Email to IM question

(I've posted this already on Linden Answers, but after noticing the number of replies that questions there usually get, I've decided to post it again here.)

I've been replying by mail to IMs forwarded to my email address for ages. Usually that works great, as the reply address remains the same for each correspondent.

I've had one person though where the reply address was different in all 3 forwarded IMs I received from her, and with this person my replies bounced. The bounce message said "This email to instant message session has expired."

In another case the reply addresses were the same, but one of my replies bounced anyway. In this case, the bounce message was "Target agent not found."

Could someone please explain what conditions must be met for this to work reliably? Also, why the reply address remains the same with most people, but changes with some?


Thanks,

Dylan

Just a guess Dylan but mebbe the other poster has to remain in one session for the address to stay the same?
I've seen a post about Emailing into an IM back in the near past. could clear your prob up.

No ... usually the address stays the same always. I've been on SL for 2 month now and have people with whom I've been corresponding since the beginning - their addresses have stayed the same all that time. There is just that one exception.



That thread was very interesting, but had nothing to do with this specific question.

Thanks,

Dylan

The e-mail addresses are temporary; if they're not used for a certain period (I think this has varied in the past from weeks to days) then they're deleted, and a new one will be generated the next time an outbound IM-to-email message is sent. The rationale behind this was to avoid exposing a "fixed" e-mail address to the outside world which could subsequently become a spam target.

That said, if you communicate regularly using the e-mail address, it'll stay alive.

Ah, to expand on Shep's comment could it be some posters have fixed IP addresses and some dynamic?

No, I don't recall that being a factor. In case you're wondering where I got my info from, this same question has been answered - at length - by Lindens in the past ... but I think the thread might have been eaten by the forum archive monster

Sadly I can't really assist in this but to say it does seem random. Some people I email to IM work and some don't. Some even last days and then poof. It may be an ip thing but sadly never tested it and it's hard to tell unless all your friends are monitoring thier IPs.