server timeout

[Rui Luís Pires]

On 13 Mar, maf@tkrat.org wrote:
> On 10 Mar, Rui Luís Pires wrote:
>> Is there an easy way to control the timeout for imap and/or
>> pop connections? Is this defined in the c-client?
> 
> Unfortunately I think it is under the control of teh operating
> system. The usual suspects for long delays are gethostbyname()
> (DNS query) and connect(). There is nothing meaningful one can
> do about that.

Do you mean the server's OS or mine?

This problem occurs at home though my adsl connection. I connect
to my work imap server, which works perfectly, and to my ISP's
pop server, the one causing the problems.

I recollect you said once that the TkRat pop implementation
wasn't fully functional but I should add that netscape's mailer
behaves pretty much in the same way as TkRat does when connecting
to my sluggish pop server.
 
>> I am experiencing some problems with one of servers I use and
>> it takes ages before tkrat quits trying to establish the
>> connection. Meanwhile, the interface is also not responsive.
> 
> I do not know the circumstances but things liek this happen
> when you have situations when servers (or DNS server) are not
> present on the network. Fixing the network so it immediately
> notifies the host about this may help.

The real cause for my ISP's slow pop servers is not known to me.
They acknowledged it and said they're working on it (for weeks
now...) It all started, they reported, with some worm spread
caused by OutLook users, go figure.

For now I solved my problem by using fetchmail. Whatever slow the
connection, fetchmail is more patient than I am.

--Rui