On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 10:25:35PM +0100, Paul Smith wrote:
Anyway, what are 'the existing retry schedules that MTAs use'? If
they were standardised then it would be a great idea to work with
them, but they're not, and every MTA could be using a different
retry schedule!
Many MTAs are (apparently) using a different retry schedule, and that's a
good thing. (Well...provided those retry schedules are reasonably sane,
that is, not way too fast.) I say that it's good because it helps scatter
retries rather than concentrating them.
(Consider, as a counter-example, if there were a way to communicate retry
availability back to client MTAs. Suppose an MX says "Please try again
at 10 AM". Suppose that client MTAs pay attention to this. ALL of them.
Then at 10:00:01 AM we might expect that the MX might find itself on
the receiving end of quite a few connection attempts. This may turn out
to be much worse for all concerned than just letting client MTAs retry
on their own varied schedules.)
---rsk