This is something that anyone with an email address these days can hear or say quite often. Why? Well, due to the relatively unreliable nature of email delivery systems.
Here is a complete list of what your email message goes through to be delivered:
* Virus Checks: Most viruses (and worms) these days travel the Internet via email messages. To protect valuable network systems from virus attack, most corporate networks and Internet service providers employ virus scanners that search for viruses and worms in the same way as antivirus on your desktop computer. Most email servers are configured to delete or quarantine any messages that test positive for viruses.
* SPAM Filters and the Huge Growth of SPAM – Everyone Hates SPAM! So much so, that people will change their ISP provider or email host to get better protection against SPAM. As a result, companies like AOL and MSN spend a lot of money finding new ways to provide “better” spam protection to their subscribers to lower their churn rates.
* SPAM filtering methods:
- Phrase filters: be careful what you say! Many email servers use a list of unacceptable or offensive words and phrases and will reject or put the message in a spam folder when it matches, so be careful what you say or your message could be rejected.
- Connection checks – Misconfigured email servers can cause message loss. This is most likely out of your control (unless you are a server administrator), but keep in mind that when email servers communicate with each other, some are very picky about allowing a connection and they can reject it if the origin server does not “dial”. out “correctly.
- Statistical analysis: used to detect some of the techniques used by spammers, such as many repeated words or a lot of unrelated words in the message (usually to try to remove spam filters). Your message can become a victim of this if you do something like copy and paste a data file in the body of your message or if you had to insert a data file (such as a mailing list or spreadsheet) in your message , instead of attaching the file.
- Domain blacklists – your ISP doesn’t like your friend’s ISP! – Server administrators will use a list of trusted (and sometimes not-so-trusted) domains and / or lists of IP addresses to filter incoming messages. If you are using one of the “bad” service providers, your messages may be deleted. Look at the company that maintains!
- HTML Code Checking and Filtering – Don’t get too fancy with your Html emails. Many servers are configured to reject messages that contain certain html code. Especially scripts, deceptive URLs, or hard-coded text.
- Discretionary blocking by email address, domain or IP blocking. – Most email servers give the administrator the power to put a block on their server to deny access to any server or domain of their choice.
- Server rule sets – In addition to all the hurdles above, most email servers can be custom configured with rules that will redirect or delete messages in almost any content you can think of. An incorrectly coded rule could create a virtual sink for messages.
Now, assuming your message passes all the above checks, the next stumbling block is in the email client program, such as Outlook.
* Email client rules and filters: Just as servers can have rule sets that redirect or delete messages, most email client programs also have the ability to create custom rules to delete or move messages to a folder. Again, an incorrectly coded rule could create a black hole for your message.
* Unsolicited Message Filters or Spam Filters – Most email client software also provides some type of spam filter, such as Outlook’s spam filter, and add-on filters such as SpamAssassin. These filters have become quite reliable, but there is still a small percentage of false positives that will occur. Your message could be the victim of one of those false positives.
Other pitfalls:
* Non-adhered standards – Although there are sets of standards (RFCs) that software vendors and server administrators are supposed to adhere to, the standards are often met flexibly. In fact, most email server software gives the administrator the option to activate or deactivate specific RFC functions according to his will or desire.
* False positives: virus and spam filters. – Each content filtering technology has a certain percentage of false positives that are considered acceptable.
* Proprietary systems: There are many local systems that are simply poorly written and not up to standard.
* The Wild West … everyone configures their systems based on their point of view, morals, and opinions.
* Quotas – Sorry, that mailbox is full – Many service providers will limit the size of your inbox. The reasons for this are obvious … storage costs money.
* Daily delivery … not so much! – Just because your message arrived today does not mean that it will arrive tomorrow. Content and virus filters are often updated daily. Also, the little geek behind the server administrators console may decide to add an additional filter or click on a new feature just to give it a try (I know, I have) … again, it’s the Wild West.
So how can I fix this? What I can do?
* Above all, keep this in mind.
* Request a delivery receipt. “Most email clients support this, however most email clients also offer the option to ignore them when they are received. Still, it doesn’t hurt to ask!
* Request a confirmation. Ask the recipient of the message to reply with confirmation that they received it. This is probably the most reliable method of ensuring that the message was received.
* Don’t assume anything: never just assume the message was received. You know what that leads to … It makes you and me an idiot!
* Follow up. If the message is critical, follow up with a phone call or additional email requesting confirmation.
The result and my recommendation:
Email is great and very convenient for everyday communications, but be aware of pitfalls and don’t rely too much on email for critical communications. And please … Do not email your critical business files. FTP or burn to CD and send overnight.
