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Thread ID: 38879 2003-10-21 03:33:00 Virus maybe??? Receiving emails more than once. somebody (208) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
185345 2003-10-21 03:33:00 I use Hotmail, and recently I've been receiving emails twice, from a couple of senders. Initially it was only one sender (using Xtra), where they would send an email, and I would get 3 copies of it, with about 3 hours delay between each. That only occured with 2-3 out of the 5 or so emails they sent me.

Then today someone else sent me an email, one arrived during the day, and the other arrived at about 4:15pm. I've read the headers, and the only differences in both are the time sent from the Xtra server to the hotmail server.

Could this be an error at Xtra's side, or could my computer be infected with a virus/worm which is making it look like an xtra-side problem?
somebody (208)
185346 2003-10-21 04:02:00 I woulnt be sure but maybee it was a hotmail or xtra problem
Thanks for solving my gwbasic problem
Tyrone Barugh (4750)
185347 2003-10-21 04:04:00 Well you would know if you had a virus if you are running an up-to-date anti-virus scanner, wouldn't you? ;-)

The cause is more likely to be a corrupt Inbox although that is not guaranteed. My Hotmail Inbox within Outlook Express has been doubling-up on received emails just lately but it appears to have been fixed by removing the account and reinstalling it. You could try that and see if that works.
Susan B (19)
185348 2003-10-21 04:07:00 I have an up-to-date version of Norton Antivirus.

The email double-up isn't in my Outlook Express inbox. It's physically being sent to me twice, from one of the Xtra servers which is handling these emails. I receive the 2nd copy of the first email several hours after receiving the first one.

Looking at the headers on the doubled-up emails I got today, they both arrived from the sender's mailserver to one of the Xtra ones at the same time, they were then passed on to another Xtra server, then went from 2 different Xtra servers to the Hotmail server. All times are the same, except for the time the emails arrived at the hotmail server. There were several hours different.

Anybody else having this problem??
somebody (208)
185349 2003-10-21 04:09:00 I would say that this is at the server level, rather than in your computer. If Xtra send the same mail twice, with a three hour gap, it indicates that they didn't get an acknowledgement from hotmail. The mail protocol allows for trying until mail has been acknowldged by the recipient's mail server. Most of the Internet protocols work on the assumption that computers are sometimes down. :D They probably try again at about 3 hour intervals. Graham L (2)
185350 2003-10-21 04:19:00 I think Graham L is correct on this, infact ever since spam and anti-virus filters were put in place this has started to be a common widespread sympton, I use to think my client was the only one with this problem, but I've now discovered more have this problem and it can happen on any ISP.

I turned off his anti-virus/spam protection, even though he never got spam on his ISP account and he hasn't called me back saying the problem persists, so I'm assuming all is fine now.
Kame (312)
185351 2003-10-21 04:21:00 Thanks Graham. That might explain why it happens only to some senders (so far 2), and why it doesn't occur with every email they send.

I've emailed Xtra to ask them anyway.
somebody (208)
185352 2003-10-21 07:57:00 I used to get it a bit from some people. I am on watchdog. mejobloggs (264)
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