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billbenson
11-01-2013, 12:42 PM
To the best of my knowledge, emails are not case sensitive. I just sent an email to john.doe@domain.com. It bounced with the message "(after RCPT TO): 554 Sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.1.1)" . I then sent it to John.Doe@domain.com and it went through.

I'm assuming that someone set up the email filter to be an exact match (case sensitive). Anybody have any other ideas?

Freelancier
11-01-2013, 12:50 PM
Learned something new today:

Are Email Addresses Case Sensitive? - About Email (http://email.about.com/od/emailbehindthescenes/f/email_case_sens.htm)


The domain name part of an email address is case insensitive (i.e. case does not matter). The local mailbox part, however, is case sensitive. The email address ReCipiENt@eXaMPle.cOm is indeed different from recipient@example.com (but it the same as ReCipiENt@example.com).

But Case Typically Does Not Matter

cbscreative
11-01-2013, 04:17 PM
I'm guessing it had to be something in the mail server settings for that particular user's company. As noted in the About article, case doesn't typically matter. ISP's and most hosting companies don't enforce case sensitivity on email.

billbenson
11-01-2013, 07:58 PM
I'm guessing it had to be something in the mail server settings for that particular user's company. As noted in the About article, case doesn't typically matter. ISP's and most hosting companies don't enforce case sensitivity on email.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. I literally send / receive thousands of emails a year and this is the first time this has happened.

vangogh
11-01-2013, 11:59 PM
I was thinking the same thing. Are Windows servers case sensitive? Windows tends to be more case sensitive than *nix.


Learned something new today

I never would have known that.

cbscreative
11-02-2013, 01:36 PM
Are Windows servers case sensitive?

Not that I'm aware of, but any server may have that option if it is forced. I doubt it's the default on any of them or it could be more of a problem. Sounds like an overzealous admin on a private network to me.

MyITGuy
11-02-2013, 11:07 PM
Are Windows servers case sensitive? Windows tends to be more case sensitive than *nix.

Usernames in a Windows environment are not case sensitive...but they are in a *nix environment.

In either case, e-mail addresses are not case sensitive...at least they shouldn't be. I'd bet that it could've been a mis-type that you paid more attention to when you resent the e-mail...or could've been a SPAM filter that flagged the original message with the wrong error code.

billbenson
11-03-2013, 12:38 AM
I was curious, so I copied the one that didn't work right under the one that did in a text editor. They were spelled the same except for the caps?? It was a pretty easy email to, so its not likely that I misspelled it.

ProLectric
11-04-2013, 12:08 PM
That's weird!

vangogh
11-08-2013, 02:09 AM
Usernames in a Windows environment are not case sensitive...but they are in a *nix environment.

Interesting Jeff. Isn't it the opposite way with file names? Maybe I'm mistaken, but I remember something about case sensitivity and files names on Windows servers. Then again I could be thinking of a past, which no longer applies or just completely imagining this.

Freelancier
11-08-2013, 07:04 AM
Windows file names look case sensitive but are case insensitive. Linux/Unix file names look and act case sensitive.

billbenson
11-08-2013, 12:05 PM
Ya, I remember file names being case sensitive as well as spaces being a pain in the but when paths are required.

It's kind of funny because I am turning one of my PC's into a dual boot machine this weekend because I need to run a Windows only program. I've been on Linux for 4 years or so and haven't had to do this until now (or I borrowed my wifes laptop).

vangogh
11-12-2013, 01:32 AM
Maybe I'm remembering things incorrectly. It's been so long and I try to be consistent in using lowercase for everything anyway.

Bill I installed Windows on my previous Mac. It's dual boot, though I really only use it when I need to test something on Windows. I left OS X on it just in case anything happens to my primary laptop.

ryantc
12-12-2013, 01:38 PM
An email address such as for example - John.Smith@example.com is made up of a local part, an @ sign, then a domain part. The domain part is not case-sensitive, but local-parts normally are. In practice, the mail system at example.com may choose to treat John.Smith as equivalent john.smith or even johnsmith.

vangogh
12-20-2013, 02:20 AM
Now that you say that it sounds familiar. One of the big email companies treats john.smith as johnsmith and I remember reading somewhere about using that information to use a single email to trick other sites that treat them differently into think it's multiple email addresses.