Some users receive same message many times

[sfulwood]

Our ability mail server has been running for forty-four days now. Today I arrive at the office to find that two users are receiving their messages several times over (3, to 4, to five times.) All of my users use Outlook 2003 as their mail client in an XP Pro environment.

This makes no sense to me and I'm hoping that someone else has encountered this situation and knows the answer to fix it.

Thanks in advance,

Scott

[Code Crafters]

The most common causes for receiving the same messages multiple times are that the message was either sent multiple times or the message was to many recipients of which more than one is for a single user due to alias email addresses, content filtering or more commonly POP3 retrieval downloads from an ISP with delivery redistribution.

We are planning to eventually add a multiple message filter that will use some basic information such as the message ID, subject, sender, recipients etc. to avoid multiple delivery of the same email to any one user account where possible. However, I can't promise when this might be but will forward this onto the rest of the team.

[sfulwood]

Thank you for the quick response Chris. This issue is very sporadic and first appeared about three weeks ago with another user. That issue resolved itself without any intervention from me. Today it affected my boss and another executive committee member. They were the only two names in the TO: field in a message coming from our General Manager. Below is a c&p from the logfile.

You will see that wnelson has a successful login, but no purge action while other users have a successful login and purge. Later in the log, wnelson has a successful login and purge and that is when he stopped receiving the duplicate messages.

The log files show the same thing happening for my boss.

What should I look for that would be preventing the purge from occurring? Or am I totally off base in the log files?

Scott
---
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:00 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Accept Connection], Details=[Port 110]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:00 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Login], Details=[wnelson@rad##.com]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:00 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[List Inbox UIDL Contents], Details=[24 mails.]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:00 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[List Inbox Contents], Details=[24 mails.]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:01 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1293]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:20 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1294]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:21 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1295]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:32:48 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1296]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:04 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1297]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:19 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1298]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:42 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1299]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:43 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1300]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:50 -> 32.128.129.149 -> Success: Action=[Accept Connection], Details=[Port 110]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:52 -> 32.128.129.149 -> Success: Action=[Login], Details=[cvargas@rad##.com]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:53 -> 32.128.129.149 -> Success: Action=[List Inbox UIDL Contents], Details=[163 mails.]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:53 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1301]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:54 -> 32.128.129.149 -> Success: Action=[Quit (Purge Flagged Mails)], Details=[Deleted 0 mails.]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:54 -> 32.128.129.149 -> Success: Action=[Close Connection]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:54 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1302]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:33:54 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1303]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:04 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1304]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:05 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1305]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:14 -> 10.34.12.107 -> Success: Action=[Accept Connection], Details=[Port 110]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:14 -> 10.34.12.107 -> Success: Action=[Login], Details=[cdmellin@rad##.com]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:14 -> 10.34.12.107 -> Success: Action=[Quit (Purge Flagged Mails)], Details=[Deleted 0 mails.]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:14 -> 10.34.12.107 -> Success: Action=[Close Connection]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:18 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1306]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:38 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1307]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:40 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1308]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:34:41 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1309]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:12 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1310]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:15 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1311]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:17 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1312]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:18 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1313]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:20 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1314]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:21 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1315]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:21 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1316]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:24 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Quit (Purge Flagged Mails)], Details=[Deleted 0 mails.]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:24 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Close Connection]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:25 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Accept Connection], Details=[Port 110]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:25 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Login], Details=[wnelson@rad##.com]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:25 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[List Inbox UIDL Contents], Details=[24 mails.]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:25 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[List Inbox Contents], Details=[24 mails.]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:25 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1293]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:29 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1294]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:30 -> 10.34.12.111 -> Success: Action=[Retrieve Mail], Details=[UID=1295]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:46 -> 208.54.94.59 -> Success: Action=[Accept Connection], Details=[Port 110]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:49 -> 208.54.94.59 -> Success: Action=[Login], Details=[slam@rad##.com]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:50 -> 10.34.12.95 -> Success: Action=[Accept Connection], Details=[Port 110]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:50 -> 10.34.12.95 -> Success: Action=[Login], Details=[classala@rad##.com]
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:35:50 -> 10.34.12.95 -> Success: Action=[Quit (Purge Flagged Mails)], Details=[Deleted 0 mails.]
Mon, 21 Ju

[Code Crafters]

Your mail client (e.g. outlook) may have a setting enabled to not delete mails after downloading or similar. Check all the settings and use the same client as used for the successful downloads if possible then you can replicate the settings. Also, be careful that no antivirus software is running on the mail server / client computers that is intercepting and changing the POP3 communication sent between the client and server.