- E-mail loop
An e-mail loop is an
infinite loop phenomenon, resulting frommail server s, scripts, ore-mail client s that generate automatic replies or responses. If one such automatic response triggers another automatic response on the other side, an e-mail loop is created. The process can continue until one mailbox is full or reaches its mail sending limit. In some cases, the e-mail loop could last an infinite duration. E-mail loops may be caused accidentally or maliciously, causingdenial of service . Although rare, e-mail loops involving more than two participants can also occur.E-mail loops are not as common today as in the past, due to changes to e-mail software, both on the client side and the server side, that prevent automatic replies to vacation responses and bounced mail responses.Fact|date=February 2007
Costs of an e-mail loop
* Bandwidth: E-mail loops use up limited bandwidth over networks.
* Processing time: E-mail loops will take up processing time, and could slow down other processes.
*Disk space : Automatic e-mails are usually stored in the mailboxes of participants.
* Human Time:Network administrators may have to intervene to fix the problem, or clean up mailboxes. Also the mailbox user/owner will have to delete the numerous responses in order to clean up their mailbox.Causes
*
Autoresponder s, such as automatic "on vacation" replies
* E-mail bounces due to, for example, exceeding the inboxdisk quota
* Replies to indicate that that mail has been delivered
* Replies toe-mail read-receipt sPrevention
* The mail system should retain Headers of incoming E-mail while performing any type of auto-forwarding operation.
* Auto Responder: Do not send more than 'x' replies to the same sender.External links
* [http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2001-November/015081.html Vacation E-Mail Loop]
* [http://computing-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/mail+loop The Free Dictionary]
* [http://www.digitalpoint.com/lists/18554.html Mail Loop Error]
*RFC 2919
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.