Email Delevery Error Codes

How many times you got your outgoing emails back and wondered what is wrong with it? Every time when your email can not be delivered, the SMTP server sends you a notification, which includes a standard error message, associated with the real problem.

Each code is composed of three digits (X.X.X). The first digit gives the status of the email message:

• 2 means the email was succesfully sent;

• 4 means there was a temporary problem while sending the email (your email server may try to send it again or you have to resend it, depending on your server settings). Such error messages are using codes like 4.X.X, where X.X are used in order to give more precise information about the error;

• 5 means there is a permanent/fatal error related to the email (the email address of the receiver does not exist, it doesn’t accept emails from you, etc). Such error messages are using codes like 5.X.X, where X.X are used in order to give more precise information about the error.

Here is a complete list of email delivery error codes, based on the Extended SMTP (ESMTP) standards, where X can be 4 or 5, depending on the error type (Persistent Transient or Permanent):

* X.1.0 Other address status
* X.1.1 Bad destination mailbox address
* X.2.0 Bad destination system address
* X.1.3 Bad destination mailbox address syntax
* X.1.4 Destination mailbox address ambiguous
* X.1.5 Destination mailbox address valid
* X.1.6 Mailbox has moved
* X.1.7 Bad sender’s mailbox address syntax
* X.1.8 Bad sender’s system address

* X.2.0 Other or undefined mailbox status
* X.2.1 Mailbox disabled, not accepting messages
* X.2.2 Mailbox full
* X.2.3 Message length exceeds administrative limit.
* X.2.4 Mailing list expansion problem

* X.3.0 Other or undefined mail system status
* X.3.1 Mail system full
* X.3.2 System not accepting network messages
* X.3.3 System not capable of selected features
* X.3.4 Message too big for system

* X.4.0 Other or undefined network or routing status
* X.4.1 No answer from host
* X.4.2 Bad connection
* X.4.3 Routing server failure
* X.4.4 Unable to route
* X.4.5 Network congestion
* X.4.6 Routing loop detected
* X.4.7 Delivery time expired

* X.5.0 Other or undefined protocol status
* X.5.1 Invalid command
* X.5.2 Syntax error
* X.5.3 Too many recipients
* X.5.4 Invalid command arguments
* X.5.5 Wrong protocol version

* X.6.0 Other or undefined media error
* X.6.1 Media not supported
* X.6.2 Conversion required and prohibited
* X.6.3 Conversion required but not supported
* X.6.4 Conversion with loss performed
* X.6.5 Conversion failed

* X.7.0 Other or undefined security status
* X.7.1 Delivery not authorized, message refused
* X.7.2 Mailing list expansion prohibited
* X.7.3 Security conversion required but not possible
* X.7.4 Security features not supported
* X.7.5 Cryptographic failure
* X.7.6 Cryptographic algorithm not supported
* X.7.7 Message integrity failure

How to Manege Email

Each day billions of e-mail messages zap across the Internet. If it seems that most of them make their way to your Inbox, you’re not alone. “Overwhelming” is how many people feel about this electronic communication. The bad news is that it will only get worse as the popularity of e-mail increases. The good news is that you can avoid drowning in a sea of messages by following some simple steps.

Establish separate business and personal accounts.

Keep your personal and professional lives separate, especially since employers in many countries can legally review messages on company mail server. Do you really want your boss reading those off-color jokes? Having a separate personal account also means you aren’t dealing with personal business on company time.

Develop a routine.

Answer your e-mail at set times during the day–perhaps the first thing in the morning, then mid-afternoon. This prevents incoming mail from interrupting other things you may be doing.

Set up your e-mail software for rapid review.

With e-mail programs such as Microsoft Outlook, you can customize the multi-pane display for quick viewing. Ideally you want to see who the sender is, the subject and be able to read the first few lines of the message. That way you don’t have to open every message to discern its content.

Scan new messages and delete spam immediately.

Junk e-mail has become a fact of electronic life, so turn them to your advantage. Quickly review the message subject line and scan a line or two to identify spam. Now use the Delete key. Weeding out spam reduces your Inbox by half or more, providing a psychological boost when you only have fifty messages to deal with, instead of one hundred!

To further reduce the volume of mail, use filtering tools built into your e-mail program. They let you block messages sent from certain addresses, an excellent way to reduce spam. You can also automatically route messages from certain addresses into folders you set up. For instance, if you belong to a discussion group, messages will go directly into that folder, instead of your Inbox.

Organize messages into folders.

Create a series of folders to categorize your e-mail, using action items (pending, review etc.) and subjects (travel, newsletters, etc.). After you receive messages, file them away for later action and reference. Messages remaining in your Inbox are those requiring immediate action. Reply, then file them too.

Use short responses.

Everyone is pressed for time, so keep replies brief and to the point. E-mail has developed its own shorthand that doesn’t require the formal response of a letter.

Prepare boiler plate responses.

You may find that you are often asked the same questions. To save time and avoid retyping the answers, just cut-and-paste a prepared reply. You can then edit it as required.