About Email Status

Table of Contents

     Status Definitions
     Status Determination
     Why does USPS do "Bounce" Processing?
     Status Correction
     Email Provider Considerations

Email Status Definitions

The USPS WebServer attempts to determine the validity of each member's email address in a process described below. There are 11 possible status values. They are listed here along with an explanation of what they mean. In the discussion below an email address is assumed to have the format X@Y.Z where X is the mailbox (name) and Y.Z is the Email Service Provider or ESP. Following the status is an = with a value in quotes. That value is displayed in DB2000 in the column labeled "< Test".

The server analyzes "bounces" which are emails rejected by an ESP and uses the analysis to determine the status of the email as viewed by the server.

This status represents the ability of server to send email to a mailbox. A email address may be legitimate but if the server cannot communicate with an address the server considers it undeliverable. See discussion below.

Status 0 - 3 are considered to be deliverable. A status of 4 or above is considered undeliverable and the USPS server will not send emails to addresses with those status.

"Untested"=" " - A temporary status for email addresses which have not yet been tested for validity. The server will send a test message to the email address and set the status to deliverable when a " " status is encountered. This status is treated as deliverable.

"Deliverable"="0" - This is the default and unless a bounce occurs the email address remains in this status.

"Network Timeout"="1" - Unable to contact the ESP within 30 seconds. While the status is uncommon and the cause is undetermined, it is treated as deliverable.

"ESP Unreachable"="2" - Unable to contact the ESP from the server. While the status is uncommon and the cause is undetermined, it is treated as deliverable. This can happen when part of the internet is being updated. However it is usually caused by an incorrectly entered ESP specification.

"Temporary Refusal"="3" - The ESP refused a connection. This is reset to deliverable the next morning.

"Msgs Undeliverable"="4" - four or more undeliverable or blocked bounces have occurred within the 2 months. Once in this status the email status must be manually cleared. See below

"Held/Full/Blocked"="5" - The ESP was sent a message and said the Mailbox although valid was not accepting any emails. An ESP may return this status if there is an illegal alias/relay which was set up by the mailbox owner to forward messages to a different address.

"ESP Blocking Delivery"="6" - The server received a message rejected "bounce" from the ESP for an email sent to the mailbox. This may be do to an owner spam filter, the owner blacklisting USPS.org, or in rare cases the ESP itself may be rejecting USPS.org.

"Mailbox Invalid"="7" - The ESP when sent a message and replied that the mailbox was unknown. Sometimes this occurs when you change ESPs and the new mailbox has not yet been activated An email address which is marked as "Held/Full/Blocked"="5" 4 times within two months is set to this status. Once in this status the email status must be manually cleared. See below

"Provider Invalid"="8" - There is no such ESP connected to the Internet. This is usually caused by an incorrectly entered ESP specification, check the email address carefully for errors. An email address which is marked as "ESP Unreachable"-"2" 4 times within two months is set to this status. Once in this status the email status must be manually cleared. See below.

"Format Invalid"="9" - The format of the email address is incorrect and does not conform to Email naming standards. Usually caused by a typo - check the email address carefully. An email in this status cannot be reset manually. It is undeliverable.


     Return to Contents

Email Status Determination

The WebServer uses two mechanisms for determining email status.

Email Status Testing

When a new email address is entered on the server for a member or a student or for a specific function such as a boating course contact, the email address is checked for a valid format. If the syntax is incorrect it is marked as status "9". If the format is valid, the ESP is checked to see if it exists and can be located on the internet. If the check fails the status is set to "8". If both these checks are successful, the status is set to "0" and a message is sent to the email address which explains that this is a new email address to the USPS Webserver and receiving the email verifies that it is a valid address. The recipient is advised not to reply to the message.

When a new member email address is entered via DB2000 or manually at HQ, the new email address along with an "Untested" status are passed the next morning to the WebServer. A morning run will perform new email processing as above and the resulting status is put in the membership database and sent to HQ in real time.

Every night approximately 4000 member email address statuses are checked by the server. This means that over approximately a two week period all email addresses are checked. If the status is "0", "4", "7", "8" or "9" no action is taken because these are considered permanent errors. However, if it is "1", "2", "5" or "6" the status is set to valid "0" and a test message is sent to the email address explaining that the email had bounced and this is an attempt to see if the situation had been rectified. This is done providing that less than 4 bounces against this email address have occurred within the last two months. If there are 4 or more bounces the email is set to a permanent failure status of "4", "7" or "8" depending on the type of bounce encountered.

Any changes made to an email status on the server are communicated to the main computer at HQ immediately and will be forwarded to DB2000 in the next download.

"Bounce" Processing

A number of programs which run on the WebServer send emails to USPS members. Many of these run under accounts associated with email addresses "nobody@usps.org" and "noreply@usps.org". If the receiving ESP has an issue, including SPAM filtering, with the email it will reject the email and "bounce" it back to the USPS server. There is a process running on the server which reads bounces for the two email addresses and sets the email status for the receiving member's email depending on the nature of the bounce. This is a very complex process and is constantly being refined.

Two types of bounce codes used in the analysis are Error Codes and Status Codes. Unfortunately ESPs do not play by the rules and freely interpret the meanings of codes.

A bounce history log is produced by the bounce interpreting process.

There is a tool available to examine bounce history to help understand why a bad status has been set. It is on the information center and is entitled Check email bounce history.

One thing to remember, test messages sent out as part of status testing may be bounced by the ESP and will be subject to bounce processing.


     Return to Contents

Why does USPS do "Bounce" Processing?

For two reasons:

  • First is to allow anyone looking at email addresses or sending to an email address from the USPS server or from DB2000 to let them know that the message may not get delivered to the individual. When you send email using the USPS Server that email should be delivered. The address may be explicit and displayed on your browser or it may be hidden in the background as in when you register for a class. The USPS Server will not let you send to an undeliverable or blocked address.
  • The second is a very real issue call "network reputation". If you have a bad "network reputation", ESPs will consider you a spammer and block all emails from your site. We have been in this situation and it is very difficult to repair. One of the measures of your reputation is how often you send emails to undeliverable or blocked email addresses. Wishing to maintain our reputation we will not send email from the server to an undeliverable or blocked address.

     Return to Contents

Email Status Correction

The WebServer provides two mechanisms for re-validating and correcting email status.

Any member can go to the information center and follow the Manage Your own profile link. After the Email Status is a link entitled "Set to Deliverable" if the status is not currently deliverable. If they follow that link they can opt to set their email status to deliverable and a test message will be sent to their email addresses. However, understand that if the ESP bounces that email their status will be reset to undeliverable the next morning.

Qualified jobholders may set the email status for other members to deliverable using the Manage Email Status link on the information center page. They are provided a form where they can enter a certificate number. The process works the same way as above. Any Squadron Bridge Officer or the Roster Contact is qualified to correct the email status for any member of their squadron. Any member of ITCom is qualified to correct any email status.

There is actually a third way to change email status. That is to change the actual email address where it is incorrect. Members may update their own profile and qualified jobholders may change the email address using the member's profile or the tool described above. The new email address will be treated as deliverable, the status will be sent to HQ and a test message will be sent to the new email address. Changes to email addresses may also be made using DB2000. These changes will not be marked "untested" and will be validated on the server the next day.


     Return to Contents

Email Service Provider Considerations

If your email address is valid and the USPS server has a different status it is likely that the problem is occurring with the ESP mailbox configuration, and corrective action may be required. You must take corrective action by either changing your options or contacting your ESP. Here are several possibilities.

  • It is possible you have not paid a bill and service is on hold.
  • You may have exceeded your allowed number of saved emails.
  • A spam filter is rejecting emails sent from the USPS Server. Set your ESP's profile to allow mail from the domain www.usps.org or to receive emails from the specific email addresses "nobody@usps.org" and "noreply@usps.org".
  • A special case of a spam filter is one where you only allow emails from known individuals. Usually the sender receives a bounce stating that they have to enter special characters on a screen in order for the message to be accepted. Bounces to the USPS server are not monitored by a live individual. Hence you will never get emails from us unless you "White List" nobody@usps.org and noreply@usps.org.
  • You have a forward from your mailbox to another mailbox. Some ESPs will block this type of forwarding with a response of "Relaying is not allowed". Check with your ESP you may not be able to use a forward or alias.
  • After mass mailings by the USPS Server, for instance renewal notices, certain high level monitors will brand USPS as a "Spammer" and block any email reception. If you suspect this is the problem, contact your ESP to remove the block.
     Return to Contents