Saturday, December 8, 2012

When e-mail isn't so instantaneous

Have you ever sent an e-mail to someone and they don't answer back?
I am learning that e-mail may not be the fastest way of communicating.
We have a friend and customer, let's call him Ken since that's his real name, who asked me up at camp last summer if we were having problems with the Internet. I told him no. Then why aren't you answering my e-mails, he asked. That would be because we never got any from him!
My first thought was that our computer's spam filter was erroneously labeling his e-mails as spam. Not so. None of his e-mails were in the spam folder.
Then it occurred to me that our Internet Service Provider's spam filter was doing it. Nope.
Ken's e-mails just never got here and now he thinks we are shunning him. We're not Ken, really.
I don't know what is going on for sure but here is something we've seen happen to ourselves.
You know how your computer is given a unique IP address when you sign on to the Internet? It's unique alright, unique to you and about 50 other people at the same time. If any of them have been blacklisted by a spam filter, none of you can send e-mails. And there is no message that comes to you warning that this is happening.
If you have sent us an e-mail and we haven't answered, I can guarantee you that it was because it never got here. Pick up the phone and call us! You know for sure then that you are really communicating.
Our winter phone number is: 807-475-7246
We are here most of the time and if not, leave a message on our answering machine. We absolutely will get back to you.

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