Why the recent delay in forwarding from spamgourmet to me?

[147tim]

I've been using spamgourmet addresses for more than five years, usually using the xoxy.net domain.

For a long time, the messages sent to my disposable addresses would forward virtually instantaneously to my real address. In recent months, since late winter 2006, messages are taking up to four hours (actually sometimes longer) to reach my real address.

Why this delay? And when will it be fixed?

[SysKoll]

I will be fixed by getting us a new system, more powerful, with more bandwidth, aka "forklift upgrade". Josh is seriously thinking about it.

[phillyuser]

I, too, have noticed this problem. It is often taking hours for messages to be forwarded to me and I've noticed this for months now. I'm not sure what to do because these delays sometimes create problems. I read in another post where one poster suggested that SG users donate more. In my case, I'm a struggling self-employed individual with a very sporadic income and donating is not much of an option for me, and it would be a very small amount if I were to contribute.

Thank you for this very useful service. I do hope that you're able to implement the needed upgrading.

By the way, when I did a Preview of my reply before submitting it, nothing about the term another post stood out in any way, with the end result being that you had no way of knowing that the phrase was a link unless you happened to pass your cursor over the words another post. So, I had to then add a bold tag to get the phrase another post to stand out. Someone should edit the CSS in phpBB's overall_header.tpl file so that the links are underlined so they're visible. Here's some edited CSS I have in the appropriate section of that file on one of my sites:

Code: Select all

/* The content of the posts (body of text) */
.postbody { font-size : {T_FONTSIZE3}px; line-height: 18px}
a.postlink:link   { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; color : {T_BODY_LINK} }
a.postlink:visited { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; color : {T_BODY_VLINK}; }
a.postlink:hover { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; color : {T_BODY_HLINK}}

[SysKoll]

Good catch. With such HTML/CSS skills, you shouldn't remain employed for too long!

[phillyuser]

you shouldn't remain employed for too long

That's a really mean thing to say, Syskoll, that I should not remain employed for too long. (I can do proofreading, too)

[SysKoll]

I am so sorry, phillyuser. Of course, you shouldn't remain UNemployed for too long. And thank you for the proofreading.

[rdigqd]

Decisions, decisions, decisions ....

'Twas a toss-up whether to post on this thread, or on
#722 (""Spamgourmet Reliability Problems?) , or on
#716 ("Messages not reaching SG?") cuz they all seem
to be revolving around the same problem or a constellation
of related problems.

I pondered hard befpore adding to the rising din about this
issue (set of isses) but feel it is NEEDED.

Hoe_Lee Aych_E_Double-Toothpicks ...
What in heaven's name is going on!!

-- mail server can't connect to, or times out
when connecting SG mail exchanger
==>> seen it a BUNCH of times

-- delays of 6,12,24,48 hours in mail getting
into and thru the SG system
==>> stopped counting incidents cuz I ran out
of fingers, toes, jelly beans, etc.

-- msgs that for all intents and purposes flat out
vanished ... not delayed, but gone poof altogether
==>> no a ubiquitous occurence but heading steadily
upwards, well upwards in the double-digit
range of times

I "BCC" __every__ msg I send out. That 'proves' it made
it out of my ISP(s) SMTP box and onto the 'Net, and
provides me with a 'file copy" for archiving purposes.

So, in this current situation it also give me a barometer
of delays in msg propagation.

And, this situation is not unique -- it has happened on
occassion over the past few years, but never even remotely
to the current extent!!

The picture is not pretty, and seems to be getting worse.

First, it was one or two (literally) of my SG ids that
was/were experiencing "delays" (and some "dropages")
Now it seems the problem is darned near across the board
for all of them!! Not helpful when this occurs while either or
both of communicating on time-critical(-ish) matters, and
exchanging msgs where time-zone differences already introduce
send-reply delays of varying natures.

I've read muusings/explanations/... of
-- system overload
-- need to move to bigger,faster h/w
-- unexplained server shutdown (and lag in noticing
that and restarting it)
-- ...

So..josh, syskoll et al. .:
what __IS__ (really, truly, honest injun) going on here ??
what can be done to address the problem(_s_??)
what, if anything, can we do to help??

As things stand, or at least are heading, the IMMENSE
utility and benefits of SG are being heavily overshadowed
by this delay/disappearing/reliability stuff to a degree that
finding another "solution" -- someone/something offering
the same service but in a working, reliable fashion -- is
regretably heading steadily towards Job #1

<sigh>

jim
_________________________
[u][/u]

[de552]

I have already been having quite a lot chat with trashmail.net dudes.

I asked them to add several of spamgourmet's best features but bit different implementation.

There is still one big difference to sg. You can't use addresses without creating them. That's the best part of SG. I have been using SG for about 2.5 years now on. And I remeber 3-4 times when sg hasn't been working properly.

It naturally depends what do you use it for. I use it with reply-masking to make temporary addresses for untrusted services. I don't mind if email get's delayed but if it get's lost then it really bad thing. Like I mentioned in another thread I don't save messages. So contact is lost permanently when system fails. ;(

jetable.org works very well too. But max life time is 1 month. So it's not suitable for long-term use. But as temporary address it's the best service. You don't need any confirmation or what so ever. Just simply use that service.

I'm still asking why it's not possible to add backup mx?

[josh]

yeeckhch - lots of threads. Same answer - I configured the upstream mail server to accept more connections - we had a fairly locked down config to defensively address some denial of service attacks.

The short of it is that our hardware is strained - if we open up too wide, it'll become CPU bound and melt down. Not pretty. Now that it's summertime, I'm working on getting the service moved, which'll mean new and better hardware.