OVH has a mail redirection service that fails quite badly. It’s a little bit slower, or at least it’s always the slowest point of the mail transmission chain. But sometimes it’s REALLY slow. Like 10 hours slow. An other interesting point is that their redirection server time is totally out of sync.

This is a little problem for me as I use mails intensively. I had setup some postfix/mysql redirection before and I think I will have to come back to that.

I contacted OVH to tell them this and they basically explained me that I’m quite likely to be the one that didn’t setup my server properly.

Here are the details :

Good mail

Delivered-To: ***@gmail.com
Received: by 10.231.183.19 with SMTP id ce19cs102765ibb;
        <strong>Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:58:52 -0700 (PDT)</strong>
Received: by 10.216.13.17 with SMTP id a17mr8135853wea.46.1287579531550;
       <strong>Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:58:51 -0700 (PDT)</strong>
Return-Path: &lt;***@aol.com>
Received: from 12.mail-out.ovh.net (12.mail-out.ovh.net [91.121.28.205])
        by mx.google.com with SMTP id t36si315163weq.130.2010.10.20.05.58.51;
        <strong>Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:58:51 -0700 (PDT)</strong>
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 91.121.28.205 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of ***@aol.com) client-ip=91.121.28.205;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 91.121.28.205 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of ***@aol.com) smtp.mail=***@aol.com
Received: (qmail 22703 invoked by uid 503); <strong>20 Oct 2010 12:58:50 -0000</strong>
Received: from b3.ovh.net (HELO redirect.ovh.net) (213.186.33.53)
  by 12.mail-out.ovh.net with SMTP; <strong>20 Oct 2010 12:58:50 -0000</strong>
Received: from redirect.ovh.net (HELO queue) ()
	by redirect.ovh.net with SMTP; <strong>20 Oct 2010 13:49:57 -0000</strong>
Received: from imr-ma06.mx.aol.com (64.12.78.142)
  by redirect.ovh.net with SMTP; <strong>20 Oct 2010 13:49:57 -0000</strong>
Received: by ORT (Ovh Redirect Technology) ver:1.0
		&lt; ***@aol.com
		> ***@webingenia.com >> ***@gmail.com (found)
Received: from imo-da02.mx.aol.com (imo-da02.mx.aol.com [205.188.169.200])
	by imr-ma06.mx.aol.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id o9KCwZki004337
	for &lt;florent.clairambault@webingenia.com>; <strong>Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:58:35 -0400</strong>
Received: from ***@aol.com
	by imo-da02.mx.aol.com  (mail_out_v42.9.) id f.f74.5c8f54c (37518)
	 for &lt;florent.clairambault@webingenia.com>; <strong>Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:58:31 -0400 (EDT)</strong>
Received: from magic-d27.mail.aol.com (magic-d27.mail.aol.com [172.19.146.161]) by cia-ma08.mx.aol.com (v129.5) with ESMTP id MAILCIAMA083-928e4cbee777113; <strong>Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:58:31 -0400</strong>

So here is what it means :

<td>
  Date in mail header
</td>

<td>
  UTC Date
</td>

<td>
  Time elapsed since first date
</td>
<td>
  Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:58:31 -0400
</td>

<td>
  20/10/2010 12:58:31
</td>

<td>
  0s
</td>
<td>
  Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:58:35 -0400
</td>

<td>
  20/10/2010 15:58:35
</td>

<td>
  4s
</td>
<td>
  20 Oct 2010 13:49:57 -0000
</td>

<td>
  20/10/2010 13:49:57
</td>

<td>
  <em>nonsense</em>
</td>
<td>
  20 Oct 2010 12:58:50 -0000
</td>

<td>
  20/10/2010 12:58:50
</td>

<td>
  19s
</td>

<tr>
  <td>
    To gmail
  </td>
  
  <td>
    Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:58:52 -0700 (PDT)
  </td>
  
  <td>
    20/10/2010 12:58:52
  </td>
  
  <td>
    21s
  </td>
</tr></table> 

Bad mail

Delivered-To: ***@gmail.com
Received: by 10.231.183.19 with SMTP id ce19cs10141ibb;
        <strong>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:56:19 -0700 (PDT)</strong>
Received: by 10.216.188.211 with SMTP id a61mr6239173wen.15.1287467777688;
        <strong>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:56:17 -0700 (PDT)</strong>
Return-Path: &lt;***@aol.com>
Received: from 12.mail-out.ovh.net (12.mail-out.ovh.net [91.121.28.205])
        by mx.google.com with SMTP id w64si17380878weq.71.2010.10.18.22.56.17;
        <strong>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:56:17 -0700 (PDT)</strong>
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 91.121.28.205 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of ***@aol.com) client-ip=91.121.28.205;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 91.121.28.205 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of ***@aol.com) smtp.mail=***@aol.com
Received: (qmail 16005 invoked by uid 503); 19 Oct 2010 05:56:17 -0000
Received: from b3.ovh.net (HELO redirect.ovh.net) (213.186.33.53)
  by 12.mail-out.ovh.net with SMTP; <strong>19 Oct 2010 05:56:15 -0000</strong>
Received: from redirect.ovh.net (HELO queue) ()
	by redirect.ovh.net with SMTP; 18 Oct 2010 15:11:21 -0000
Received: from imr-da01.mx.aol.com (205.188.105.143)
  by redirect.ovh.net with SMTP; 18 Oct 2010 15:11:21 -0000
Received: by ORT (Ovh Redirect Technology) ver:1.0
		&lt; ***@aol.com
		> ***@webingenia.com >> ***@gmail.com (found)
Received: from imo-da03.mx.aol.com (imo-da03.mx.aol.com [205.188.169.201])
	by imr-da01.mx.aol.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id o9IFQP15001519
	for &lt;florent.clairambault@webingenia.com>; <strong>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:26:25 -0400</strong>
Received: from ***@aol.com
	by imo-da03.mx.aol.com  (mail_out_v42.9.) id f.f62.563cefb (43895)
	 for &lt;florent.clairambault@webingenia.com>; Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:26:23 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from magic-m23.mail.aol.com (magic-m23.mail.aol.com [172.20.22.196]) by cia-dc05.mx.aol.com (v129.5) with ESMTP id MAILCIADC058-ab774cbc671f141; <strong>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:26:23 -0400</strong>
<td>
  Date in mail header
</td>

<td>
  UTC Date
</td>

<td>
  Time elapsed since first date
</td>
<td>
  Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:26:23 -0400
</td>

<td>
  18/10/2010 15:26:23
</td>

<td>
  0s
</td>
<td>
  Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:26:25 -0400
</td>

<td>
  18/10/2010 15:26:25
</td>

<td>
  2s
</td>
<td>
  18 Oct 2010 15:11:21 -0000
</td>

<td>
  18/10/2010 15:11:21
</td>

<td>
  <em>nonsense</em>
</td>
<td>
  19 Oct 2010 05:56:15 -0000
</td>

<td>
  19/10/2010 05:56:15
</td>

<td>
  9h40
</td>

<tr>
  <td>
    To gmail
  </td>
  
  <td>
    Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:56:19 -0700 (PDT)
  </td>
  
  <td>
    19/10/2010 05:56:19
  </td>
  
  <td>
    9h40
  </td>
</tr>