[Users] Periodic "connection failed"

[Pierre Fortin]

On Fri, 30 Aug 2013 13:18:38 -0400 Haines Brown wrote:

>The machine had automatically downloaded some messages from earlier this
>morning. I sent a test message after changing the above configuration.
>When I clicked Get Mail it acted reasonably quickly and retrieved my test
>message without generating an ERROR message about connection. However,
>this turned out to be a fluke.  A subsequent test message sent to the
>machine was not automatically downloaded, and "Get Mail" again generates
>connection error. 

How about using wireshark to trace the network traffic?

>> >"Use_mail_command=0" Does not sound right, but I don't know that this
>> >function is supposed to do.
>> 
>> Just a boolean for:  mail_command=/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
>
>Does this mean Claws does not use sendmail? 

Would seen reasonable assumption; but that's a dev question to be sure...

>> I'm still suspicious of a random DNS issue...
>> 
>> Try running the attached script for a while to see if DNS changes are
>> happening when your problem [dis]appears (it will only report DNS
>> changes if and when they happen) with:
>>   $ watchdns mail.omnis.com
>
>I'm not sure what "random" DNS means. 

This would be where DNS responses give the IP for the queried hostname,
then for some reason, return nothing, or a different address.

>I put the scipt on the machine and
>ran it. It returned an IP address for mail.omnis.com. Is the idea that
>the script checks every five minutes and I should look for changes in
>the IP address? 
Actually, that's every 5 seconds.  Just let it run and if there are any
changes, or no response, it'll output whatever it got with a time stamp.

If you're not seeing any output other than the initial address, then DNS
is not changing -- actually, when checked every 5 seconds.  Who knows
if something happens between the checks... :)

>I tried to run it on my own machine to compare results
>and for some reason get permission denied. 

If you are running from an "su [-] <user>" environment, that could be
because the sound is not allowed from that userid.  Or, your security
level is setup like a server which restricts what commands can be run.

Pierre