One of the realities of dealing with email is the existence of spam. Because it is so cheap to send out emails, there are people out there that will send you things that you may find unnecessary or perhaps even unacceptable. Because of this, Google Apps has a service called Postini to help block these emails so that you never see them.

If you’re not using Postini right now, go ahead and take a look at this resource guide to get started. As you might observe, Postini is currently working hard at protecting and archiving over 26 million users. This is a service that for some companies can only be described as indispensable.

Today, we’d like to briefly show you some things that you might find useful for troubleshooting blocked or delayed email messages. This often occurs when you experience the dreaded “Mail Delivery Subsystem” error indicating that a message has been blocked or some other problem has occurred.

When trying to troubleshoot an issue like this, the first step would be to capture the message header. You can do this by clicking on the down arrow next to your “Reply” button from within the message and selecting “Show original”.

If your message went through Postini, you’ll be able to use something called the Postini Header Analzyer to detect what the problem is by copying and pasting that header into the analyzer. This tool will give you information about whether or not the message did go through their filters or not.

If you aren’t currently using Postini, you could use the MxToolbox Header Analyzer tool to see the hops that the email went through. This is a good first step to see why a message was delayed or returned as a failed message.

These troubleshooting tools are a great first step in understanding how messages get delayed or blocked. In the coming weeks, we’ll bring you more in-depth information on how you can use header analyzers and Postini as a weapon in your arsenal to protect your domain against spam.

Are you currently well versed in troubleshooting message blocking and/or delays?