PNCE User Docs: Forwarding Email with Full Headers

PNCE User Documentation: Email

Forwarding email to PCS with Full Headers

While PCS is pleased to provide the department with an email service which for the most part "just works", there are occasional glitches. Sometimes on our end, sometimes on the other end, sometimes in multiple places. PCS will try to assist with resolving these issues when they arise and are brought to our attention. Often, half the battle is just figuring out what is going on, and this can be particularly challenging with spam and virus laden emails which frequently are involved in such problems and which try to obfuscate what is happening.

If there is a problem with a message you have received, we can often gleen much information from the actual email. There is actually a fair bit of tracking information attached to each email message, most of which is not shown by default. It is generally helpful if you can forward that email with the full headers to PCS. Here are some tips for that:

• Unless you suspect the message may have a virus or other malware, try not to delete it until after you have contacted PCS and they responded (forwarding the message successfully, if that is requested). If you suspect a virus or other malware, delete the message unless told otherwise by PCS. You may also need to delete large messages.
• Submit a physhelp about the problem. Please remember that we are not psychic, so some description of the problem (including why you find it anomolous) would be helpful.
• Forward the message to PCS staff, and try to include full headers when forwarding it.
  • The following sites contain instructions on how to forward email with the full headers for many common mail clients.
    • Purdue University's page
    • Michigan State University's page
    • Columbia University's page
  • Please make sure to include a reasonable subject line. In particular, if the problematic mail has a subject line generated from a mail server about bounced mail, etc., please do not use that in your subject line (we get tons of bounce and similar messages from departmental mailing lists and your message will be hard to find amid all the noise).
  • If you are forwarding something you think may have a virus, please note so in the subject line (e.g Possible Virus: ....).
  • The physhelp mail interface is not very intelligent, and generally mangles anything beyond a simple text message. Attachments in particular are often made useless. Therefore, it is best if you both submit a physhelp to ensure the issue is put into our queue and send email to PCS to preserve the mail structure when dealing with this type of email problem.
  • If possible, it is best if you can keep the problematic email(s) until after you forward them to PCS and PCS replies that they were successfully received. Forwarding email with full headers can be a little tricky, and without the full headers it may be difficult or impossible to really solve the problem. By retaining the original email, we can eventually get at the headers. You can delete once we acknowledge receipt of the headers (and bug us if don't hear back in a reasonable time frame). If you think the email may have a virus or other email, however, it may be best to delete immediately. Also, delete immediately if the email is using up your quota.