System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send/Exchange latency

Question

The C# application sends an email using System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send The application's log file shows that the Send method succeeded at 11:39 When I open the email in Outlook and do File|Properties, it shows Sent: 11:39 AM Received: 11:41 AM

If I go to View|Options , the headers show: Received: from XXX by YYY with Microsoft SMTPSVC [...] 11:41:15 [...] Date: 9 Dec 2009 11:38:51 [...] X-OriginalArrivalTime: [...] 11:41:15.0250

So my question is - if the Send method came back at 11:39, but the server only received it at 11:41, where did the email spend the 2 minutes? In other words, is there something that needs to be configured on the machine that runs the application or on the Exchange server?

Answer 1

The first thing to check is that the client and Exchange server have their times in sync. Usually there's more noticeable problems when a server like Exchange is out of sync time-wise, but it's possible to be a couple minutes off and not be noticed for a while.