2. Why Some Messages Are Delayed

You may have noticed that sometimes a message sent to you arrives quickly (within 30 seconds) while other times it may be 5 minutes or more before you receive a message The reason for this is our use of a very common spam fighting technique called greylisting.

Greylisting

When a message hits one of our servers from a source that is new, the server will initially reject the message on a temporary basis with a code that basically says, "Please try again later." A very large percentage of spam-sourced email servers will not try to send the message again. Properly configured servers will continue to try sending, sometimes for up to 24 hours.

After a short delay, usually 5-10 minutes, our server will accept the next send attempt for the message. It will also add the sender to a list of "greylisting passed" addresses that will remain in effect for about 30 days. As long as the sender continues to send email he/she will remain on the "passed" list; however, if more than 30 days goes by without a message then the next one sent will again be greylisted.

A message that is greylisted might not arrive in your inbox for at least 5 minutes, and sometimes even several hours. Messages that pass greylisting typically arrive within 30 seconds.