[Leica] [IMG] PAW 26 The British Holiday + Q for Brian

[reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid)]

I assume that by "a RE" you mean a reply, i.e. that you are asking why a 
reply can be received before the message to which it is a reply.

It's almost always caused by intermittent congestion at the recipient's mail 
server. If the mail server is heavily loaded, it will stop accepting mail 
delivery until it has finished processing its heavy load. When this happens, 
the sender's mail server will queue the message for later delivery. If, in 
the interim, a reply comes along and the recipient's mail server is not 
busy, the reply will be delivered immediately. The re-delivery attempt is 
made by the clock: wait 2 hours or 4 hours and try 
again, or something like that.


> Great shot. First impression a bit spoiled by a RE (that got me hooked) 
> that appeared before the initial message came in.
> What could cause this, Brian?
>