Re: LogOn Scripts? - POP3 timeout?

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From: Neil Gould (neil_at_myplaceofwork.com)
Date: 01/10/05 

Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:15:45 GMT

Recently, Robert Aldwinckle <robald@techemail.com> posted:

>>> Finally we are getting a description of the problem
>>> and not discussing a self-prescribed solution to
>>> (the previously unstated) symptoms. ;)
>>>
>> [...]
>>> Does this occur often enough that you could endure the discipline
>>> of continuing diagnosis?
>>>
>> As I've mentioned earlier, I've been "diagnosing" this problem for
>> over a year, now. With all due respect, I don't believe I'm in the
>> dark about the nature of the problem, only about viable solutions.
>> ;-)
>
> I think your above question "where are the error messages generated"
> demonstrates that you have been musing about the symptom but I don't
> see any clear signs of your diagnosis.
>
I ask questions based on what *I* need to know, and whether the content of
this error message is sent from the source or reflected as a reponse by OE
is germain to what I need to know. So, if the content of my messages don't
meet your needs, perhaps it's because I just don't understand what you
want to know?

>> The problem is caused by having to wait for the server to open the
>> POP3 ports 25 & 110 when I'm going on-line. If it takes more than a
>> few seconds, then OE times out and I get one of the error messages.
>
> Are you saying you have a problem with both your SMTP and the POP3
> connections? I only have a problem with my POP3 connection (port
> 110).
> The POP3 connection is always started before the SMTP one by my OE.
>
No, I'm saying that I don't have a problem with *either* connections, as
can be proven by the fact that I'm posting this via those connections.
;-) My problem is with OE's handling of connection times.

>> A while back I asked here about being able to reset this timeout
>> value, but no joy with that "solution" either.
>
> Which was?
>
"No joy" means that the OE timeout values are not accessible to the user.

[...]
>> I can hit F5 immediately after receiving the error message and the
>> connection is then made instantly 100% of the time.
>>
>>> While a timeout value is still in effect? Won't it affect the other
>>> operations?
>>>
>> There is no relation between the logon timeout problem and any of
>> those settings, and none of my other usual activities are affected.
>
> How long do you have to wait for the error message?
>
Around 15-20 seconds.

> Isn't that related to your timeout value?
>
No.

> E.g. I mentioned that I now use 30 seconds as my timeout value
> and that this means that when the Read is going to fail I can reply
> Stop to it, thus generating a consistent error condition. The most
> important point
> about waiting until I can reply Stop is that it allows other
> operations to continue.
>
I'm not sure what you mean by "other operations". In my case, I'm either
on-line or not. None of my off-line operations are affected, and none of
my on-line operations are functional until I get on-line anyway. Once
on-line, all functions are normal.

[...]
> To elaborate, I think there is something which isn't working quite
> right with the Wait function since (statistically) the number of times
> that I have tried it and it has failed compared to the number of
> times that I have had to wait that long when using telnet to simulate
> (what I assume to be the conditions that OE has at the time of error)
> or had a failure there just doesn't match.
>
I can get this message almost every time that I go on-line, but it never
happens if I go on-line immediately after booting the computer (the
network initialization process "pings" the ports, and thus the ISP server
has opened them and there is no delay) or if some other activity has
accessed the ports within the timeout period that I have set on my
hardware firewall. That lead me to think of a couple of ways this problem
could be "cured" if OE were scriptable.

[...]
> BTW I tried pressing F5 after a reasonable wait but before the
> Wait/Stop
> dialog was presented and got a message about downloading newsgroups!
> Then the Read worked without an error. This was with a Synchronize
> All
> so it makes sense that multiple connections might be being started
> simultaneously. That idea had not occurred to me before either. I
> will start using netstat
> to check that out. Hopefully the discipline of doing that will come
> more easily than activating tracing--I forgot to do that and so don't
> have any diagnostics
> yet for how an intervening F5 works in terms of connections and
> requests.
> I have captured a WAIT and a STOP but haven't analysed them yet.
> I would still like to capture a "normal case". I didn't realize how
> often I was resorting to using STOP and just letting the read occur
> whenever it could later.
>
It sounds like you're trying to address a different issue than I am. If
I'm already on-line, I don't have problems with newsgroup access or other
on-line activities (web, FTP, etc.). I use F5 only to re-initialize the
connection to the ISP.

Neil

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