address refusal

[Joan Nahigian Jensen]

I've been going along fine with my iMac sending e-mails to a friend in
Upstate NY. suddenly her address will not receive mine through Outlook
Express...hers is the only one. What to do??

[Michael Santovec]

When a message is undeliverable, it is returned (bounced) to the sender
(assuming there is a correct From address) with an explanation as to why
it was undeliverable. There is no standard format. It usually says
something about a "fatal" error. After that are several more lines with
the real error message.

Some common errors (the wording may vary):
- unknown host, unknown domain, too many hops - The part of the To
e-mail address after the "@" is wrong (there is no such ISP) is the most
common cause, but on rare occasions there is a temporary Internet
problem. This can also be caused by using the recipient's POP3 server
name (e.g. @pop.xxx.com) rather than the correct ISP address (e.g.
@xxx.com).
- unknown user, unknown account - The part of the To e-mail address
before the "@" is wrong. This can also be caused by an extraneous
character such a space, comma or semicolon, in the To address. Another
possibility is that the part after the "@" is for the wrong service.
For example: @prodigy.com is the older Prodigy Classic service, while
@prodigy.net is the newer Prodigy Internet service; @msn.com is MSN
(The Microsoft Network) service, while @microsoft.com is for Microsoft
employees.
- inactive or dormant account - that address used to be valid, but is
now closed
- mailbox full, over quota - the recipient's server mail box has
reached its limit (typically 5 to 10 MB - varies by ISP), or would
exceed its limit with this message. The recipient needs to download the
current messages and make sure that they are not leaving messages on the
server (a mail program option)
- access denied, message rejected - messages from the sender or the
sender's ISP are being blocked by the recipient or the recipient's ISP.
This is usually due to previous spamming by the sender or others at the
sender's ISP. Some ISPs also block messages if the From address on the
message is phony. This can also be caused by using the recipient's POP3
server name (e.g. @pop.xxx.com) rather than the correct ISP address
(e.g. @xxx.com).
- cannot relay - the sender tried to send the message via an ISP's SMTP
mail server other than the ISP they are currently dialed into (an
incorrect setting in the mail program). Another possibility is that
there is an error in the To e-mail address, such as an extra "@".
- message undelivered after xx hours or xx days - this is usually a
temporary error, and the message will eventually go through without
resending. The problem may be at the sender's or recipient's ISP or
some part of the Internet in between