Decoding Bounce Messages: What To Do

Do:

• Contact the person you're trying to mail by other means. They may not know they are bouncing mail.
• Keep the bounce message. It can help tech support staff solve the problem quickly. It also (usually) contains the original message, which you may need to resend after the problem is fixed.
• Try to send yourself a test message if someone tells you your account is bouncing mail. If possible, use an account from a different domain than the account you are trying to test.

Don't:

• Try to respond to the bounce message; it will rarely yield any results.
• Continue trying to mail users after 2 or 3 tries (for permanent errors) or a week (for temporary errors). (note: This is doubly true if you run a mailing list. Remove subscribers when they begin bouncing with permanent failures. They have probably already resubscribed with a new address, and didn't remove their old address.)
• Assume that just because you can send a message to yourself that everyone else can. Mail that does not leave your domain is usually handled differently than mail that originates externally.