[kde-linux] Kmail Problems. Was: Installing KDE4 on Sid

[Gaffer.]

On Tuesday 29 January 2008 22:46, Anne Wilson inscribed thus:
> On Tuesday 29 January 2008 21:37:20 Gaffer. wrote:
> > On Tuesday 29 January 2008 21:01, Anne Wilson inscribed thus:
> > > > All the ones affected are using "Talktalk or Onetel" as their
> > > > ISP.
> > >
> > > Do any unaffected ones use either of those?
> >
> > Yes 95% of my clients use this ISP.  I say "this" because they
> > are all part of the "Carphone Warehouse"
>
> Does the ISP use more than one server?  Can this be deduced by
> looking at headers?

Yes there are quite a few of them.  This outfit also owns AOL.

> > As of a few minutes ago I have another one who can receive Email
> > but her replies have remained in the outbox.
>
> And there's nothing in the logs to explain it?

Nothing!  Except for one instance where Kmail announced that it 
couldn't connect to SMTP transport <server-name>.  Then the next try 
simply did nothing at all.

> > > Are they all using 10.3?
> >
> > Yes.  The ones on earlier versions don't have this problem.  I'm
> > tempted to go back to installing 10.2 on new builds.
>
> Are you saying that all the problems are on new builds?

No.  Just that I was installing 10.2 upto a few months ago, then when 
10.3 came out I started installing it instead.

> Are they on systems that have stopped working properly, or new
> installs of  SuSE 10.3 that have had problems from the first?

So far they have all been working just fine from the word go until 
recently.

I'll do a new build tomorrow, time permitting and run it till it 
breaks.

> > I always turn IPV6 off when doing an install.  Although I know
> > users not running SuSE that have it turned on.
> >
> > Just thinking about IPV6 for a moment.  I originally thought that
> > all this could be an ISP problem, primarily because they have
> > been doing a very large amount of work in this area recently and
> > Email became very flaky and non existent for varying periods of
> > time.
> >
> > Another thing that I noticed, was that old Emails would suddenly
> > appear in the inbox.  Sometimes months old.   Would the ISP
> > implementing IPV6 on some servers but not on others cause this
> > problem?
>
> I don't know about IPv6 in this situation, but clearing a
> bottleneck on the servers is one possibility.  However, the number
> of messages that such a bottleneck would create makes me doubt it.
>
> Have you noticed anything similar about the messages that turn up
> very late? The only time I've seen this happen was when I had a
> misconfiguration that stopped system mail being forwarded to me.  I
> assume that your problem is quite different, but if you've recently
> fixed any problem, even seemingly unrelated, it should be
> considered.

No I didn't think about it!  Only that the dates were months ago and 
only the odd ones.

> > Of course the ISP denies that there are any problems with a
> > particular user, but their web page says otherwise.
>
> They would, of course :-)  I'm in the process of trying to get some
> sense out of an ISP for part of my family who've been without a
> connection since last Wednesday.

What really bugs me out is that when you mention Linux, they turn into 
zombies.  I actually had one help desk berk that said "We don't 
support that, its not a proper system"  When I asked to speak to his 
supervisor he hung up on me.

> > > I think you are going to get your best help from the SuSE
> > > lists, but perhaps our conversation will help you put together
> > > a good report for them.  Of course, if a bug has been reported
> > > there may also be a work-around while an update is being
> > > prepared.  How long has this been going on?
> >
> > Over the past 4 or five weeks, certainly this side of Christmas.
>
> Is it possible, from logs or simply from headers of messages, to
> ascertain whether there is any correlation with dates of the SuSE
> updates?

I don't know.  Where does SuSE log this information to?

> I think, from your answers, that they are all pulling down mail
> directly from the ISP, not from a server set up by you.  Is that
> right?  I'm thinking that if it is there probably isn't an awful
> lot of log output that can help.  Most of it is at server level,
> not client.  Just thinking aloud.

Yes you are right, these are all coming from the ISP's servers.  I was 
tempted to become an ISP and run my own servers.  Consensus was that 
nobody wanted to pay for it.

> I have a tendency to think pebcak when I find myself with a problem
> like this. It's not at all unusual for me to find that I have a
> typo, maybe a repeated character, in my config files.

My favourite is to put a comma instead of a period.  I'd be well off 
if I got paid every time I make that booboo.

> If the status has changed when neither you nor the client have had
> reason to open the config screens then it's probably not that.
>
> That's about all I can think of at the moment.
>
> Anne

I'll keep at it.
-- 
Best Regards:
             Derrick.