Steve Cowles wrote: > Robert L Cochran wrote: > > Just by way of commentary -- I'll have to find a backup mail > > server some day -- perhaps with a friend living far away who > > keeps a machine on 24X7. I wonder how many businesses and > > individuals went without backup mail service when the power > > went out in New York. > > Just my two cents on this... > > Unless overidden, most MTA's default configurations will try to deliver > e-mail for 5 days. So configuring a backup MX for your domain will not > necessarily help until after the fifth day of outage. You are incorrect. Having a backup MX will help immediately. In the case where your primary MX is down, the sender's MTA will try your secondary MX pretty much right away. MTA's will try to deliver the message to each of the listed MX's, in order of their priorities, and the 5-day wait doesn't come into play until all possible MX's have been tried. All sensible MTA's work that way; they don't wait 5 days before trying a secondary. Also, keep in mind that the primary MX isn't necessarily always the final destination for the email... --Jarod -- Shrike-list mailing list Shrike-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/shrike-list
