Victoria Telecommunity Network
Written August 4, 1996 -- JMN
Edited August 8, 1998 -- JMN
There are several reasons that you may have trouble receiving mail: you don't have any new mail, you are forwarding your mail somewhere else, or the disk where new mail goes is full.
You may have reason to believe that you should have new mail (i.e. someone told you that they sent you mail, you are on a mailing list, etc.), but you have not received any. There are several reasons for this. The first is that your correspondent has misentered your address and sent your message to the wrong place. The second is that there is a network problem somewhere between your correspondent and the VTN. These are beyond our control.
The third is that the VTN is extremely busy; in which case, it will delay processing of incoming and outgoing mail until a quieter time. If this happens, then your mail will usually be processed that night. Due to various system improvements, this happens much less often than in the past. The final reason is that you are forwarding your mail somewhere else.
When you forward your mail somewhere else it is not saved on the VTN system. If you give the system an incorrect forwarding address, your mail will be returned to the sender. If you try to forward your mail somewhere else, and have that place forward your mail to the VTN, you will create a forwarding loop, which will cause your mail to be returned to the sender.
You can forward your mail by typing 'gforward' at any VTN menu, or by selecting 'Forward your Mail...' from the post office menu, and then selecting 'Modify your mail forwarding'. This is not a menu, so you can't use menu commands when you select this option. You must enter a valid e-mail address. It will check for the most common mistakes, and prevent you from making them, but it can't check for all mistakes. If you enter 'none', then mail forwarding will be stopped. This item will also show you where your mail is currently going. You can also stop your mail from being forwarded by using the 'Delete your mail forwarding' option.
The final reason for having problems receiving mail is that the disk where we store new mail has filled up. This disk is very large, but not infinite. We try to keep an eye on it, so that it doesn't overfill; but, it may occasionally. You can help by reading your mail regularly, and not leaving it in your inbox.
Please send comments and suggestions regarding this text to hq@victoria.tc.ca
Document address: http://victoria.tc.ca/post/mail.receiving.html