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Configuring SMTP Timeouts

You can specify the length of time Clearswift Gateway waits for various SMTP actions to occur. You configure the timeouts as part of the SMTP delivery and reception settings.

To specify SMTP timeouts

1. From the System Center Home page, click SMTP Settings. The SMTP Settings page appears.
2. Click Advanced Settings to display the SMTP Advanced Settings page. The Timeouts area lists the current settings for each timeout.
3. Move the mouse pointer over the Timeouts area and click Click here to change these settings.
4. Edit the required timeouts:

• Seconds to wait for a response to a HELO or EHLO command.
• Seconds to wait for establishing a delivery connection, that is, a response to a connection attempt for sending outbound messages. The default setting of 0 specifies that the timeout defaults to the system value set for connection attempts. Typically, this is 60 seconds. You can enter a smaller value to reduce this default.
• Hours to wait before non-delivering a message on the Ready for Delivery queue.

  Non-delivering a message means removing the message from the Ready for Delivery queue and sending the sender a Non-Delivery message.  

5. Edit the remaining setting to configure how the system handles messages where delivery has been deferred. These messages are placed in the Dispatch Retry queue.

To specify dispatch retry message timeouts

You can set how the system handles deferred messages, or those that it cannot deliver on the first attempt. The non-delivery reason could be, for example, because the receiving host is down, or the DNS MX record was not found.  For deferred messages, you can configure:

• The poll interval in seconds for delivering deferred messages.
• The minimum time in seconds between attempts to deliver deferred messages.
• The maximum time in seconds between attempts to deliver deferred messages.
• The time in hours to wait before generating a warning about messages in the dispatch/retry queue. This warning takes the form of an email message to the sender with a subject like:
  Delivery delayed: <original message subject>

The process for each deferred message is as follows:

1. The message is placed in the Dispatch Retry queue, and the Gateway attempts to re-send the message at intervals set by the delivery retry time.
2. After the messages older than time, the Gateway attempts to re-send the message at intervals set by the new delivery retry time.
3. After the message non-deliver time, the Gateway discards the message.

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