Part of the Internet applications glossary:

A soft bounce is an e-mail message that gets as far as the recipient's mail server but is bounced back undelivered before it gets to the intended recipient. A soft bounce might occur because the recipient's inbox is full. A soft bounce message may be deliverable at another time or may be forwarded manually by the network administrator in charge of redirecting mail on the recipient's domain. On the other hand, a hard bounce is an e-mail message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient's address is invalid.

Next Steps

See bounce e-mail .

This was last updated in September 2005
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Related Terms

Definitions

  • bounce email (bounce mail)

    - Bounce e-mail (sometimes referred to as bounce mail) is electronic mail that is returned to the sender because it cannot be delivered for some reason. (SearchExchange.com)

  • hard bounce

    - A hard bounce is an e-mail message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient's address is invalid. (WhatIs.com)

Glossaries

  • Internet applications

    - This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet applications, including definitions about Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery models and words and phrases about web sites, e-commerce ...

  • Email and messaging

    - Terms related to email and messaging, including definitions about instant messenger and words and phrases about email servers, storage, spam and mobile access.

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