Mail from external quicker than internal

[damn]

If I send an email to myself, using my ISP's SMTP server, it gets delivered to my mailbox straight away:

2005-05-02 14:54:46 1DSStW-000Jwm-Db <= [email][email protected][/email] U=mail P=spam-scanned S=6422 [email protected] T="RE: Monday - Day after FA's 11ty billion kw's!" from <[email protected]> for [email][email protected][/email]
2005-05-02 14:54:46 1DSStW-000Jwm-Db => admin <[email protected]> F=<[email protected]> R=virtual_user T=virtual_localdelivery S=6607
2005-05-02 14:54:46 1DSStW-000Jwm-Db Completed

Yet if I send the email to myself via the server where the mail resides on (so mail never leaves the server) it takes ages:

2005-05-02 14:51:03 1DSStZ-000Jwf-DE <= [email][email protected][/email] H=xxx.xxx.xxx.net.au (xxx) [xxx.xxx.xx.xxx] P=esmtp S=14393 T="test" from <[email protected]> for [email][email protected][/email]
2005-05-02 14:54:52 1DSStZ-000Jwf-DE => admin <[email protected]> F=<[email protected]> R=spamcheck_director T=spamcheck S=14455
2005-05-02 14:54:52 1DSStZ-000Jwf-DE Completed

Why is that? Does Exim batch internal stuff? Where does it sit for those approx 3 minutes?

 

[jmstacey]

It might be because it's doing a loop, but I'm not the mail expert.
At least my servers don't like sending mail to themselves.

Is there that same delay when sending inbetween different accounts on the same server instead of to yourself?

3 minute delay isn't that bad, it's not the end of the world, I mean its definately faster than postal.

 

[damn]

Is there that same delay when sending inbetween different accounts on the same server instead of to yourself?

Yes - I have customers who send mail to each other, and have mail.theirdomain.com as both SMTP & POP3 servers - same delay exists.

3 minute delay isn't that bad, it's not the end of the world, I mean its definately faster than postal.

Too true, the reason it was pointed out was because the customers previous host took 6 hours to deliver mail, and I won the account saying that they could receive mail almost instantly after sending

 

[Icheb]

6 hours is a bit much...

My old MailScanner config takes about 4~5 min (5 when busy) to process a mail inbound, outbound takes about 2 min.

The new server with spamblocker takes about 4 to 5 seconds to process (this server is absolutely not busy with anything).

I'm going to try to migrate my old MailScanner config to spamblocker soon, so I don't know what you're using, but with spamblocker actually delivers faster than with MailScanner.

edit: made previous line a bit more clear & added:

Furthermore, I don't know your customers, but when they open their mailbox in Imap, Imap tends to lock it, so that there isn't any data corruption. Perhaps this is the case... This would certainly slow down delivery...

 

[damn]

6 hours was their old host - that's why they moved to me.

The box is 99.9% idle 99.% of the time.

I don't support IMAP.

Can't work out why it processes incoming mail from another mail server instantly, yet internal to internal mail goes missing for 3 mins.

 

[ballyn]

This is typically because of domain resolution problems... exim has to resolve the domain, check the ptr, etc., and then spamassassin does its own lookups, rbls, etc.

If the sender domain or the recipient domain has any problems resolving, this will have to timeout.

On the boxes I've checked, "internal" mail is instantaneous.

 

[fusionictnl]

When sending localy Exim checks the virtual file in /etc/virtual or some file there. When it's in there it uses it's local director to deliver. That should instantly deliver it.

 

[nobaloney]

One of my clients reported a similar problem that was resolved when yesterday's update came out.

Jeff

 

[damn]

One of my clients reported a similar problem that was resolved when yesterday's update came out.

Jeff

Was that an exim update?

Had any luck with the 550 non exist problem?