"JC" <j*@invalid.net> wrote in message news:iau4k3ljgqch4r8bmm72feg1bgkcr3eu56@4ax.com...
> Hi,
>
> About 3 days ago I had a couple of emails stuck in the outbox.   I was
> able to receive emails ok and send other emails but these two emails
> were stuck in the outbox and refused to be sent.  I shut down Outlook
> 2003, re-booted Win Xp (all updates installed) and re-started Outlook
> but nothing changed.
>
> The error was 0x8004210B - timed out waiting for response from SMTP
> server.
>
> It took a while to find the cause - apparently a mail server due to
> receive one of the emails was down and, since it wouldn't receive mail,
> all emails with an email address on that server would not be sent.
>
> Note that it wasn't my ISPs mail server that was down - it was another
> mail server in another country.
>
> The problem email address was a Cc: so I deleted the problem address and
> both emails then were sent ok.
>
> It would appear that an email is ONLY sent if all mail servers that are
> to receive the email are up and operational - if one is down it stays in
> the outbox presumably until the server is brought back on line again.
>
> I would have preferred that the email be sent out to those mail servers
> that were operational and an error message sent to me saying that the
> following email could not be delivered to <address> because the server
> was not on line.
> --
>
> Cheers . . . JC

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:38:41 -0500, "Peter Foldes" <ok***@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Is there still a problem ?? I cannot tell . Or did you just post to tell us about your incident and how it was solved

"JC" <j*@invalid.net> wrote in message
news:iau4k3ljgqch4r8bmm72feg1bgkcr3eu56@4ax.com...
>> Hi,
>>
>> About 3 days ago I had a couple of emails stuck in the outbox.   I was
>> able to receive emails ok and send other emails but these two emails
>> were stuck in the outbox and refused to be sent.  I shut down Outlook
>> 2003, re-booted Win Xp (all updates installed) and re-started Outlook
>> but nothing changed.
>>
>> The error was 0x8004210B - timed out waiting for response from SMTP
>> server.
>>
>> It took a while to find the cause - apparently a mail server due to
>> receive one of the emails was down and, since it wouldn't receive mail,
>> all emails with an email address on that server would not be sent.
>>
>> Note that it wasn't my ISPs mail server that was down - it was another
>> mail server in another country.
>>
>> The problem email address was a Cc: so I deleted the problem address and
>> both emails then were sent ok.
>>
>> It would appear that an email is ONLY sent if all mail servers that are
>> to receive the email are up and operational - if one is down it stays in
>> the outbox presumably until the server is brought back on line again.
>>
>> I would have preferred that the email be sent out to those mail servers
>> that were operational and an error message sent to me saying that the
>> following email could not be delivered to <address> because the server
>> was not on line.

news:iau4k3ljgqch4r8bmm72feg1bgkcr3eu56@4ax.com...
> Hi,
>
> About 3 days ago I had a couple of emails stuck in the outbox.   I
> was
> able to receive emails ok and send other emails but these two emails
> were stuck in the outbox and refused to be sent.  I shut down
> Outlook
> 2003, re-booted Win Xp (all updates installed) and re-started
> Outlook
> but nothing changed.
>
> The error was 0x8004210B - timed out waiting for response from SMTP
> server.
>
> It took a while to find the cause - apparently a mail server due to
> receive one of the emails was down and, since it wouldn't receive
> mail,
> all emails with an email address on that server would not be sent.
>
> Note that it wasn't my ISPs mail server that was down - it was
> another
> mail server in another country.
>
> The problem email address was a Cc: so I deleted the problem address
> and
> both emails then were sent ok.
>
> It would appear that an email is ONLY sent if all mail servers that
> are
> to receive the email are up and operational - if one is down it
> stays in
> the outbox presumably until the server is brought back on line
> again.
>
> I would have preferred that the email be sent out to those mail
> servers
> that were operational and an error message sent to me saying that
> the
> following email could not be delivered to <address> because the
> server
> was not on line.
> --
>
> Cheers . . . JC

> "JC" wrote in message
> news:iau4k3ljgqch4r8bmm72feg1bgkcr3eu56@4ax.com...
> > Hi,
> >
> > About 3 days ago I had a couple of emails stuck in the outbox.   I
> > was able to receive emails ok and send other emails but these
> >two emails were stuck in the outbox and refused to be sent.  I shut
> >down Outlook 2003, re-booted Win Xp (all updates installed) and
> >re-started Outlook but nothing changed.
> >
> > The error was 0x8004210B - timed out waiting for response from SMTP
> > server.
> >
> > It took a while to find the cause - apparently a mail server due to
> > receive one of the emails was down and, since it wouldn't receive
> > mail, all emails with an email address on that server would not be sent.
> >
> > Note that it wasn't my ISPs mail server that was down - it was another
> > mail server in another country.
> >
> > The problem email address was a Cc: so I deleted the problem address
> > and both emails then were sent ok.
> >
> > It would appear that an email is ONLY sent if all mail servers that are
> > to receive the email are up and operational - if one is down it stays in
> > the outbox presumably until the server is brought back on line
> > again.
> >
> > I would have preferred that the email be sent out to those mail servers
> > that were operational and an error message sent to me saying that the
> > following email could not be delivered to <address> because the server
> > was not on line.
> > --
> >
> > Cheers . . . JC
>
>
> Sorry, but Outlook is only an e-mail *client*.  It has no information
> if the target mail hosts are reachable, responsive, and will accept
> your e-mail that is sent to them.  Your sending mail server handles
> that, not you in your local e-mail client.  The only status of which
> Outlook has direct knowledge is whether or not YOUR mail server
> accepted your outbound e-mail.
>
> When you send e-mail to an SMTP mail host, just ONE copy of your
> message gets sent to it, not one for each recipient.  From the
> recipients listed in your To, Cc, and Bcc *fields* (displayed in your
> e-mail client), your e-mail client then compiles a list of RCPT-TO
> commands that it sends to the mail host.  For N recipients total,
> there will be N RCPT-TO commands sent to your mail host.  That is
> following by just one DATA command from your e-mail client that
> contains the content of your message that is received by your mail
> host.  All your e-mail client does it give the list of recipients and
> a copy of your message to your mail host.  During YOUR mail session
> with your sending mail host, your mail hasn't been sent anywhere yet
> other between you and your own mail host.  It has not been sent out to
> anyone yet, so the mail host doesn't send back any status regarding
> its delivery since it hasn't been attempted to be delivered yet.
> After you *end* your mail session with you mail host is when your mail
> host then attempts delivery because it now has the list of recipients
> and a copy of your message to them.  You no longer have a session with
> your mail host when your mail host is doing the actual delivery
> attempts.
>
> So, to how many recipients were specified in your e-mail?  Maybe you
> hit your e-mail provider's anti-spam quota.  Deleting some of the
> recipients got it under that anti-spam quota.
>
> Did you try disabling your anti-virus software's scanning of your
> outbound e-mails?  Interrogation by the anti-virus software generates
> a delay from when your e-mail client tells the mail server when it
> will start sending your e-mail to when the e-mail actually arrives at
> the mail server, and anti-virus software can interfere by increasing
> this delay too much (i.e., the mail server timesout waiting for the
> mail it was told was going to be sent but which was overly delayed by
> your anti-virus program).  The bigger the e-mail, the longer it takes
> for your anti-virus program to interrogate it before handing it off to
> the mail server.

news:egh6k3pi2ekctvkmoo9dekeuuqgoei69hr@4ax.com...
>
> "VanguardLH" wrote:
>>
>> "JC" wrote ...
>>>
>>> About 3 days ago I had a couple of emails stuck in the outbox.   I
>>> was able to receive emails ok and send other emails but these
>>>two emails were stuck in the outbox and refused to be sent.  I shut
>>>down Outlook 2003, re-booted Win Xp (all updates installed) and
>>>re-started Outlook but nothing changed.
>>>
>>> The error was 0x8004210B - timed out waiting for response from
>>> SMTP
>>> server.
>>>
>>> It took a while to find the cause - apparently a mail server due
>>> to
>>> receive one of the emails was down and, since it wouldn't receive
>>> mail, all emails with an email address on that server would not be
>>> sent.
>>>
>>> Note that it wasn't my ISPs mail server that was down - it was
>>> another
>>> mail server in another country.
>>>
>>> The problem email address was a Cc: so I deleted the problem
>>> address
>>> and both emails then were sent ok.
>>>
>>> It would appear that an email is ONLY sent if all mail servers
>>> that are
>>> to receive the email are up and operational - if one is down it
>>> stays in
>>> the outbox presumably until the server is brought back on line
>>> again.
>>>
>>> I would have preferred that the email be sent out to those mail
>>> servers
>>> that were operational and an error message sent to me saying that
>>> the
>>> following email could not be delivered to <address> because the
>>> server
>>> was not on line.
>>
>> Sorry, but Outlook is only an e-mail *client*.  It has no
>> information
>> if the target mail hosts are reachable, responsive, and will accept
>> your e-mail that is sent to them.  Your sending mail server handles
>> that, not you in your local e-mail client.  The only status of
>> which
>> Outlook has direct knowledge is whether or not YOUR mail server
>> accepted your outbound e-mail.
>>
>> When you send e-mail to an SMTP mail host, just ONE copy of your
>> message gets sent to it, not one for each recipient.  From the
>> recipients listed in your To, Cc, and Bcc *fields* (displayed in
>> your
>> e-mail client), your e-mail client then compiles a list of RCPT-TO
>> commands that it sends to the mail host.  For N recipients total,
>> there will be N RCPT-TO commands sent to your mail host.  That is
>> following by just one DATA command from your e-mail client that
>> contains the content of your message that is received by your mail
>> host.  All your e-mail client does it give the list of recipients
>> and
>> a copy of your message to your mail host.  During YOUR mail session
>> with your sending mail host, your mail hasn't been sent anywhere
>> yet
>> other between you and your own mail host.  It has not been sent out
>> to
>> anyone yet, so the mail host doesn't send back any status regarding
>> its delivery since it hasn't been attempted to be delivered yet.
>> After you *end* your mail session with you mail host is when your
>> mail
>> host then attempts delivery because it now has the list of
>> recipients
>> and a copy of your message to them.  You no longer have a session
>> with
>> your mail host when your mail host is doing the actual delivery
>> attempts.
>>
>> So, to how many recipients were specified in your e-mail?  Maybe
>> you
>> hit your e-mail provider's anti-spam quota.  Deleting some of the
>> recipients got it under that anti-spam quota.
>>
>> Did you try disabling your anti-virus software's scanning of your
>> outbound e-mails?  Interrogation by the anti-virus software
>> generates
>> a delay from when your e-mail client tells the mail server when it
>> will start sending your e-mail to when the e-mail actually arrives
>> at
>> the mail server, and anti-virus software can interfere by
>> increasing
>> this delay too much (i.e., the mail server timesout waiting for the
>> mail it was told was going to be sent but which was overly delayed
>> by
>> your anti-virus program).  The bigger the e-mail, the longer it
>> takes
>> for your anti-virus program to interrogate it before handing it off
>> to
>> the mail server.
>
> The email was about 30 lines of text only.   There were only 2
> addresses
> for the email to be sent to -
> the To: address was ab***@cnc-noc.net and the Cc address was
> spam@ccert.edu.cn.
>
> The spam@ccert.edu.cn was the address that caused the emails to stay
> in
> the outbox.  Initially, I thought that the spam@ was causing a
> problem
> with my ISP's spam filter so I called the help desk.  I was told by
> the
> help desk that this was unlikely and that they couldn't ping the
> spam@ccert.edu.cn domain.    It was then that I tried deleting the
> spam@ccert.edu.cn address from the Cc field and out went the emails.
>
> Note that I had sent similar emails to both addresses the previous
> day
> and have been able to do so since the incident.

> "JC" wrote in message
> news:egh6k3pi2ekctvkmoo9dekeuuqgoei69hr@4ax.com...
> >
> > "VanguardLH" wrote:
> >>
> >> "JC" wrote ...
> >>>
> >>> About 3 days ago I had a couple of emails stuck in the outbox.   I
> >>> was able to receive emails ok and send other emails but these
> >>>two emails were stuck in the outbox and refused to be sent.  I shut
> >>>down Outlook 2003, re-booted Win Xp (all updates installed) and
> >>>re-started Outlook but nothing changed.
> >>>
> >>> The error was 0x8004210B - timed out waiting for response from
> >>> SMTP server.
> >>>
> >>> It took a while to find the cause - apparently a mail server due to
> >>> receive one of the emails was down and, since it wouldn't receive
> >>> mail, all emails with an email address on that server would not be
> >>> sent.
> >>>
> >>> Note that it wasn't my ISPs mail server that was down - it was
> >>> another mail server in another country.
> >>>
> >>> The problem email address was a Cc: so I deleted the problem
> >>> address and both emails then were sent ok.
> >>>
> >>> It would appear that an email is ONLY sent if all mail servers that
> >>> are to receive the email are up and operational - if one is down it
> >>> stays in the outbox presumably until the server is brought back on
> >>> line again.
> >>>
> >>> I would have preferred that the email be sent out to those mail servers
> >>> that were operational and an error message sent to me saying that the
> >>> following email could not be delivered to <address> because the server
> >>> was not on line.
> >>
> >> Sorry, but Outlook is only an e-mail *client*.  It has no information
> >> if the target mail hosts are reachable, responsive, and will accept
> >> your e-mail that is sent to them.  Your sending mail server handles
> >> that, not you in your local e-mail client.  The only status of which
> >> Outlook has direct knowledge is whether or not YOUR mail server
> >> accepted your outbound e-mail.
> >>
> >> When you send e-mail to an SMTP mail host, just ONE copy of your
> >> message gets sent to it, not one for each recipient.  From the
> >> recipients listed in your To, Cc, and Bcc *fields* (displayed in
> >> your
> >> e-mail client), your e-mail client then compiles a list of RCPT-TO
> >> commands that it sends to the mail host.  For N recipients total,
> >> there will be N RCPT-TO commands sent to your mail host.  That is
> >> following by just one DATA command from your e-mail client that
> >> contains the content of your message that is received by your mail
> >> host.  All your e-mail client does it give the list of recipients and
> >> a copy of your message to your mail host.  During YOUR mail session
> >> with your sending mail host, your mail hasn't been sent anywhere yet
> >> other between you and your own mail host.  It has not been sent out to
> >> anyone yet, so the mail host doesn't send back any status regarding
> >> its delivery since it hasn't been attempted to be delivered yet.
> >> After you *end* your mail session with you mail host is when your
> >> mail host then attempts delivery because it now has the list of
> >> recipients and a copy of your message to them.  You no longer have
> >> a session with your mail host when your mail host is doing the actual
> >> delivery attempts.
> >>
> >> So, to how many recipients were specified in your e-mail?  Maybe you
> >> hit your e-mail provider's anti-spam quota.  Deleting some of the
> >> recipients got it under that anti-spam quota.
> >>
> >> Did you try disabling your anti-virus software's scanning of your
> >> outbound e-mails?  Interrogation by the anti-virus software generates
> >> a delay from when your e-mail client tells the mail server when it
> >> will start sending your e-mail to when the e-mail actually arrives at
> >> the mail server, and anti-virus software can interfere by increasing
> >> this delay too much (i.e., the mail server timesout waiting for the
> >> mail it was told was going to be sent but which was overly delayed by
> >> your anti-virus program).  The bigger the e-mail, the longer it takes
> >> for your anti-virus program to interrogate it before handing it off
> >> to the mail server.
> >
> > The email was about 30 lines of text only.   There were only 2
> > addresses for the email to be sent to -
> > the To: address was ab***@cnc-noc.net and the Cc address was
> > spam@ccert.edu.cn.
> >
> > The spam@ccert.edu.cn was the address that caused the emails to stay
> > in the outbox.  Initially, I thought that the spam@ was causing a problem
> > with my ISP's spam filter so I called the help desk.  I was told by the
> > help desk that this was unlikely and that they couldn't ping the
> > spam@ccert.edu.cn domain.    It was then that I tried deleting the
> > spam@ccert.edu.cn address from the Cc field and out went the emails.
> >
> > Note that I had sent similar emails to both addresses the previous
> > day and have been able to do so since the incident.
>
>
> If it happens again, check with your e-mail provider if the
> destination domain is on their blacklist.  It is possible that they
> are filtering outbound e-mails against a blacklist.  Not many do this
> yet but some.  If they do outbound spam blocking (to blacklisted
> target domains) then maybe they check this during the mail session
> between your e-mail client and your mail host (but I would think this
> would overly slow down all the mail sessions so they would do this
> after your mail session is over and when their mail host is ready to
> send your message).
>
> Got any anti-spam software running locally on your host?