"No reply in XXX seconds from server XXXX. Break connection?"

[chan...@gmail.com]

hello,

i'm running alpine 2.11 on Fedora Linux. ever since i updated my old
Comcast modem to a WiFi gateway, alpine is losing connection with my
IMAP server.

alpine show this error....

"No reply in XXX seconds from server XXXX. Break connection?"


i can start alpine fine, initially. after a few minutes, the problem
occurs. i'm guessing it's some setting on the gateway and/or Comcast
back-end.

what does alpine need as far network/ISP settings?


thanks,
sam

[Eduardo Chappa]

On Mon, 8 Sep 2014, chan...@gmail.com wrote:

> alpine show this error....
>
> "No reply in XXX seconds from server XXXX. Break connection?"
>
>
> i can start alpine fine, initially. after a few minutes, the problem
> occurs. i'm guessing it's some setting on the gateway and/or Comcast
> back-end.
>
> what does alpine need as far network/ISP settings?

Sam,

In regards to network settings, it is possible that your connection is
being dropped because Alpine is inactive for too long. There are a number
of settings that will help you with this. One is the

Mail Check Interval

The default value might be too long. The minimum is 15. Set it to 15 and
try to see if that helps. This will keep your network busy and probably
not make it timeout.

The setting that triggers the message you are seeing is a read tcp
timeout, which you can set directly in your .pinerc setting. Do not set it
too low, but it helps to set it low so that Alpine won't lock on you in
case there is a temporary loss of connection.

I hope this helps.

--
Eduardo
http://patches.freeiz.com/alpine/

[Lucas Levrel]

>> "No reply in XXX seconds from server XXXX. Break connection?"

Hi,

This thread reminds me of a similar problem. I occasionally get this error
when quitting, although "Check new mail when quitting" is unset in my
config. Is it a bug or a feture? (In case it's relevant, I have "Enable
Incoming Folders Checking" and "Incoming Checking Includes Total" both
set.)

--
LL
Ἕν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα (Σωκράτης)

[chan...@gmail.com]

eduardo, thanks for the reply.

well, i have now mail-check-interval=15 and tcp-query-timeout=15; but problem
is still there. in the past, these parameters were ate their default values.
so i don't believe they would be needed now, since the only change has been my
Comcast set-up.

(i don't have incoming folder check)

the problem seems to be that the packets from the IMAP server isn't getting to
me. something is blocking it(the server is using port 993 (SSL/TLS)). can
alpine debug show me this? by the way, -d doesn't seem to work.


thanks,
sam

[Eduardo Chappa]

On Tue, 9 Sep 2014, Lucas Levrel wrote:

>>> "No reply in XXX seconds from server XXXX. Break connection?"
>

> This thread reminds me of a similar problem. I occasionally get this
> error when quitting, although "Check new mail when quitting" is unset in
> my config. Is it a bug or a feture? (In case it's relevant, I have
> "Enable Incoming Folders Checking" and "Incoming Checking Includes
> Total" both set.)

Checking for new mail in incoming folders might take its toll by locking
Alpine up, so that might certainly explain it.

--
Eduardo
http://patches.freeiz.com/alpine/

[Eduardo Chappa]

On Tue, 9 Sep 2014, chan...@gmail.com wrote:

> well, i have now mail-check-interval=15 and tcp-query-timeout=15; but
> problem is still there. in the past, these parameters were ate their
> default values. so i don't believe they would be needed now, since the
> only change has been my Comcast set-up.

What I was wondering is if something from your router to your ISP was
timing out and disconnecting you, so if Alpine did not show any activity
that activated the timeout. With small timeouts in Alpine, this shows that
it is not Alpine giving you trouble. It might be that there is an
assumption in the router/somewhere that assumes an offline model, and
disconnects a persistent connection.

> the problem seems to be that the packets from the IMAP server isn't
> getting to me. something is blocking it(the server is using port 993
> (SSL/TLS)). can alpine debug show me this? by the way, -d doesn't seem
> to work.

You might be using a version that was not compiled with debug support. Try
seeing if you can read the journal: press M J and then set the debug level
using the menu in the bottom to read the debug, and see if there is
anything meaningful there.

--
Eduardo
http://patches.freeiz.com/alpine/

[Lucas Levrel]

Do you mean that, with incoming folders checking on, Alpine checks for new
mail when quitting although I unset "Check new mail when quitting"?

(Note: when the timeout warning occurs, it shows up approximately
"warning-timeout" seconds after I hit Q Y, so I don't think there's a
coincidental check just before I quit.)

[mechanic]

On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 19:46:13 -0600, Eduardo Chappa wrote:

> You might be using a version that was not compiled with debug
> support. Try seeing if you can read the journal: press M J and
> then set the debug level using the menu in the bottom to read the
> debug, and see if there is anything meaningful there.

M J ? Interesting - not seen any reference to that before.

[Eduardo Chappa]

On Wed, 10 Sep 2014, Lucas Levrel wrote:

> Le 9 septembre 2014, Eduardo Chappa a écrit :
>
>> On Tue, 9 Sep 2014, Lucas Levrel wrote:
>>
>>> > > "No reply in XXX seconds from server XXXX. Break connection?"
>>>
>>> This thread reminds me of a similar problem. I occasionally get this
>>> error when quitting, although "Check new mail when quitting" is unset
>>> in my config. Is it a bug or a feture? (In case it's relevant, I have
>>> "Enable Incoming Folders Checking" and "Incoming Checking Includes
>>> Total" both set.)
>>
>> Checking for new mail in incoming folders might take its toll by locking
>> Alpine up, so that might certainly explain it.
>
> Do you mean that, with incoming folders checking on, Alpine checks for new
> mail when quitting although I unset "Check new mail when quitting"?

No I meant to say that you might be trying to quit while a check on
incoming folders is in progress.

However, now that I think about it Alpine is probably trying to send a
"LOGOUT" command to the server after the quit command, so this might
explain the delay you see if your connection is not stable. In other
words, Alpine might be waiting for the server to close the connection
after it sent the LOGOUT command (I am not sure by what you told me if the
timeout for writing or the tcp for reading is the one that you are
encountering, but that will probably affect when you see this message pop
up in your screen.)

--
Eduardo
http://patches.freeiz.com/alpine/

[Lucas Levrel]

Le 10 septembre 2014, Eduardo Chappa a écrit :

> However, now that I think about it Alpine is probably trying to send a
> "LOGOUT" command to the server after the quit command, so this might explain
> the delay you see if your connection is not stable. In other words, Alpine
> might be waiting for the server to close the connection after it sent the
> LOGOUT command (I am not sure by what you told me if the timeout for writing
> or the tcp for reading is the one that you are encountering, but that will
> probably affect when you see this message pop up in your screen.)

Oh I understand. So I'll have to make do. I have these settings:
tcp-open-timeout=5
tcp-read-warning-timeout=5
tcp-write-warning-timeout=5
tcp-query-timeout=10

I can tolerate 10 seconds of wait :-) I was just curious why Alpine was
contacting the server although I told it not to check for new mail.

[chan...@gmail.com]

well, i've been doing some testing, and i'm seeing something strange.

recall that starting up alpine, it will connect to the IMAP server
fine. initially, i also had a folder collection list which pointed
to the same IMAP server. the result were the failures i described at
the beginning.

so the last few days, i've ran alpine *without* setting that IMAP
collection. and lo and behold, it would run fun. nothing appeared
to be broken. that was until i was composing an email that took a
long time. while in composer mode for several minutes, the problem
came up!

strange.

but it get's better. the problem appears to be related to using an
alternate editor(vim); 'alternate editor implicitly' enabled. if i
disable that, making pico the default, then no problem.

any ideas?


-sam

[Adam H. Kerman]

chan...@gmail.com wrote:

>well, i've been doing some testing, and i'm seeing something strange.

>recall that starting up alpine, it will connect to the IMAP server
>fine. initially, i also had a folder collection list which pointed
>to the same IMAP server. the result were the failures i described at
>the beginning.

It's easy to get the syntax wrong. In this followup, you're not telling
me if you're using alpine with Gmail. Because Gmail uses a proprietary
folder concept (it's all one enormous file for your searching convenience!),
certain brackets are doubled.

Copy the exact syntax you're using from .pinerc, substituting XXX for
your username, and I'll check it.

>so the last few days, i've ran alpine *without* setting that IMAP
>collection. and lo and behold, it would run fun. nothing appeared
>to be broken. that was until i was composing an email that took a
>long time. while in composer mode for several minutes, the problem
>came up!

>strange.

alpine is checking the inbox for new messages. That can be turned off
during compose.
Prevent Mailchecks While Composing for INBOX

>but it get's better. the problem appears to be related to using an
>alternate editor(vim); 'alternate editor implicitly' enabled. if i
>disable that, making pico the default, then no problem.

Sounds like the path to vim was changed. Typically, vim is called with
vi, which knows what the current path to vim is, so try changing your
alternate editor to vi. While I often edit with vim in lieu of pico,
I don't like that I'm prevented from using vim to edit headers, so
I don't enable it implicitly.

I can still call vim while in the body with CTRL _ .

[chan...@gmail.com]

adam,


the IMAP server isn't gmail. it's at my alma mater. i've been using
it for years, and have been working till now.

here's snippets of my .pinerc...



# Over-rides your full name from Unix password file. Required for PC-Alpine.
personal-name=sam chan

# Sets domain part of From: and local addresses in outgoing mail.
user-domain=cs.ucr.edu

# List of SMTP servers for sending mail. If blank: Unix Alpine uses sendmail.
smtp-server=send.cs.ucr.edu/user=schan/ssl/novalidate-cert

# NNTP server for posting news. Also sets news-collections for news reading.
nntp-server=""

# Path of (local or remote) INBOX, e.g. ={mail.somewhere.edu}inbox
# Normal Unix default is the local INBOX (usually /usr/spool/mail/$USER).
inbox-path={iliad.cs.ucr.edu/user=schan/ssl/novalidate-cert}inbox

# List of folder pairs; the first indicates a folder to archive, and the
# second indicates the folder read messages in the first should
# be moved to.
incoming-archive-folders=

# List of folders, assumed to be in first folder collection,
# offered for pruning each month. For example: mumble
pruned-folders=

# Over-rides default path for sent-mail folder, e.g. =old-mail (using first
# folder collection dir) or ={host2}sent-mail or ="" (to suppress saving).
# Default: sent-mail (Unix) or SENTMAIL.MTX (PC) in default folder collection.
default-fcc={iliad.cs.ucr.edu/user=schan/ssl/novalidate-cert}inbox.sent-mail


....


# List of directories where saved-message folders may be. First one is
# the default for Saves. Example: Main {host1}mail/[], Desktop mail\[]
# Syntax: optnl-label {optnl-imap-hostname}optnl-directory-path[]
folder-collections=mail/[],
imap {iliad.cs.ucr.edu/user=schan/ssl/novalidate-cert}inbox.[]



i'll try 'vi'. but why would checking mail while composing be different
from checking mail while not composing?

[Adam H. Kerman]

chan...@gmail.com wrote:

>the IMAP server isn't gmail.

Ok. Never mind about doubling the brackets.

>here's snippets of my .pinerc...

># Path of (local or remote) INBOX, e.g. ={mail.somewhere.edu}inbox
># Normal Unix default is the local INBOX (usually /usr/spool/mail/$USER).
>inbox-path={iliad.cs.ucr.edu/user=schan/ssl/novalidate-cert}inbox

Ok. I don't see a syntax error.

># List of directories where saved-message folders may be. First one is
># the default for Saves. Example: Main {host1}mail/[], Desktop mail\[]
># Syntax: optnl-label {optnl-imap-hostname}optnl-directory-path[]
>folder-collections=mail/[],
> imap {iliad.cs.ucr.edu/user=schan/ssl/novalidate-cert}inbox.[]

I guess that's right, but it doesn't use a naming convention I've seen.

>i'll try 'vi'. but why would checking mail while composing be different
>from checking mail while not composing?

It's not. As something unknown is causing communications problems, you
don't want alpine to hang during composition. The server, unreachable for
checking the inbox, may not be unreachable for sending, or if it is,
you can always postpone it. You just don't want to get tripped up while
composing by inbox checks as you won't be able to finish what you're writing.