I have an account with ValueWeb that has an annoying problem a least once a week and I thought someone here could shed a bit of light on it.

Basically, every so often email (forwards) can take up to hours to be forwarded to the final destination. I know it's their server because I'll send the message to another forwarding account with another host and it arrives right away.

I called customer service and the way it was explained to me is that when a server is very busy incoming email is put into a queue and then sent out bit by bit until it eventually gets caught up. Does this sound right? I have not experienced this problem with other hosts, at least not to this extent.

1) Is this most likey a case of too many domains on a server?

2) Can mail be slow if a server is experiencing heavy http, ftp and other non mail requests- or is the mail part usually seperated somehow?

3) Could it be inadequate software?

4) If I move to a VPS, assuming the load is light- this problem should go away, right?

Thanks for your help. :confused:

The tech support guys may be correct.
Let me explain. Suppose sendmail is the MTA being used.
There is a mailq limit that one sets . This could be typically say 2000.
Now suppose the server has many mails in the queue. Then your mail would be placed in the bottom of the queue and will be flushed only after the other mails which were in the queue when your mail arrived have been sent.
Large mailq have very little to do with the server load, http etc...
However suppose you face this problem very regularly then I would suggest looking for another host because either this hosting company does not stop spammers or it is regularly used for spamming or promotional activities... In both the cases your mails are delayed... :(

Have a great day :)

regards
amar

To answer your other question. Yes, these problems should go away if you upgrade to a Virtual Private Server, since you'll probably have your own mail server, and won't have to share the queue with everyone else.

BTW, I would never recommend ValueWeb.