It's not a bug!
Who knows? None of us will unless we have more information.
And the post was headed 'how to report problems effectively'.
Treat it like a bug until someone says otherwise. Do your due diligence. Prepare your information properly. Be methodical. Don't guess. Don't try and add 2 and 4 to make 7.
It's a question ... what would cause a sending server to timeout before completing the email delivery to an smeserver?
Lots of things. We need to establish some facts but you have given us no information.
All I want to know is if anyone else has experienced a similar problem where some hosted services have problems sending to an smeserver with slow SMTP Connection Time over 3 or 4 seconds?
Even if they did, it may not relate to your own specific case. Perhaps you have specific issues, and a specific setup or even a real problem. So far it is all too vague and you will end up chasing ghosts.
My servers all work perfectly well. But it is hardly a comparison is it?
Our primary Barracuda MX server responds within 0.218 seconds and that server has no issues at all it is only when the other MX server (the smeserver) is used that the issue presents itself. So I'm thinking the issue is with the hosted server have a short SMTP timeout less than 2-3 seconds perhaps.
We don't know anything about any of your hardware yet. Where it is hosted, what sort of hardware, network connection, etc etc.
You can't really compare your Barracuda with SME just like that, and certainly not without some hard facts. Are they in the same place, self hosted, remote, what are there networks speeds, are there firewalls in the way etc etc.
There are just so many things here
Even this forum email server is slow to respond:
What on earth has that got to do with a client sending a mail? You are trying to compare chalk and cheese. For all we know you are stuck in the middle of the Pacific using a 2.5G mobile phone for connection. That would lag a bit I am sure.
However I don't think that this forum email server has any issues as an example.
It is a complete irrelevance to your setup, and I can't see any relevance to the initial problem you outlined.
Please, go back to basics. Stop guessing and get us some solid information about your setup, please.
Network layout, and some logs showing an incoming mail for starters. Thanks.