X400: Retry Times on Failures to Connect to MTA (102746)

SUMMARY

Version 3.2 of Microsoft Mail Gateway to X.400 performs three mail exchange processes:

It receives inbound messages sent from X.400 systems to Microsoft Mail for PC Networks postoffices, and it receives outbound messages sent from Microsoft Mail postoffices to X.400 systems.
It routes messages and queues them for a specific X.400 message transfer agent (MTA) or for a Microsoft Mail postoffice.
It transmits outbound messages to remote X.400 MTAs and delivers inbound messages to Microsoft Mail postoffices.

If the X.400 Gateway MTA fails to connect to another X.400 MTA, it continues trying to make the connection until it is successful or until the message time-out period expires. The interval between attempts grows exponentially to a maximum of 24 hours.

Here is an example of exponential growth of the interval between attempts:

   Failure Number      Time to Wait
   -------------------------------------------------------------------

         1               1 minute
         2               5 minutes
         3              15 minutes
         4              60 minutes
         5               2 hours
         6               3 hours
         7               6 hours
         8              12 hours
        ...             ...
         N              24 hours

MORE INFORMATION

If an incoming connection is established between the X.400 Gateway MTA and an external X.400 MTA it has been trying to connect to, the X.400 Gateway MTA attempts an outgoing connection immediately after processing the incoming mail.

You can set the time-out period in the X.400 Administrator program (X400ADM.EXE) in the X.400 Profile section, under Message Timeout.

Here are the default message time-out periods:

   Microsoft         X.400            Default
   Mail Priority     Mail Priority    Time-Out Period
   -------------------------------------------------------------------
   Normal            Normal           24 hours
   Low               Non-urgent       36 hours
   High              Urgent           45 minutes