMTP server. The message in question took 14 minutes to arrive in my inbox once the EU SMTP server received it. My hosted domain is registered with GoDaddy.

All emails subsequently sent to my hosted domain have gone via the US SMTP server in the usual quick time.

Just thought I'd add this to the thread.

lmg · 14 Dec 2002, 03:27 AM

Quote:

smtp.eu is a very different server on a different system in a different continent. This ensures we're unlikely to be bitten by the same bug on both smtp.us and smtp.eu, amongst other things.

Oh yeah? Well if an asteroid impacts in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean it could take out both the NYC server and the European server. Then how will we get our email?

mrd19 · 14 Dec 2002, 03:41 AM

It seems that some of the FastMail domains (not just users' custom domains) are serviced by zoneedit's nameservers (e.g. eml.cc.) Why is this? I would think that putting all of the FastMail domains on the messagingengine.com nameservers would provide more reliability. As far as zoneedit's reliability is concerned, maybe we've learned today that you get what you pay for...

<EDIT> Nevermind; foot in mouth. EML.CC is the only FM domain on zoneedit. MX record situation is fixed now. My bad for using such a weird TLD. </EDIT>

**psalzer** · 14 Dec 2002, 04:29 AM

They use Zonedit's paid services, not a free service.

14 Dec 2002, 03:41 AM	#5
mrd19 Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Boston Posts: 84	FM domains that use Zoneedit It seems that some of the FastMail domains (not just users' custom domains) are serviced by zoneedit's nameservers (e.g. eml.cc.) Why is this? I would think that putting all of the FastMail domains on the messagingengine.com nameservers would provide more reliability. As far as zoneedit's reliability is concerned, maybe we've learned today that you get what you pay for... <EDIT> Nevermind; foot in mouth. EML.CC is the only FM domain on zoneedit. MX record situation is fixed now. My bad for using such a weird TLD. </EDIT> Last edited by mrd19 : 14 Dec 2002 at 06:54 AM.

13 Dec 2002, 10:51 PM	#2
Onno Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 753	One of the many DNS server of zoneedit has for some reason cached old information, and is still sending stuff to the old IP. Because of this very rarely some mail will end up at smtp.eu, which is fine, cause that's what it's there for. smtp.eu is a very different server on a different system in a different continent. This ensures we're unlikely to be bitten by the same bug on both smtp.us and smtp.eu, amongst other things. smtp.eu may be a little slower than us, I don't really have insight in that. Either way, in a few hours your mail will go through smtp.us again as per normal.

13 Dec 2002, 11:08 PM	#3
nikyboy Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: London, England Posts: 72	I had one single email sent to my hosted domain name go via the EU SMTP server early this morning GMT when all previous messages went via the US SMTP server. The message in question took 14 minutes to arrive in my inbox once the EU SMTP server received it. My hosted domain is registered with GoDaddy. All emails subsequently sent to my hosted domain have gone via the US SMTP server in the usual quick time. Just thought I'd add this to the thread.

14 Dec 2002, 04:29 AM	#6
psalzer Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 2,654	They use Zonedit's paid services, not a free service.