TOPIC:

This happens every once in a while and is happening right now. I have email to an alias (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with a target email of Gmail.) that is taking over 20min to arrive. I have sent it directly to the underlying account without a delay. It is only when it goes through FTH that I see this delay. Normally, the issue resolves in a few hours, but just putting this out there in case there is a bigger issue.

Stan Green
Club: 3733

There is never any guarantee on the length of time it takes to deliver an email. It depends on how busy the network is between the email servers, how busy the servers are at the moment they try and connect.

Depending on the time of day, the day of the week, and the day of the month will depend on how many emails are being processed by FTH.

FTH is a free service and only has finite resources.

Yes Brian, I get that. But even with extreme load, it should not take over 2hrs (as of now) to receive an email. I am just pointing out the issue in case there is a bigger issue with FTH. (i.e. the mail forwarding service is down). If people don't report issues, how will you know they exist?

Stan,

Thanks for your report! Please don't think that we are not interested in hearing about this. Unfortunately, because of the complexity of the email processes and the large volume of emails that we process, it can be a challenge for us to do an effective investigation without some sort of insights (e.g. trends and patterns) and assistance provided by users to help us know where to look. We do log email information that we can sometimes use for troubleshooting, but sometimes doing an effective investigation with the overwhelming amount of information we have can be like looking for a needle in a haystack without some assistance from users to help spot trends and patterns. I consider us lucky that we have been able to figure out the root causes of some of the problems that we have encountered given low limited our tools and resources are.

Performance issues can be the most difficult type to investigation because of everything we are asking our one single server to do. Also, sometimes the causes are outside our control.

With this in mind, are you seeing any trends or patterns with this issue? For example days of week, times of day, etc. We do sometimes see more slowdowns at the beginning of the week--it seems that many clubs send their emails to members on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Hi Steve,

Yes, I understand how complex tech is. Windows 10 has more parts (lines of code) than the most complex airplane! I do a lot of my own troubleshooting before I post here. I also look for treads out of the norm.

I just go the bounces this morning (8 am EST). Here are the headers for two of the messages. (I have changed the sender email address to limit spam to that address.) Basically, we are seeing a timeout error.
1)
This is the mail system at host gateway24.websitewelcome.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

<This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>: connect to
mail.novitoastmasters.com[50.19.253.65]:25: Connection timed out


Reporting-MTA: dns; gateway24.websitewelcome.com
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 96F7A5F76
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Arrival-Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 19:49:53 -0600 (CST)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Original-Recipient: rfc822;This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Action: failed
Status: 4.4.1
Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; connect to
mail.novitoastmasters.com[50.19.253.65]:25: Connection timed out
2)
This is the mail system at host gateway23.websitewelcome.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

<This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>: connect to
mail.novitoastmasters.com[50.19.253.65]:25: Connection timed out


Reporting-MTA: dns; gateway23.websitewelcome.com
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 22D8DCB7
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Arrival-Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 21:37:19 -0600 (CST)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Original-Recipient: rfc822;This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Action: failed
Status: 4.4.1
Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; connect to
mail.novitoastmasters.com[50.19.253.65]:25: Connection timed out

Thanks,
Stan Green
3733

the IP for the mail server for theultrasignal.com was blocked for spam, I have removed the block for now.

You are using a shared hosting company (hostmonster.com, websitewelcome.com) that allows spammers, your email can be blocked again at any time.

Stan, what Brian is pointing to is important. Because we only have one server, we cannot afford to take any chances with security... Thus, our email security is pretty tight on purpose.

Brian/Steve,

Thanks for the update.

This all started with an email from SurveyMonkey not coming through. I am still not getting any email from that service. Is FTH blocking SurveyMonkey? (I have no idea what their IP address is.)

Yes, all my email servers, yes I have more than one, are on shared hosts. My hosting provider normally does a good job of keeping their servers off any block list. Was this a FTH blocklist or some other list? If this was an open block list, I can open an issue with my hosting provider and have them get thier servers off any block list.

I found Survey Monkey's list of IP addresses here: help.surveymonkey.com/articles/en_US/kb/...ewall-configurations

I am not sure what Brian will want to do with this... Perhaps you can talk him into putting the Survey Monkey IPs on a whitelist.

I suggest you do not use FTH for survey money as they have been blocked so often I really don't want to open them up again. Most people mark all surveys as spam, also did you know you are not allowed to survey your members as per Toastmasters International rules.

Sorry for the late response, but I wanted to reach out to TI on this one. From Jonathan O. at TI Member Support: There is no policy preventing clubs from surveying their members at the club level. We do not allow surveying at any level above the club level but it is ok for an individual; club to survey its members using an online survey.

So yes, clubs can survey members. In fact, in the September 2020 Leader Letter, clubs were encouraged to survey their members (www.toastmasters.org/leadership-central/...ticle/september-2020).

When using Survey Monkey, the actual survey does NOT come from Survey Monkey but rather it provides a link which you send to your target audience. So the survey request would come from the club.

The only email that comes from Survey Monkey are administrative. For example, forgot password or change the account contact email address.

Given the above, I believe blocking Survey Monkey email is hindering the clubs ability to use the tools we need to enhance the member experience. Please unblock the Survey Monkey email IP addresses.

Thanks,
Stan Green

FYI One club has blacklisted the following email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You have the choice of whitelisting any email address, we will not spend the time required to separate spammers using a third party email from valid emails.