Problems sending PN email to Gmail addresses

[#1]

Thanks again.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow (more in hope than expectation !)

[#2]

---

@jab1 wrote:

Not an answer to your question, @PeterB1 , but I will be sending the same email to someone with a Gmail and an ntlworld (Virgin) address tomorrow, whilst I am talking to them. We shall see which arrives first, and if the Gmail one is delayed, by how long.

---

Just spoken to my Gmail contact, and sent the email during the conversation - both addresses received it inside 30 seconds.

[#3]

Good morning to Plusnet friends and especially @Townman 

I'm now very keen to hear any intelligence/feedback SUs may be able to obtain from the PN tech team.

 After yesterday's flawless results sending PN emails to Gmail addresses. I've run some more tests today.

I first sent separate emails to two separate Gmail recipients. Both arrived instantaneously.

I then sent a single email addressed to two Gmail recipients. Again, both were delivered instantly.

There hasn't been such consistent success since this thread began back in June.

I am waiting to be disappointed any minute, of course - but the pattern of the last two days no longer looks random.

Something must have changed somewhere, don't you think, @Townman ?

[#4]

@PeterB1 

Certainly something is different, but I know not what nor where.

[#5]

Weirder and weirder and weirder.

After 100% success and instant delivery when sending PN emaiis to Gmail recipients all day Sunday and Monday morning, it all fell apart again on Monday afternoon (delays of 3, 7, 7, 8, 14 and 39 minutes in my six tests).

Now, around midday today, I've sent four test messages and ALL  have arrived instantly again.

It just doesn't make any sense and, I'm beginning to think, is slowly sending me round the bend 🙂

Help!

[#6]

Hi Peter,

This could be 'normal' service load stress.  I just ran a test which was delivered in 2 seconds, also to Outlook.com without issue.

I have raised a question.

[#7]

Thanks @Townman .

You're a hero.

I:ve just tried one more test and goti nstant delivery.

Look forward to any further info that might emerge from your question.

[#8]

Looking for patterns in Gmail test results is probably futile, but here's a thought to try on @Townman and others.

I'm beginning to wonder if outstanding Gmail issues are related to time of day.

Yesterday, I sent a couple of emails to Gmalil addresses around midday UK time - both delivered instantly.

Between 4.30 and 7.30 in the evening three test messages were delayed by 4 mins, 25 mins and 6 hours 7 mins respectively.

Then between 10 and 11.30 this mornng, four emalls - all delivered instantly.

It's not the first time I've noticed a drop off in performance later in the day - and I wouldn't mind betting it';ll happen again this evening.

UK morning of course coincides with when the US is mostly asleep. By late afternoon here,. the US is very much awake.

Could there be a connection?

[#9]

@PeterB1 

Every possibility!

[#10]

Thanks, @Townman .

Obviously we need to monitor this for a day or two, but if US traffic is thought to be what triggers PN/Gmail delays, that's a  game-changer, isn't it? It implies  that  Google's system isn't after all randomly rejecting PN emails as suspected bulk senders just because the sender has a .plus.com address - otherwise there wouldn't be consistent instant deliveries in the UK morning. Rather, it implies that Google freaks out when the US wakes up and increases the email traffic load - and, when under pressure, starts picking on innocent Plusnet users for no apparent reason?

[#11]

Well google certainly freaks out at times ! Nothing to do with Plusnet email,  but last week a family member received multiple copies of the same DMARC aggregate reports from google, 24 copies one day and 3 the next! 

[#12]

For @Townman  and other PN friends:

Herewith two days monitoring that tends to support my tentative theory that PN-to-Gmail delays are related to time zones – consistent instant delivery in the morning UK time, problematical by late afternoon/evening (when the US is awake)..

The correlation isn’t 100% in late afternoon/evening as there are some quick deliveries then but it’s always later in the day that the problems arise.

WEDNESDAY

10.00-1130 4 emails, all delivered instantly

4.30-500 2 emails, both delivered instantly

5.00 to 5.30 1 email – delayed by 5 hours 39 mins

5.30 to 6.00 2 emails – delivered instantly

6 to 6.30  1 email – delayed by 8 hours 33 mins

THURSDAY

10.30 to 11.30  4 emails, all instant delivery

3.00 to 3.30:  2 emails – both delayed 3 hours 45 mins

6.30 to 7.00 2 emails, both delayed 3 minutes

FRIDAY

1200 to 12.30  4 emails – all instant delivery

Perhaps worth noting that on Thursday afternoon, the emails delayed by just 3 minutes and by 3 hours 45 minutes eventually  arrived at exactly the same time -- as if they’d been queueing up – two for a long time and two for a very short time – until someone kindly opened the gate!

[#13]

I've discovered that google/gmail decided to mark me as a spammer. I don't use plusnet's mail services. My mail hosting is via Mythicbeasts.

[#14]

An update on the Gmail problem for @Townman  and other suffering PN friends.

To try to throw more light on the theory that delays to emails sent to Gmail addressees might be related to time of day, I’ve monitored the system for four days – Friday to Monday.

It’s clear to me from the outcome that Gmail delays are indeed related to time of day - or more specifically to traffic load on the email system during business hours in the UK

As the following survey shows, deliveries to Gmail addresses are consistently instantaneous on weekday mornings (UK time) and all day at the weekend.

Delays invariably start on weekday afternoons (UK time), which happens to coincide with when America wakes up, their working day begins and email traffic no doubt increases very significantly.

If this analysis is right, it must mean there is nothing in the .plus.com format of our sending accounts per se that’s causing Google automatically to condemn us as bulk senders.

Much of the time Google’s formidable defences are quite happy to accept our messages and deliver them instantly.

But for some unknown reason, when Google’s system is busy, it has a tendency to panic unnecessarily at the sight of an incoming message from a .plus.com domain.

In a sane world (I know, I know ☹ - some hope) in which Plusnet and Google techies were able and willing to talk to each other, there would surely be a way to sort out this anomaly in no time at all.

If we can’t, it seems to me the whole migration project in which fully functioning Plusnet email accounts are supposed to be transferred to Greenby will inevitably fall apart.

Here are my results:

FRIDAY

1200-1330 (UK time)

3 emails – all delivered instantly

1300-1800

4 emails – all delayed by 3 mins, 15 mins, 15 mins and 12 hours 33 mins

SATURDAY

1100-1900 (UK time)

6 emails – all delivered instantly

SUNDAY

1000-1900

5 emails – all delivered instantly

MONDAY

1000-1100 (UK time)

2 emails both delivered instantly

1300-1900

5 emails

1 delivered instantly, 3 delayed by 3 mins, 24 mins and 25 mins. One still undelivered after 19 hours.

All this looks pretty definitive to me.

I’m no expert, but I’d bet a  fair sum a solution (if there is one) lies somewhere in this area.

PS: Obviously I need to get a life, but I hope this is of some help to somebody somewhere!

[#15]

Apologies.

Para 3 in my last post should read "...business hours in the US", not in the UK.