Electronic mail - where does it end up?

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	Forums > New Articles > Electronic mail - where does it end up?
Ron Brind Posts: 19044 Joined: 26th Oct 2003 Location: England	quotePosted at 12:13 on 4th June 2008 Recently, I sent out an email which was not received by the intended recipient! What I had inadvertantly done was to put a 'dot' after an initial that should not have been there (the dot that is). So my question in view of the fact that it was not returned as undeliverable is where did it go? I have no doubt that somebody will say 'cyberspace', so OK where is cyberspace and who keeps these messages, if in fact they are kept anywhere? I suppose in a way it's a bit like sending letters through the post without them being addressed properly, thus the Post Office keep them until claimed, open them and then return to sender, or finally dump them! So where do our wrongly addressed emails end up? My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Karen Pugh Posts: 858 Joined: 21st Dec 2006 Location: UK	quotePosted at 13:25 on 4th June 2008 In everbody's Spam box Ron I think. My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
MariaGrazia Posts: 711 Joined: 25th Mar 2008 Location: Italy	quotePosted at 19:35 on 4th June 2008 Hi Ron, whenever a mail server cannot recognize an address as belonging to its domain, it just drops the email's data packets. In other words, It throws the message away and returns an undelivered email notification accordingly. That's the behaviour of the large majority of servers, thus, if you haven't got such a notification , the address was very likely a valid one and someone else got your message :). However, that's the common rule but not the only rule. For example, some servers are set to ignore unknown addresses, meaning they drop them without sending anything back. Others send nothing back to you but they still forward messages bearing unknown recipients to a specific account (for ex, the administrator's ) . If you mispelled the name only but you are sure about the domain (for ex, you typed j.smith@yahoo.com instead of jsmith@yahoo.com), you could rule out hypothesis 1 and 2 for certain by sending another email to a very unlikely address within the same domain (ex. unlikely_address193837474@yahoo.com) and then check whether you get the notification. My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Denzil Tregallion Posts: 1764 Joined: 26th May 2008 Location: UK	quotePosted at 20:06 on 4th June 2008 I dont know My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Ron Brind Posts: 19044 Joined: 26th Oct 2003 Location: England	quotePosted at 20:21 on 4th June 2008 Thanks Maria, I very much appreciate your explanation and in fact you gave a good example of what actually happened to me ie j.smith against jsmith. The fact that I didn't get notification doesn't bother me, but I suppose the bottom line was I had to wait about 7 days before I began to think that something was wrong, because the intended recipient is always very prompt. Anyway Maria well done for taking the time to explain. I reckon other members will find it interesting also - that's the power of POE!! MG - I bet thats really confused Denzil!! My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
L Posts: 5656 Joined: 10th Jun 2004 Location: UK	quotePosted at 20:26 on 4th June 2008 I have a friend in Taz who emails me but I cant just click on 'reply' and send one back, I have to delete one of the letters from his name before I do or its returned to me 'unable to deliver' ...explain that one! My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Denzil Tregallion Posts: 1764 Joined: 26th May 2008 Location: UK	quotePosted at 20:46 on 4th June 2008 I cant Lyn thanks for asking My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Ray Stear Posts: 1930 Joined: 25th Apr 2008 Location: UK	quotePosted at 21:30 on 4th June 2008 Great explanation Mari. Even I can understand that. and yes, it has happened to me! Ray. My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
MariaGrazia Posts: 711 Joined: 25th Mar 2008 Location: Italy	quotePosted at 22:19 on 4th June 2008 Ehmm..well...you are welcome, guys lol MG - I bet thats really confused Denzil!! We are even then, Ron; he basically puzzles me all the time lol Lyn, I could guess that he just missed a letter in the 'ReplyTo' field in his email software settings? The default is always the address itself but people may need to change it for a variety of reasons. I think the most secure way to find out though would be just asking him, perhaps? My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
L Posts: 5656 Joined: 10th Jun 2004 Location: UK	quotePosted at 22:32 on 4th June 2008 On 4th June 2008 22:19, MariaGrazia wrote: Lyn, I could guess that he just missed a letter in the 'ReplyTo' field in his email software settings? The default is always the address itself but people may need to change it for a variety of reasons. I think the most secure way to find out though would be just asking him, perhaps? No, i have DELETE a letter in his email address so it gets to him Maria, he doesnt know why as i'm the only one who has to do this. all his other contacts have no problem. But as long as I remember then its ok, if not then I get them sent back immediately. Ho hum such is life lol and the wonders of medern technology eh? My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions