Second Life Forums Archive - What's too long for an email delivery?

Monica Balut

Beam-Me

Join date: 18 Feb 2007

Posts: 311

08-20-2007 20:21

I have two objects communicating by email. Part of the encrypted message includes a time stamp so I can tell how long a time has elapsed between sending and reception. I'd like the receiver to ignore emails that have taken too long, suggesting a possible replay attack or a stale message. But what is too long? In your experience, how long do emails usually take if you can assume that both objects are online and in SL? What is a reasonable time limit to set beyond which you would discard an email as stale?

Monica Balut

Beam-Me

Join date: 18 Feb 2007

Posts: 311

08-21-2007 11:33

I'm surprise that no one has answered this yet. What I'm asking for here is, in your experience, how long do emails take to get delivered if both sender & receiver are in-world? My experience is that it takes about a second or less. What have your experiences been?

The point of this is that I don't want "old" emails sitting around and would like the object to not respond to them under the assumption that the sender has gone on to other things.

Also some folks recommend putting a time stamp into the message to thwart replay attacks. That also involves ignoring messages that are too old.

So what's your experience with delivery time folks? Could I assume that if it's not delivered in 10,30,60,120 ... seconds something has gone wrong?

Milambus Oh

Registered User

Join date: 6 Apr 2007

Posts: 224

08-21-2007 11:41

All email in game is handled by one server, so its not uncommon for it to get backed up. I've heard of it backing up for hours.

The question is really, how much fault tolerance do you think your app should have in it? Will acting upon a message older than 2 mins harm it? Will acting upon a message longer than 30 seconds cause problems?

Kenn Nilsson

AeonVox

Join date: 24 May 2005

Posts: 897

08-21-2007 11:56

In my experience, from in-world object to in-world object, I've never had to wait more than 2 minutes for an e-mail to complete. HOWEVER, working with objects that receive external e-mails, I've waited for up to 12 hours (yes, 12 hours).

_____________________

--AeonVox--

Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms chasing ghosts, eating magic pills, and listening to repetitive, addictive, electronic music.

Milambus Oh

Registered User

Join date: 6 Apr 2007

Posts: 224

08-21-2007 12:35

Thats right, its external emails that can take so long to be delivered.. because of the single web server interface into SL. But in world emailing happens more directly.

Sorry for my confusion above.

What's too long for an email delivery?
Monica Balut Beam-Me Join date: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 311	08-20-2007 20:21 I have two objects communicating by email. Part of the encrypted message includes a time stamp so I can tell how long a time has elapsed between sending and reception. I'd like the receiver to ignore emails that have taken too long, suggesting a possible replay attack or a stale message. But what is too long? In your experience, how long do emails usually take if you can assume that both objects are online and in SL? What is a reasonable time limit to set beyond which you would discard an email as stale?
Monica Balut Beam-Me Join date: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 311	08-21-2007 11:33 I'm surprise that no one has answered this yet. What I'm asking for here is, in your experience, how long do emails take to get delivered if both sender & receiver are in-world? My experience is that it takes about a second or less. What have your experiences been? The point of this is that I don't want "old" emails sitting around and would like the object to not respond to them under the assumption that the sender has gone on to other things. Also some folks recommend putting a time stamp into the message to thwart replay attacks. That also involves ignoring messages that are too old. So what's your experience with delivery time folks? Could I assume that if it's not delivered in 10,30,60,120 ... seconds something has gone wrong?
Milambus Oh Registered User Join date: 6 Apr 2007 Posts: 224	08-21-2007 11:41 All email in game is handled by one server, so its not uncommon for it to get backed up. I've heard of it backing up for hours. The question is really, how much fault tolerance do you think your app should have in it? Will acting upon a message older than 2 mins harm it? Will acting upon a message longer than 30 seconds cause problems?
Kenn Nilsson AeonVox Join date: 24 May 2005 Posts: 897	08-21-2007 11:56 In my experience, from in-world object to in-world object, I've never had to wait more than 2 minutes for an e-mail to complete. HOWEVER, working with objects that receive external e-mails, I've waited for up to 12 hours (yes, 12 hours). _____________________ --AeonVox-- Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms chasing ghosts, eating magic pills, and listening to repetitive, addictive, electronic music.
Milambus Oh Registered User Join date: 6 Apr 2007 Posts: 224	08-21-2007 12:35 Thats right, its external emails that can take so long to be delivered.. because of the single web server interface into SL. But in world emailing happens more directly. Sorry for my confusion above.

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What's too long for an email delivery?