Mail delivery issues and wrong time stamps

M

Mavrik

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I'm running Server 10.4.9 and along with hosting two webpages I am hosting email for one of the domains. Whenever a message is received by an account hosted by my server, the time listed for receiving the email is incorrect. It varies from 1 to 4 hours fast or slow depending on the source of the email. It happens with both incoming and outgoing mail. If a message is sent from one account to another on my server, the time stamp is correct.

In addition to the incorrect time, I have noticed messages directed to one account being delivered to another. For example, in my own mailbox I recieve messages that were intented to go to another user mailbox on my server. I don't know if that is related to the same problem or if it is a spam issue but I figure any bit of information will be helpful.

And finally, I do not believe all mail is reaching the intended mailbox. I have junkmail and notjunkmail accounts enabled for spam and if I redirect 10 emails usually only 5 at the most will make it. I get no return errors when redirecting (ex: undeliverable)

I have checked the obvious time and date panels in OS X including the server admin and everything matches. The timezone is also correct. I type date into the terminal and that comes up correct as well. This isn't my first time configuring a server.... I've hosted mail servers with 10.2 and 10.3 in the past with no problems but this is my first time using 10.4. I'm pretty comfortable navigating through the server, but I have limited experience in terminal. (Just for FYI) Usually with enough time I can figure almost anything out, but I've run out of ideas here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...
 
Mavrik said:
I'm running Server 10.4.9 and along with hosting two webpages I am hosting email for one of the domains. Whenever a message is received by an account hosted by my server, the time listed for receiving the email is incorrect. It varies from 1 to 4 hours fast or slow depending on the source of the email. It happens with both incoming and outgoing mail. If a message is sent from one account to another on my server, the time stamp is correct.

In addition to the incorrect time, I have noticed messages directed to one account being delivered to another. For example, in my own mailbox I recieve messages that were intented to go to another user mailbox on my server. I don't know if that is related to the same problem or if it is a spam issue but I figure any bit of information will be helpful.

And finally, I do not believe all mail is reaching the intended mailbox. I have junkmail and notjunkmail accounts enabled for spam and if I redirect 10 emails usually only 5 at the most will make it. I get no return errors when redirecting (ex: undeliverable)

I have checked the obvious time and date panels in OS X including the server admin and everything matches. The timezone is also correct. I type date into the terminal and that comes up correct as well. This isn't my first time configuring a server.... I've hosted mail servers with 10.2 and 10.3 in the past with no problems but this is my first time using 10.4. I'm pretty comfortable navigating through the server, but I have limited experience in terminal. (Just for FYI) Usually with enough time I can figure almost anything out, but I've run out of ideas here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...
Click to expand...

I suppose the recieved mails are all from the same timezone, otherwise the problem might be the timezone the messages is mailed from / to.

You can redirect undeliverable mails to a existing email account, i created postmaster especially for that purpose. Also LABEL spam/junk with the filters and let it go through in stead of being discarded. Whis will give you an insight in how well the filter works (which non-SPAM / JUNK messages are incorrectly discarded). Setting the OS X server filter incorrectly might cause messages to be discarded which are actually no spam / junk. In reality i do not find the spam / junk filter working too well, it discards not enough real spam /junk mails.


Good luck, Kees
 
Thanks for the input. My spam filters are set to still deliver, they just mark everything as ***junk mail***. I prefer having everybody's mail client sort out what is spam and what isn't, that way I don't have to worry about people not receiving something. However, I did shut the spam filter off just to see if that was the issue but the time stamp problem still existed along with intermittent delivery problem.

Here's another example of the problem. I receive regular emails from somebody in the same time zone as me (eastern US). I just received one at 8:56am and the time stamp on the email says 7:56am. The Mac Server reads 8:56am. Now, I just bumped the server AHEAD to 9:56am and the next email I received was the correct time. Unless I'm wrong here, that would mean there is a timezone issue on the server, but is there another place that data could be stored in Tiger Server? (besides the main date/time control panel AND server admin?) And again, typing "date" in terminal shows the correct time and date....
 
Mavrik said:
Thanks for the input. My spam filters are set to still deliver, they just mark everything as ***junk mail***. I prefer having everybody's mail client sort out what is spam and what isn't, that way I don't have to worry about people not receiving something. However, I did shut the spam filter off just to see if that was the issue but the time stamp problem still existed along with intermittent delivery problem.

Here's another example of the problem. I receive regular emails from somebody in the same time zone as me (eastern US). I just received one at 8:56am and the time stamp on the email says 7:56am. The Mac Server reads 8:56am. Now, I just bumped the server AHEAD to 9:56am and the next email I received was the correct time. Unless I'm wrong here, that would mean there is a timezone issue on the server, but is there another place that data could be stored in Tiger Server? (besides the main date/time control panel AND server admin?) And again, typing "date" in terminal shows the correct time and date....
Click to expand...


If it is just an hour, it might also be daylight savings causing the problem.


Good luck, Kees
 
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