SG not forwarding correctly for one disposable address

[dggeorge]

I've been a happy SG user for quite a while. I've used SG for disposable addresses, both receiving and sending, and so I know fairly well how to use the system.

My alma mater (domain is rpi.edu) has a free alumni email service that acts as a forwarder to an address specified by the alumnus. Just to be cautious, I have my "forward to" address for my alumni email account set up to point to a SG address (actually an xoxy.net address).

So my alumni email address (dgg "at" alum "dot" the domain mentioned above), when it receives mail, is supposed to forward it to my SG address, which is rpimail "dot-the-number-twelve-dot" my SG username at xoxy.net.

And it's doing that correctly, because the SG listing of my addresses shows the number of forwarded messages and the number of remaining messages. But some of the messages that should be forwarded to me aren't reaching me. The SG counters show that SG is doing its part; I just wonder why I'm not getting all the messages.

Is it possible that, because the test messages that never reached me were being sent FROM the same address that I have SG send TO, that I never got the messages?

If it's any help, what follows is an expanded header from a message that DID reach me. I altered all references to my sending address, my SG address, and my forwarder addresses with SG and with my college alma mater.

Return-path: <+[*word*]+[SG userid]+5101d7c7e9.[SG userid]#yahoo.com@spamgourmet.com>
Received: from ms-mta-03 (ms-mta-03-smtp [10.10.4.10])
by ms-mss-06.nyroc.rr.com
(iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 2.04 (built Feb 8 2005))
with ESMTP id <0IGJ0035S811R8@ms-mss-06.nyroc.rr.com> for
[ultimate end email address]; Sun, 15 May 2005 08:58:13 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from clmboh-mx-02.mgw.rr.com (clmboh-mx-02.mgw.rr.com [65.24.7.11])
by ms-mta-03.nyroc.rr.com
(iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 2.04 (built Feb 8 2005))
with ESMTP id <0IGJ0074Q7Y72Y@ms-mta-03.nyroc.rr.com> for
[ultimate end email address] (ORCPT [ultimate end email address]); Sun,
15 May 2005 08:56:35 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from gourmet.spamgourmet.com (216.218.230.146)
by clmboh-mx-02.mgw.rr.com with ESMTP; Sun, 15 May 2005 08:58:14 -0400
Received: from gourmet.spamgourmet.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by gourmet.spamgourmet.com (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id j4FCw6Sv015844 for
<[ultimate end email address]>; Sun, 15 May 2005 05:58:06 -0700
Received: (from jqh1@localhost) by gourmet.spamgourmet.com
(8.12.11/8.12.11/Submit) id j4FCw6jR015841 for [ultimate end email address]; Sun,
15 May 2005 05:58:06 -0700
Received: from mwsms01la.mail2world.com (mw12.mail2world.com [66.28.189.12])
by gourmet.spamgourmet.com (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id j4FCw5iY015835 for
<[*word*].12.[SG userid]@xoxy.net>; Sun, 15 May 2005 05:58:05 -0700
Received: from 206.190.38.232 unverified ([206.190.38.232])
by mwde14la.mail2world.com with Mail2World SMTP Server,
Sun 15 May 2005 05:42:58 -07:00
Received: (qmail 59072 invoked by uid 60001); Sun, 15 May 2005 12:47:17 +0000
Received: from [66.66.181.51] by web51801.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sun,
15 May 2005 05:47:17 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 05:47:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Dave George - [SG userid]@yahoo.com"
<+[*word*]+[SG userid]+5101d7c7e9.[SG userid]#yahoo.com@spamgourmet.com>
Subject: Sunday 8:45 ([*word*]: message 4 of 12)
X-Sender: Dave George -
[SG userid]@yahoo.com<+[*word*]+[SG userid]+5101d7c7e9.[SG userid]#yahoo.com@spamgourmet.com>
To: [forward address 1]
Reply-to: "[ultimate end email address]"
<+[*word*]+[SG userid]+51cc36c31f.[SG-munged ultimate email address]@spamgourmet.com>
Message-id: <20050515124717.59070.qmail@web51801.mail.yahoo.com>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
ResentFrom: [forward address 1]
Comment: DomainKeys? See http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;
b=oRXFHMTIC5ZAeIoG6+gHPxN0ePACM0WWXNFf81V+Nhunnt5NR9Y3BBtpEzggkm/EwHB6tB9ZOByjmEu+e/9m0k02JEIYARwagVnv9B69j7B35Nim8rO3UY3Gx9HLEHyd/oMc6hIuyeqHqnD1Mgb4gCqRFec2jM0Ub6ZJqHf4VQw=
;
x-receiver: [*word*].12.[SG userid]@xoxy.net
Original-recipient: rfc822;

[josh]

spamgourmet doesn't increment the counter until it has decided to forward a message and actually submitted the message to the internal mail server for forwarding, so if you see that counter go up, then there's a message on its way.

There are several ways the message can get delayed. If our server is overwhelmed, such outgoing messages get queued for later delivery. We haven't seen any significant delays in that area since last December, though. I just checked, and the outbound queue looks healthy. Once a message leaves our system, it still has to go through at least one mail server before it gets to you -- if that one is running behind, a delay can occur there.

But by far the most frequent cause of forwarded messages not showing up is spam filtering that occurs somewhere between our server and your mailbox. Some services are more trigger-happy than others. If you suspect this may be going on, check your local spam-filtering software and/or your email service provider. If you get stuck with your provider, send a test message -- if it doesn't get through, send a message to me (info) as soon as you can, describing the message -- particularly the time it was sent. If it's still in our mail server logs, I can provide the portion that shows when it was delivered to the next mail server.