Troubleshooting Email Errors

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First, email usually works the first time, and quickly, but if you do get a message bounced back to you, try sending it again. (Otherwise you may spend a lot of time trying to troubleshoot what may be a temporary net work glitch.)

Pay attention to the ENTIRE error message! It will often tell you precisely why your message failed and give you a good idea of how to fix it.

Common Email Errors

"Undeliverable mail" (no other errors listed)

This is usually caused by an incorrect user or host name. Check the address and if possible verify it with the person you are sending it to.

"Bad host name." or "The following address had permanent fatal errors."

This can happen for two reasons. Usually this error means the email address was mistyped. Check the address and if possible verify it with the person you are sending it to. Or, this error can mean that your system does not recognize the host name. Ping the domain name in the email address. If it doesn't connect, or recognize the hostname contact your mail administrator. Or Junctionbox customer support.

"Local configuration error."

This error means that there is a problem with the email account that you are sending to. Check the address and if possible verify it with the person you are sending it to. If there are no obvious errors, ask the recipient's mail administrator to help.

"Looping message detected."

This error gets sent when two or more mail servers disagree about the correct location of the recipients mailbox. Check the address and if possible verify it with the person you are sending it to. Sometimes this problem can only be solved by the local mail administrator for the address you are sending email to.

"System timeout during mail transfer"

This error usually occurs because the recipient's mail server (or a mail server along the way) is either unreachable or overloaded. There also may be a network error. Verify the address with the person you are sending to, their local mail administrator may be the best person to troubleshoot this problem.