reader said:
Thanks for the replies.
So If I am not using Exchange as a mail client I can forget about
receipts?
Long ago I was using Eudora and was able to get receipts sent to me as
a separate email using my domain pop3 as I am using with Outlook 2003.
I didn't know I needed Exchange.
Doesn't look like Exchange is a requirement to me. I use my ISP's
POP3/SMTP servers. I sent myself a test message with the delivery
receipt option enabled. I got a delivery confirmation e-mail from my
ISP's mail server. The text/plain MIME part said:
Your message was successfully delivered to:
<recipientemailaddress>
The message/delivery-status MIME part said:
Reporting-MTA: dns; <host>.<myispdomain>
Final_Recipient: rfc822;<recipientemailaddress>
Action: delivered
Status: 2.0.0
Whether or not the *request* for a delivery reciept is honored depends
on whether or not the receiving mail server wants to bother with it or
not. It probably works 100% in an Exchange environment but is iffy when
sending to Internet mail servers, but not trying guarantees no delivery
receipt.
I would suspect it's just the sender's SMTP server acknowledging if the
receiving mail server was found, a connection made, and the e-mail
accepted within that same connection. If the receiving mail server
doesn't qualify the recipient during the connection, you could end up
getting a delivery confirmation e-mail and then later another
non-delivery bounceback message when the receiving mail server got
around to actually trying to deliver your message but found the
recipient was undefined, disabled, exceeded their quota, or whatever
problem occurred. So the delivery receipt only tells you that the
recieving mail server accepted your message from your sending mail
server, not that it actually got delivered to the recipient's mailbox.
If this the case, a delivery receipt is worthless. Your own SMTP server
will send you an NDR (non-delivery receipt) e-mail if it finds your
message is undeliverable; could not find target mail server, target mail
server is not responsive, target mail server reports no such username,
etc.). So the *absence* of an NDR bounceback message performs the same
function as a delivery receipt - and you'll get a lot less "fluff"
status messages returned to you.
There will no tracking feature when using a delivery receipt to a POP3
server; you just get the status e-mail sent back to you. There probably
is tracking when using Exchange as the mail server (but I would suspect
the recipient must also be using the same Exchange server).
