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Q140934: XFOR: IMC: NDR is Held Until Timeout Period Expired

Article: Q140934
Product(s): Microsoft Exchange
Version(s): 4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbusage
Last Modified: 13-MAR-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

If you send a message to multiple SMTP users, you may not receive Non- Delivery
Receipts (NDRs) until the timeout period for the message transfer has elapsed.
This only occurs if one of the recipients cannot be reached because their mail
host is down and another recipient has an incorrect address.

CAUSE
=====

The Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Connector (IMC) holds all NDRs until it has
exhausted all connection attempts so it can deliver only one NDR per message to
the sender.

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server
version 4.0. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 U.S.
Service Pack 2. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the
following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

  S E R V P A C K

The IMC will now return an NDR for the invalid recipient (the one with the
incorrect address) before the message times out. Under normal operating
conditions, the NDR for misspelled domains would be generated within a minute or
two after the first attempt to deliver fails. If the IMC has a heavy load of
messages to many different domains, it may be longer. The time for generating
the NDR and submitting to the Microsoft Exchange Information Store (IS) will be
the same as if you returned a message from the IMC's Queue page.

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Keywords          : kbusage 
Technology        : kbExchangeSearch kbExchange400 kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : 4.0

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