Long delay to log onto mail

Budo · 5th March 2004

Yesterday (thur) and today my Courier 3.5 has developed a new problem. When it tries to log on to check mail it frequently but not always, has a long delay with message"Connecting to: 'pop.registerapi.com'" . It just sits there and finally will complete checking our mailboxes. It doesn't always delay on first mailbox, sometimes the second or third etc. At times I have to cancel its checking. Then at times it runs its checks with no problems.
I use NAV 2003 and have been using it with no problems in mail program.
Any ideas on where I might look for answer.
Thanks
Budo

yourbuddy · 5th March 2004

Most likely the "cause/reason" is your ISP, namely the
response from your ISP to acknowledge your contact.
This is not uncommon, since sometimes identification
fails (often POP before SMTP) and can be intermittent.

Also, your physical connection could have flaws in the
line. In dailup or cable, it can be moisture creating the
problem (this'll cause static and dropped connection).
Depending where you are - it could be wet or thaw.

Often, having the telco/cable provider check the line
will solve the problem - this assumes that you have
no problems with your TCP/IP stack - and that your
ISP is not the one having the connection problems.

eric531 · 5th March 2004

I wouldn't rule out Norton as a potential culprit here either. Anything that sticks itself between the client and the server can complicate things. I know you said it just started, but any time Live Update runs it could be updating the AV engine and introducing something that creates a problem.

One thing to consider, you can have Courier automatically save all email attachments outside of the database (see the online FAQ for step by step instructions on setting up a filter to do this). One of the advantages to doing this is that virtually all AV programs will scan files as they are saved, and thus will catch any infected attachments as Courier saves them. Then you can turn off the email scanning which really does interfere with mail downloading in general.

Another thing to think about doing is creating filters to just kill any messages that come with attachments that are common virus carriers - .pif or .scr files for instance. NOBODY sends those kinds of attachments normally, so it's a pretty step to have a filter automatically discard any message containing on of those.

But having said all of that, it's probably something hapening at the ISP.

Budo · 6th March 2004

As usual all of your help seems to lead me to the solution.
The suggestion: "Often, having the telco/cable provider check the line
will solve the problem " led me to first calling the phone company as I use a DSL phone connection. She ran a test for noise on the line and said there seem to be some showing. She suggested I unplug anything using that line and see if it helps. First thing I went to was receptacle box where I had the Fax and line leading to phone modem plugged into a two slot box. I removed the box and plugged the modem directly into the wall receptacle. After the modem fired up again Courier started running its scheduled checks for mail and has been operating normally since.
I probably should have thought of this myself but somehow this being the cause of my problem never entered my mind.
Thats the value of these forums-good ideas & possible solutions from good people.
Thanks again
Budo