Routing mail by priority

Notes® users can click the Delivery Options button to specify a priority level -- high, normal, or low -- for each message they create. The priority level determines how quickly the Domino® Router transfers a message over either Notes or SMTP routing. If a user does not specify a priority for a message, the server treats it as normal priority by default.

Table 1. Priority levels for mail routing
Priority level	Default Notes routing
High	The server routes the mail immediately.
Normal	The server routes the mail at the next scheduled connection time, based on the schedule in the Connection document to the server that is the next hop for the message. Within the same Notes Named Network, normal priority messages route immediately.
Low	By default, the server routes low-priority mail only between midnight and 6 AM. Even if low-priority mail is pending delivery when the server routes other mail, the server does not route the low-priority mail except during the specified time interval. You can change the default time for routing low-priority mail.

The Router typically processes delayed messages within 5 minutes of the start of the low-priority time range.

Forcing low-priority mail to route

By default, the Router delays low-priority mail until the low-priority time range, even for servers in the same Notes Named Network. If you do not want to delay low-priority mail you can:

Set Domino to ignore message priority
Change the low-priority time range in the Configuration Settings document.
Use the ROUTE servername command at the console to force all mail in the transfer queue of the specified server to route immediately.