Too many connections?

[GrtArtiste]

I usually have Thunderbird open for 10-12 hours a day to read/send
email, but the time spent reading or making posts to Usenet is usually
an hour or less. Lately, TB gives me the message that ES says there
have been too many connections from my IP address. Since the daily
limit is 1200 connections...am I really hitting the wall? Or should
I be looking at something within TB?


Thanks for any assistance.

GrtArtiste

[Phillip Jones]

I've been getting that message too mostly on eternal-September and and
albasani.net using SeaMonkey. Don't think it related to TB or SM. I
think its squarely with the News Servers.

Because I don't get it on the Mozilla Server or the Annexcafe Server.

Except for the Mozilla Server I am subscribed to no more than two groups
and the Mozilla group 4. So That no enough to cause such a message.

--
Phillip M. Jones, C.E.T. "If it's Fixed, Don't Break it"
http://www.phillipmjones.net/ mailto:pjo...@kimbanet.com

[Paul]

Phillip Jones wrote:
> GrtArtiste wrote:
>> I usually have Thunderbird open for 10-12 hours a day to read/send
>> email, but the time spent reading or making posts to Usenet is usually
>> an hour or less. Lately, TB gives me the message that ES says there
>> have been too many connections from my IP address. Since the daily
>> limit is 1200 connections...am I really hitting the wall? Or should
>> I be looking at something within TB?
>>
>>
>> Thanks for any assistance.
>>
>> GrtArtiste
>
> I've been getting that message too mostly on eternal-September and and
> albasani.net using SeaMonkey. Don't think it related to TB or SM. I
> think its squarely with the News Servers.
>
> Because I don't get it on the Mozilla Server or the Annexcafe Server.
>
> Except for the Mozilla Server I am subscribed to no more than two groups
> and the Mozilla group 4. So That no enough to cause such a message.
>

I'm not sure I've found the connection limit, but in Thunderbird, there
is a "configuration editor" for anything which is not available in the
GUI preferences panels.

The "configuration editor" is very dangerous! There is no "undo" option
in my old copy of Thunderbird. If you delete an entry in configuration
editor, it's gone. You should close out TB, back up the entire profile
folder just in case, so you have the materials necessary to restore
what you damage. Then start TB and enter the configuration editor.
If you screw up and delete a line in there by accident, you
may be able to restore your profile folder and fix it.

Here is a picture of what my TB shows. I have three newsserver
accounts in TB, and there seem to be three custom-modified max
connection count entries. But these were set so long ago, I
cannot honestly remember making these "user set" values. Using
a value of "2" is presumably to reduce network connection usage
to a minimum. The tool might block if it was limited to
just one connection, and I don't know if TB would still work with
a setting of 1. I haven't tried it.

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/7720/connections.gif

Sometimes the issue is caused by TB disconnecting, the connection
still being in a table somewhere, TB makes another connection (or
two) and exceeds the server limits. This is a kind of timing issue.
Even if set to "2", the server might conclude on occasion that
you were using 3, but it could be a timing issue.

Paul

[Joshua Cranmer]

On 3/19/2012 7:20 PM, Paul wrote:
> Here is a picture of what my TB shows. I have three newsserver
> accounts in TB, and there seem to be three custom-modified max
> connection count entries. But these were set so long ago, I
> cannot honestly remember making these "user set" values. Using
> a value of "2" is presumably to reduce network connection usage
> to a minimum. The tool might block if it was limited to
> just one connection, and I don't know if TB would still work with
> a setting of 1. I haven't tried it.

It should work with just 1 connection, but everything would necessarily
be serialized. The default value is 2.

> Sometimes the issue is caused by TB disconnecting, the connection
> still being in a table somewhere, TB makes another connection (or
> two) and exceeds the server limits. This is a kind of timing issue.
> Even if set to "2", the server might conclude on occasion that
> you were using 3, but it could be a timing issue.

A connection limit of 2 means that TB will never have more than two
connections open that it can use. It is still possible (networking being
what it is) that TB can open a third connection before the server sees
that one of the previous two connections is closed.

--
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it. -- Donald E. Knuth

[Jon Ribbens]

I think something at Eternal September has a bug whereby it mistakenly
issues this error message sometimes.

[Phillip Jones]

If it’s a Bug it shows as well in albasani.net as well.

[David J Taylor]

"Jon Ribbens" <jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote in message
news:slrnjmfnla.b...@snowy.squish.net...

I am inclined to agree. I've been getting similar messages from ES within
the last day or two using Windows Live Mail. I don't get that problem
with other news servers.

Cheers,
David

[Bit Twister]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:04:02 -0000, David J Taylor wrote:
> "Jon Ribbens" <jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:slrnjmfnla.b...@snowy.squish.net...
>>

>> I think something at Eternal September has a bug whereby it mistakenly
>> issues this error message sometimes.
>
> I am inclined to agree. I've been getting similar messages from ES within
> the last day or two using Windows Live Mail. I don't get that problem
> with other news servers.

I only use ES, numerous times a day, and have yet to receive the message.
Then again I do not use Micro$oft and I use a real Usenet designed
client, slrn.

[David J Taylor]

"Bit Twister" <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message
news:slrnjmggl1.f...@wb.home.test...

You appear to ignore that others using different software have also seen
the problem, so it's not just Microsoft. I accept that Windows Live Mail
isn't the best NNTP client, but I do like its integration of mail,
contacts and news. I use whatever is best for me, including Windows, iOS
and FreeBSD.

Let's not get distracted into those wars, and try and find out why ES is
having problems for some of us.

David

[Bit Twister]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:55:36 -0000, David J Taylor wrote:
> "Bit Twister" <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message

> You appear to ignore that others using different software have also seen
> the problem, so it's not just Microsoft. I accept that Windows Live Mail
> isn't the best NNTP client, but I do like its integration of mail,
> contacts and news.

Off hand I can not prove that all respondents are having the problem
with ES so I can not see how you can say it is just ES's problem.
One even mentioned another server also was giving the error message.

> Let's not get distracted into those wars, and try and find out why ES is
> having problems for some of us.

Not trying to start a OS war. I was just providing a data point.

You have to admit the OP posted using Thunderbird/3.1.19 which is
pretty old. Thunderbird 2.0.0.24 is worse.

Based on those two samples, we might assume they feel TB is reliable,
has been working fine till recently, and the problem is not on their system.
Fine.

ES's server is just counting connections from an IP address.
There are no large number of complaints from other ES users so I would
rule out that it is ES's problem.

When users have a problem they might want to glance at
http://www.internetpulse.net/ and
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm
to see if some numbers are high for the route to ES shown by a
traceroute from their system.

[David J Taylor]

"Bit Twister" <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message

news:slrnjmgkt4.l...@wb.home.test...
[]

> Off hand I can not prove that all respondents are having the problem
> with ES so I can not see how you can say it is just ES's problem.
> One even mentioned another server also was giving the error message.

.. and perhaps both servers are running the same software, which has just
been updated?

> Not trying to start a OS war. I was just providing a data point.

Thanks.

> You have to admit the OP posted using Thunderbird/3.1.19 which is
> pretty old. Thunderbird 2.0.0.24 is worse.

I hadn't looked at the version numbers or the software, simply noting that
I saw the same problem.

> Based on those two samples, we might assume they feel TB is reliable,
> has been working fine till recently, and the problem is not on their
> system.
> Fine.
>
> ES's server is just counting connections from an IP address.
> There are no large number of complaints from other ES users so I would
> rule out that it is ES's problem.

Since I have never knowingly made more than one connection, I would
definitely say it's ES's problem. Having said that, I see no way to
either monitor or control how many connections this software makes. The
software here hasn't changed, and I didn't get the problem before, so a
response from ES would be appreciated.

> When users have a problem they might want to glance at
> http://www.internetpulse.net/ and
> http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm
> to see if some numbers are high for the route to ES shown by a
> traceroute from their system.

Is it possible that an Internet issue would result in a "too many
connections" problem? Should ES be terminating "floating" connections
earlier?

Cheers,
David

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-03-20, Bit Twister <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:04:02 -0000, David J Taylor wrote:
>> "Jon Ribbens" <jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote in message
>> news:slrnjmfnla.b...@snowy.squish.net...
>>> I think something at Eternal September has a bug whereby it mistakenly
>>> issues this error message sometimes.
>>
>> I am inclined to agree. I've been getting similar messages from ES within
>> the last day or two using Windows Live Mail. I don't get that problem
>> with other news servers.
>
> I only use ES, numerous times a day, and have yet to receive the message.

I also connect reasonably frequently during the day, and very rarely
receive the message, yet occasionally it seems to occur despite the
fact that I know for a fact I have not connected more than usual.

For example, yesterday it happened on my first connection in the
morning, when I had not connected since the previous evening.

> Then again I do not use Micro$oft and I use a real Usenet designed
> client, slrn.

So do I.

[Bit Twister]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:12:13 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens wrote:
>
> I also connect reasonably frequently during the day, and very rarely
> receive the message, yet occasionally it seems to occur despite the
> fact that I know for a fact I have not connected more than usual.
>
> For example, yesterday it happened on my first connection in the
> morning, when I had not connected since the previous evening.

My theory was a common network provider bottleneck.

>> Then again I do not use Micro$oft and I use a real Usenet designed
>> client, slrn.
>
> So do I.

Now that we have a common data point. you can look at
http://www.eternal-september.org/serverstatus.php?language=en
to see it matched an ad-normal event period.

I would have expected better connectivity from the UK than I have from
the USA. Then again I have seen news articles indicating BT is not all
it's cracked up to be. :-D

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-03-20, Bit Twister <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:12:13 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens wrote:
>> For example, yesterday it happened on my first connection in the
>> morning, when I had not connected since the previous evening.
>
> My theory was a common network provider bottleneck.

I'm not sure that would make any sense.

> I would have expected better connectivity from the UK than I have from
> the USA. Then again I have seen news articles indicating BT is not all
> it's cracked up to be. :-D

I don't use BT, and network connectivity issues cannot explain an
error message generated by Eternal September.

My best guess would be that there is a hard limit on number of
simultaneous connections to the news server in total, and if this
limit is hit then it gives a misleading error message implying that
it's something about the individual users connecting that it doesn't
like, when that's not the case. But that's just a guess.

[Bit Twister]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:18:21 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens wrote:
>
> I don't use BT, and network connectivity issues cannot explain an
> error message generated by Eternal September.

Well, I could see how a connect request was sent, ES accepts the
connection, sends back the ack, and you do not receive it, and send
more requests until you finally get back an ES error message. :(

> My best guess would be that there is a hard limit on number of
> simultaneous connections to the news server in total, and if this
> limit is hit then it gives a misleading error message implying that
> it's something about the individual users connecting that it doesn't
> like, when that's not the case. But that's just a guess.

You had indicated a morning failure which would seem to indicate everyone
connecting after noon would hit that problem according to
http://www.eternal-september.org/serverstatus.php?language=en

[Adam H. Kerman]

David J Taylor <david-...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

>"Bit Twister" <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

>>Based on those two samples, we might assume they feel TB is reliable,
>>has been working fine till recently, and the problem is not on their
>>system.
>>Fine.

>>ES's server is just counting connections from an IP address.
>>There are no large number of complaints from other ES users so I would
>>rule out that it is ES's problem.

>Since I have never knowingly made more than one connection, I would
>definitely say it's ES's problem.

But other News administrators have complained about Thunderbird as a client.
For instance, is Thunderbird neatly closing connections when there is no
reason not to take them down?

>Is it possible that an Internet issue would result in a "too many
>connections" problem? Should ES be terminating "floating" connections
>earlier?

It sounds like it's being left to the client.

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-03-20, Bit Twister <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:18:21 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens wrote:
>> I don't use BT, and network connectivity issues cannot explain an
>> error message generated by Eternal September.
>
> Well, I could see how a connect request was sent, ES accepts the
> connection, sends back the ack, and you do not receive it, and send
> more requests until you finally get back an ES error message. :(

That would be (a) rather implausible, and (b) require that I had
repeatedly tried to connect but seen time-outs.

> You had indicated a morning failure which would seem to indicate everyone
> connecting after noon would hit that problem according to
> http://www.eternal-september.org/serverstatus.php?language=en

Morning in GMT. I don't know what time-zone that status page is in.

[Bit Twister]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:51:05 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens wrote:
> On 2012-03-20, Bit Twister <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:18:21 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens wrote:
>>> I don't use BT, and network connectivity issues cannot explain an
>>> error message generated by Eternal September.
>>
>> Well, I could see how a connect request was sent, ES accepts the
>> connection, sends back the ack, and you do not receive it, and send
>> more requests until you finally get back an ES error message. :(
>
> That would be (a) rather implausible, and (b) require that I had
> repeatedly tried to connect but seen time-outs.

Sorry, I guess I should have said the newsreader retried until an ES error
message showed up.

>> You had indicated a morning failure which would seem to indicate everyone
>> connecting after noon would hit that problem according to
>> http://www.eternal-september.org/serverstatus.php?language=en
>
> Morning in GMT. I don't know what time-zone that status page is in.

Looks like GMT to me. Bottom scale red arrow shows 1600 and it's 1000
here in Texas.

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:18:21 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens

<jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote:

[snip]

>My best guess would be that there is a hard limit on number of
>simultaneous connections to the news server in total, and if this
>limit is hit then it gives a misleading error message implying that
>it's something about the individual users connecting that it doesn't
>like, when that's not the case. But that's just a guess.

I have my doubts on that. I occasionally receive a load limit
error message. When I get that, the situation usually lasts for a
while.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

[Barry Margolin]

In article <jk9uhf$ja6$1...@news.albasani.net>,

"Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote:

> David J Taylor <david-...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> >"Bit Twister" <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>
> >>Based on those two samples, we might assume they feel TB is reliable,
> >>has been working fine till recently, and the problem is not on their
> >>system.
> >>Fine.
>
> >>ES's server is just counting connections from an IP address.
> >>There are no large number of complaints from other ES users so I would
> >>rule out that it is ES's problem.
>
> >Since I have never knowingly made more than one connection, I would
> >definitely say it's ES's problem.
>
> But other News administrators have complained about Thunderbird as a client.
> For instance, is Thunderbird neatly closing connections when there is no
> reason not to take them down?

I've gotten it occasionally with MT-Newswatcher, so now we have at least
3 different clients.

I got it last night, but it might have been due to a problem at my end.
I'm using a 4G dongle to connect to the Internet, and it kept losing its
connection. It's possible that caused connections to left hanging
around across the reconnections.

--
Barry Margolin
Arlington, MA

[Jon Ribbens]

The "system load average" limit is a different thing to a
"total number of nntp connections" limit.

And yes, the situation of the server returning "too many connections"
did indeed last a while, albeit only a few minutes. Which is actually
what I see when the "load limit" error happens, too.

[Yo$$1960]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:18:21 +0000, Jon Ribbens wrote:

> My best guess would be that there is a hard limit on number of
> simultaneous connections to the news server in total, and if this limit is

There is. It's four for E-S. Other news providers may have differing
limits.

--
Regards _
/ ) "The blindingly obvious is
/ _)rad never immediately apparent"
Well well well, you just can't tell
My Michelle - Guns 'N' Roses

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-03-21, Yo$$1960 <br...@yoss1960.ukfsn.org> wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:18:21 +0000, Jon Ribbens wrote:
>> My best guess would be that there is a hard limit on number of
>> simultaneous connections to the news server in total, and if this limit is
>
> There is. It's four for E-S. Other news providers may have differing
> limits.

I'm pretty sure E-S supports more than 4 people in the world using it
simultaneously.

[Michael Stemper]

I get it every once in a while, and have never known what it meant. I
just try again in a few minutes. Like you, E-S is my only news server.
My client is xrn 9.02, running on AIX 5.2.

--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
There is three erors in this sentence.

[Jay E. Morris]

It's four concurrent connections from the same IP, or username. Not sure
how it determines it.

There's nothing specific in Thunderbird, that I can find, on NNTP
connections. There's a limit of 15 for
network.http.max-connections-per-server and it may be using that.

[Joshua Cranmer]

Bwahaha, no. The preference is mail.server.<serverid>.max_cached
_connections, which defaults to 2.

[Jay E. Morris]

Ah, so it's in the profile and not config. Should have thought of that
but since there's *some* nntp stuff in config and no way in options to
change it* I just assumed.

Thanks

*Again, that I have found.

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-03-22, Jay E. Morris <mor...@epsilon3.com> wrote:
> Ah, so it's in the profile and not config. Should have thought of that
> but since there's *some* nntp stuff in config and no way in options to
> change it* I just assumed.

I was getting the error message again just now,
"Reason: 400 Too many connections from your IP address".
I checked with netstat and I had zero connections.
It pretty much has to be a bug at Eternal September's end.

[Paul]

It may not be as much a "bug", as a side effect. Perhaps
whatever part of the server setup that handles networking,
does a restart at a certain time of the day, causing
clients to connect a second time, and then the server
counts double connections for a period of time.

At one point, Ray fixed things up, to improve the quality
of this report, by changing some settings on his end. It's
possible the trouble started, after things were fixed to
make this look good (all "pass").

http://thednsreport.com/?domain=eternal-september.org

Paul

[Yo$$1960]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:54:25 +0000, Jon Ribbens wrote:

> I'm pretty sure E-S supports more than 4 people in the world using it
> simultaneously.

Very droll.

I was insufficiently explicit. I meant concurrent connections from one IP
address.

--
Regards _
/ ) "The blindingly obvious is
/ _)rad never immediately apparent"

You destroyed my confidence, you broke my nerve
Nervous Wreck - Radio Stars

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-03-22, Yo$$1960 <br...@yoss1960.ukfsn.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:54:25 +0000, Jon Ribbens wrote:
>> I'm pretty sure E-S supports more than 4 people in the world using it
>> simultaneously.
>
> Very droll.
>
> I was insufficiently explicit. I meant concurrent connections from one IP
> address.

I thought I was sufficiently explicit that I was not talking about that.

[Patok]

Paul wrote:
> Jon Ribbens wrote:
>> On 2012-03-22, Jay E. Morris <mor...@epsilon3.com> wrote:
>>> Ah, so it's in the profile and not config. Should have thought of that
>>> but since there's *some* nntp stuff in config and no way in options to
>>> change it* I just assumed.
>> I was getting the error message again just now,
>> "Reason: 400 Too many connections from your IP address".
>> I checked with netstat and I had zero connections.
>> It pretty much has to be a bug at Eternal September's end.

I haven't seen that message in *years*. I'm not even sure I ever saw it, but
there is some lingering memory of something similar. But then, I'm sticking to
TB 2; I have no intention of upgrading.

> It may not be as much a "bug", as a side effect. Perhaps
> whatever part of the server setup that handles networking,
> does a restart at a certain time of the day, causing
> clients to connect a second time, and then the server
> counts double connections for a period of time.

Or could the people who see the message have settings that make their news
clients check for new messages automatically? I have disabled that feature; the
only time TB exchanges data with a news server is when I click on the server (or
a newsgroup). The last time I used the feature of periodically automatically
checking anything was when I still had some POP e-mail accounts. But with the
advent of IMAP, where one is constantly connected to the server, there's no
longer a need to periodically check anything ever.

--
You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.
*
Whoever bans a book, shall be banished. Whoever burns a book, shall burn.

[R.L. Horn]

On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:18:54 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens
<jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote:

> I was getting the error message again just now, "Reason: 400 Too many
> connections from your IP address". I checked with netstat and I had zero
> connections. It pretty much has to be a bug at Eternal September's end.

I wonder, could you be sharing the address with someone else? IOW, do you
have a real address, or are you stuck behind a NAT?

Granted, the odds of competing for a such a (relatively) unpopular service
do seem a tad slim.

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-03-22, R.L. Horn <ne...@eastcheap.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:18:54 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens
><jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote:
>> I was getting the error message again just now, "Reason: 400 Too many
>> connections from your IP address". I checked with netstat and I had zero
>> connections. It pretty much has to be a bug at Eternal September's end.
>
> I wonder, could you be sharing the address with someone else? IOW, do you
> have a real address, or are you stuck behind a NAT?

The IP address is not shared; there is no NAT. I'm connecting from
a dedicated Linux server in a data centre.

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-03-22, Jon Ribbens <jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote:
> I was getting the error message again just now,
> "Reason: 400 Too many connections from your IP address".
> I checked with netstat and I had zero connections.
> It pretty much has to be a bug at Eternal September's end.

Haha, I see someone has been reading this thread, the error now says:

400 Too many connections from your IP address or server load too high
- hard to tell which ;-)

[Robert Miles]

On 3/20/2012 1:04 AM, David J Taylor wrote:
> "Jon Ribbens" <jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:slrnjmfnla.b...@snowy.squish.net...

>> On 2012-03-19, GrtArtiste <nine...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> I usually have Thunderbird open for 10-12 hours a day to read/send
>>> email, but the time spent reading or making posts to Usenet is usually
>>> an hour or less. Lately, TB gives me the message that ES says there
>>> have been too many connections from my IP address. Since the daily
>>> limit is 1200 connections...am I really hitting the wall? Or should
>>> I be looking at something within TB?

>>
>> I think something at Eternal September has a bug whereby it mistakenly
>> issues this error message sometimes.
>
> I am inclined to agree. I've been getting similar messages from ES
> within the last day or two using Windows Live Mail. I don't get that
> problem with other news servers.
>

> Cheers,
> David

I've found that the time required for Windows Live Mail to decide that
a connection is no longer in use and drop its end of the connection is
about 15 seconds after your last action on the keyboard or mouse.

For Windows Mail, the time is even shorter - about 3 seconds.

If the server does not come close to those settings, it is likely to
see many connections at once, and may tell you that you have too
many connections at once.

Also, this quick timeout means that the server will see a large
total number of connections per day.

Robert Miles

[Robert Miles]

On 3/20/2012 3:55 AM, David J Taylor wrote:
> "Bit Twister" <BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message
> news:slrnjmggl1.f...@wb.home.test...

>> On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:04:02 -0000, David J Taylor wrote:
>>> "Jon Ribbens" <jon+u...@unequivocal.co.uk> wrote in message
>>> news:slrnjmfnla.b...@snowy.squish.net...
>>>>

>>>> I think something at Eternal September has a bug whereby it mistakenly
>>>> issues this error message sometimes.
>>>
>>> I am inclined to agree. I've been getting similar messages from ES
>>> within
>>> the last day or two using Windows Live Mail. I don't get that problem
>>> with other news servers.
>>

>> I only use ES, numerous times a day, and have yet to receive the message.
>> Then again I do not use Micro$oft and I use a real Usenet designed
>> client, slrn.
>

> You appear to ignore that others using different software have also seen
> the problem, so it's not just Microsoft. I accept that Windows Live Mail
> isn't the best NNTP client, but I do like its integration of mail,
> contacts and news. I use whatever is best for me, including Windows, iOS
> and FreeBSD.
>
> Let's not get distracted into those wars, and try and find out why ES is
> having problems for some of us.
>
> David

The measurements I've made suggest that it's the speed at which one
end of the connection decides that the connection is no longer in
use, and therefore drops the connection. For Windows Live Mail,
it is about 15 seconds. If the server end uses a much longer time
before deciding to drop the connection, all newsreaders with a longer
time before dropping the connection will be less likely to see the
problem.

This may mean that ES simply isn't designed to handle such a rapid
pattern of making connections and dropping them.

Robert Miles

[Robert Miles]

On 3/20/2012 6:18 AM, Jon Ribbens wrote:
> On 2012-03-20, Bit Twister<BitTw...@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:12:13 +0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens wrote:
>>> For example, yesterday it happened on my first connection in the
>>> morning, when I had not connected since the previous evening.
>>
>> My theory was a common network provider bottleneck.
>
> I'm not sure that would make any sense.

It could make sense if the common network provider is much closer
to the Eternal September end of the connection than to the users
reporting the problem.

>> I would have expected better connectivity from the UK than I have from
>> the USA. Then again I have seen news articles indicating BT is not all
>> it's cracked up to be. :-D
>
> I don't use BT, and network connectivity issues cannot explain an
> error message generated by Eternal September.
>
> My best guess would be that there is a hard limit on number of
> simultaneous connections to the news server in total, and if this
> limit is hit then it gives a misleading error message implying that
> it's something about the individual users connecting that it doesn't
> like, when that's not the case. But that's just a guess.

There probably is such a hard limit - I've seen other servers that
have one. I have no information on whether there's such a misleading
error message or not.

Robert Miles

[Robert Miles]

Your newsreader's count of the number of connection is not
required to match the server's count of the number of
connections. If the two ends use very different timeouts
for dropping idle connections, expect those two counts to
frequently disagree.

Robert Miles

[David J Taylor]

> I've found that the time required for Windows Live Mail to decide that
> a connection is no longer in use and drop its end of the connection is
> about 15 seconds after your last action on the keyboard or mouse.
>
> For Windows Mail, the time is even shorter - about 3 seconds.
>
> If the server does not come close to those settings, it is likely to
> see many connections at once, and may tell you that you have too
> many connections at once.
>
> Also, this quick timeout means that the server will see a large
> total number of connections per day.
>
> Robert Miles

Thanks, Robert. I've looked in the registry for a value to control the
timeout, with a view to experimenting, but I could not find one for
Windows Live Mail.

Cheers,
David

[Barry Margolin]

In article <jp1jri$gsp$1...@dont-email.me>,

If they do an orderly close of the connection after the timeout, the
other end should detect this and free up its connection. So the period
of disagreement *should* be fairly short.

However, this assumes that they've programmed the client and server
properly to detect these transitions.

[hugh]

In message <jp1jcc$ehg$1...@dont-email.me>, Robert Miles
<rober...@nospam.invalid> writes

My news reader reports "too many connections or server busy - hard to
tell :-)" so yes it could be a misleading error message.

Turnpike has a record of strict adherence to standards.
--
hugh

[Jon Ribbens]

On 2012-05-17, hugh <hugh@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:
> In message <jp1jcc$ehg$1...@dont-email.me>, Robert Miles
><rober...@nospam.invalid> writes

>>There probably is such a hard limit - I've seen other servers that
>>have one. I have no information on whether there's such a misleading
>>error message or not.
>

> My news reader reports "too many connections or server busy - hard to
> tell :-)" so yes it could be a misleading error message.

That is the clarified error message that was provided in response to
this thread months ago, before Robert Miles inexplicably resurrected
the dead topic.

[asa]

GrtArtiste wrote:

> I usually have Thunderbird open for 10-12 hours a day to read/send
> email, but the time spent reading or making posts to Usenet is usually
> an hour or less. Lately, TB gives me the message that ES says there
> have been too many connections from my IP address. Since the daily
> limit is 1200 connections...am I really hitting the wall? Or should
> I be looking at something within TB?

> Thanks for any assistance.

> GrtArtiste

MAKE EASY MONEY USING LIBERTY RESERVE
PROVEN BY OPRAH SHOW - MAKE EASY MONEY USING LIBERTY RESERVE
SPEND $6 AND MAKE THOUSANS OF DOLLAR
Proven to work by OPRAH DATE LINE & 20/20

There are thousands of peoples out there, regular people, like you and me,
searching for a way to make money legally and easy,here is a way you can
do that. Please give this letter a chance, everything on it is true and it
can help you get that kind of money you dreamed of. And you are only
investing $6. 00!!!

When I read this on net, i figured at least 6 people would respond out of
the millions of people that use the internet,and also that this is not the
way to make quick large money,and probably if i would get money through
this,it wont be as quick large money which is what i needed then,until i
gave it a try and became astonished by the outcome. The first week i made
$859 and my libertyreserve account is growing even while I sleep. You
should give it a try too! You have nothing to lose, and thousands to gain!
You have most likely seen or heard about this projection on TV programs
such as 20/20 and Oprah or you may have read about it in the Wall Street
Journal. If not, here it is below-revealed to you in step-by-step detail.
This program is by no existence in many forms for at least a decade. But
in the early days, it required a lot more time and effort, as well as an
investment of a few dollars. However thanks to Liberty Reserve and the
internet, the entire process is FASTER, EASIER, and MORE LUCRATIVE.


I WAS SHOCKED WHEN I SAW HOW MUCH MONEY CAME FLOODING INTO MY LIBERTY
RESERVE ACCOUNT I turned $6 into $5,706 within the first 30 days of
operating the business plan that I am about to reveal to you free of
charge. If you decide to take action on the following instructions, I will
GURANTEE that you will enjoy a similar return! The only things you will
need are:
- An email address.
- A Liberty Reserve account with at least $8 deposited in it. Its free to
sign up.
- And just 15 to 30 minutes of your time. (The more time you put into it,
the more time you see in return) this program takes just half an hour to
set up. After that, there is absolutely no work whatsoever to do on your
part. You have absolutely NOTHING to lose, and there is NO LIMIT to the
amount of income you can generate from this one single business program.
Lets get started, just follow the instructions exactly as set out below
and then get prepared for a HUGE influx of cash over the next 30 days!
Here is what you need to do.


REQUIRMENTS:
1) An email address
2) Liberty Reserve Account (free to open at: Libertyreserve. com)
3) $3

Now follow the steps:

STEP 1: Setting up your FREE Liberty Reserve (if you already have an
account, just move on to the next step) extremely safe and very easy to
set up a FREE Liberty Reserve account just go to www. libertyreserve. com
Liberty Reserve is used by thousands of companies, including eBay to
accept credit cards and other forms of payment.

STEP 2: Fund your Liberty Reserve account locally from listed
exchangers,search google to know the local exchangers in your country that
change currency to dollar and transfer it to liberty reserve account. For
example in nigeria;goldnairaexchange. com,e-naira. com,naira4dollar. com.

STEP 3: Sending Liberty Reserve money"Now all you have to do is send $3.
00 by way of Liberty Reserve to the email address listed below. After
setting up your free Liberty Reserve account, put (sixdollars) $6. 00 into
your Liberty Reserve Account,$1 will be which will be withdrawn from your
account by liberty reserve as part of their terms,surf the site for info
on that,then use the Account tab on Liberty Reserve to send $3. 00 to each
of the numbers on the list from the $8 you put into your account. . Then
remove the top one (#1) and place your Liberty Reserve number in the #1
spot in the list of numbers. Remember your number becomes #1.

IMPORTANT: Make sure the subject of the payment says: PLEASE PUT ME ON
YOUR EMAIL LIST
(By sending $3 to each and also including please put me on your email
list,keeps the program 100% legal, so please dont forget) The following
are the Liberty Reserve numbers:


#1) U9255674(change to yours)
#2) U8249689


Remember, all of this is ABSOLUTELY LEGAL! You are creating a service, a
business an Email List Service Business. If you have any doubts, please
refer to title 18 Sec. 1302 & 1241 of the United States Postal Laws.
However, do not spam. This means, you should never sent it to an email
that was not given to you willingly by the owner. This makes your business
completely legal.

****MAKE SURE THE LIBERTYRESERVE YOU SUPPLY IS EXACTLY AS IT APPEARS IN
YOUR LIBERTYRESERVE ACCOUNT****

STEP 4: Copy Message to 200 Newsgroups, message boards, et. c or you can
start sending his letter to as many e-mails you encounter,the more you
send the more your money increases. The pure joy of receiving
LIBERTYRESERVE Money! You are now ready to post your copy of this message,
to at least 200 newsgroups, message boards, etc. (I think there are close
to 32,000 groups). In this situation your job is to let as many people see
this letter as possible. So they will make you rich!!!

HOW TO POST TO NEWSGROUPS & MESSAGE BOARDS

Step 1: You do not need to re-type this entire letter to do your own
posting. Simply put your CURSOR at the beginning of this letter and drag
your CURSOR to the bottom of this document, and select "copy" from the
edit menu. This will copy the entire letter into your computer temporary
memory.

Step 2: Open a blank "Notepad" file and place your cursor at the blank
page. From the "Edit" menu select "Paste". This will paste a copy of the
letter into notepad so that you can add your email to the list. Or copy to
a word document and place in the e-mail.

Step 3: Save your new Work or Notepad file as a txt file. If you want to
do your postings in different sittings, you always have this file to go
back to.

Step 4: Use Netscape or internet Explorer and try searching for various
newsgroups. On-line forums, message boards, bulletin boards, char sites,
discussions, discussion groups, online communities, etc. EXAMPLE: Go to
any search engine like yahoo. com, Google. com, altavista. com, excit. com
- then search with subjects like millionaire message board or money making
message board or opportunity message board or money making discussions or
business bulletin board or money making forum etc. You will find thousands
& thousands of message boards. Click them, one by one then you will find
the option to post a new message.

Step 5: Visit these message board and post this article as a new message
by highlighting the text of this letter and selecting Select then go to
the message board and Paste from the Edit menu. Fill in the Subject, this
will be the header that everyone sees as they scroll thru the list of
postings in a particular group, click the post message bulletin. Youre
done with your first one! Congratulations! THAT IS ALL you have to do.
Jump to different newsgroups and post away. After you get the hang of it,
it will take about 30 seconds for each newsgroup!


****REMEMBER, THE MORE NEWSGROUPS AND/OR MESSAGE BOARDS YOU POST IN, THE
MORE MONEY YOU WILL MAKE!! BUT YOU HAVE TO POST A MINIMUM OF 200****

Thats it! You will begin receiving money within days. The things to
remember are thousands of people all over the world are joining the
internet and reading these articles everyday, JUST LIKE YOU are now! So
start with $6. 00?? And see what the outcome will look like . Thank you
for reading this letter. Now give yourself the opportunity to try it out,
there is really nothing to lose.

GrtArtiste wrote:

> I usually have Thunderbird open for 10-12 hours a day to read/send
> email, but the time spent reading or making posts to Usenet is usually
> an hour or less. Lately, TB gives me the message that ES says there
> have been too many connections from my IP address. Since the daily
> limit is 1200 connections...am I really hitting the wall? Or should
> I be looking at something within TB?

> Thanks for any assistance.

> GrtArtiste

MAKE EASY MONEY USING LIBERTY RESERVE
PROVEN BY OPRAH SHOW - MAKE EASY MONEY USING LIBERTY RESERVE
SPEND $6 AND MAKE THOUSANS OF DOLLAR
Proven to work by OPRAH DATE LINE & 20/20

There are thousands of peoples out there, regular people, like you and me,
searching for a way to make money legally and easy,here is a way you can
do that. Please give this letter a chance, everything on it is true and it
can help you get that kind of money you dreamed of. And you are only
investing $6. 00!!!

When I read this on net, i figured at least 6 people would respond out of
the millions of people that use the internet,and also that this is not the
way to make quick large money,and probably if i would get money through
this,it wont be as quick large money which is what i needed then,until i
gave it a try and became astonished by the outcome. The first week i made
$859 and my libertyreserve account is growing even while I sleep. You
should give it a try too! You have nothing to lose, and thousands to gain!
You have most likely seen or heard about this projection on TV programs
such as 20/20 and Oprah or you may have read about it in the Wall Street
Journal. If not, here it is below-revealed to you in step-by-step detail.
This program is by no existence in many forms for at least a decade. But
in the early days, it required a lot more time and effort, as well as an
investment of a few dollars. However thanks to Liberty Reserve and the
internet, the entire process is FASTER, EASIER, and MORE LUCRATIVE.


I WAS SHOCKED WHEN I SAW HOW MUCH MONEY CAME FLOODING INTO MY LIBERTY
RESERVE ACCOUNT I turned $6 into $5,706 within the first 30 days of
operating the business plan that I am about to reveal to you free of
charge. If you decide to take action on the following instructions, I will
GURANTEE that you will enjoy a similar return! The only things you will
need are:
- An email address.
- A Liberty Reserve account with at least $8 deposited in it. Its free to
sign up.
- And just 15 to 30 minutes of your time. (The more time you put into it,
the more time you see in return) this program takes just half an hour to
set up. After that, there is absolutely no work whatsoever to do on your
part. You have absolutely NOTHING to lose, and there is NO LIMIT to the
amount of income you can generate from this one single business program.
Lets get started, just follow the instructions exactly as set out below
and then get prepared for a HUGE influx of cash over the next 30 days!
Here is what you need to do.


REQUIRMENTS:
1) An email address
2) Liberty Reserve Account (free to open at: Libertyreserve. com)
3) $3

Now follow the steps:

STEP 1: Setting up your FREE Liberty Reserve (if you already have an
account, just move on to the next step) extremely safe and very easy to
set up a FREE Liberty Reserve account just go to www. libertyreserve. com
Liberty Reserve is used by thousands of companies, including eBay to
accept credit cards and other forms of payment.

STEP 2: Fund your Liberty Reserve account locally from listed
exchangers,search google to know the local exchangers in your country that
change currency to dollar and transfer it to liberty reserve account. For
example in nigeria;goldnairaexchange. com,e-naira. com,naira4dollar. com.

STEP 3: Sending Liberty Reserve money"Now all you have to do is send $3.
00 by way of Liberty Reserve to the email address listed below. After
setting up your free Liberty Reserve account, put (sixdollars) $6. 00 into
your Liberty Reserve Account,$1 will be which will be withdrawn from your
account by liberty reserve as part of their terms,surf the site for info
on that,then use the Account tab on Liberty Reserve to send $3. 00 to each
of the numbers on the list from the $8 you put into your account. . Then
remove the top one (#1) and place your Liberty Reserve number in the #1
spot in the list of numbers. Remember your number becomes #1.

IMPORTANT: Make sure the subject of the payment says: PLEASE PUT ME ON
YOUR EMAIL LIST
(By sending $3 to each and also including please put me on your email
list,keeps the program 100% legal, so please dont forget) The following
are the Liberty Reserve numbers:


#1) U9255674(change to yours)
#2) U8249689


Remember, all of this is ABSOLUTELY LEGAL! You are creating a service, a
business an Email List Service Business. If you have any doubts, please
refer to title 18 Sec. 1302 & 1241 of the United States Postal Laws.
However, do not spam. This means, you should never sent it to an email
that was not given to you willingly by the owner. This makes your business
completely legal.

****MAKE SURE THE LIBERTYRESERVE YOU SUPPLY IS EXACTLY AS IT APPEARS IN
YOUR LIBERTYRESERVE ACCOUNT****

STEP 4: Copy Message to 200 Newsgroups, message boards, et. c or you can
start sending his letter to as many e-mails you encounter,the more you
send the more your money increases. The pure joy of receiving
LIBERTYRESERVE Money! You are now ready to post your copy of this message,
to at least 200 newsgroups, message boards, etc. (I think there are close
to 32,000 groups). In this situation your job is to let as many people see
this letter as possible. So they will make you rich!!!

HOW TO POST TO NEWSGROUPS & MESSAGE BOARDS

Step 1: You do not need to re-type this entire letter to do your own
posting. Simply put your CURSOR at the beginning of this letter and drag
your CURSOR to the bottom of this document, and select "copy" from the
edit menu. This will copy the entire letter into your computer temporary
memory.

Step 2: Open a blank "Notepad" file and place your cursor at the blank
page. From the "Edit" menu select "Paste". This will paste a copy of the
letter into notepad so that you can add your email to the list. Or copy to
a word document and place in the e-mail.

Step 3: Save your new Work or Notepad file as a txt file. If you want to
do your postings in different sittings, you always have this file to go
back to.

Step 4: Use Netscape or internet Explorer and try searching for various
newsgroups. On-line forums, message boards, bulletin boards, char sites,
discussions, discussion groups, online communities, etc. EXAMPLE: Go to
any search engine like yahoo. com, Google. com, altavista. com, excit. com
- then search with subjects like millionaire message board or money making
message board or opportunity message board or money making discussions or
business bulletin board or money making forum etc. You will find thousands
& thousands of message boards. Click them, one by one then you will find
the option to post a new message.

Step 5: Visit these message board and post this article as a new message
by highlighting the text of this letter and selecting Select then go to
the message board and Paste from the Edit menu. Fill in the Subject, this
will be the header that everyone sees as they scroll thru the list of
postings in a particular group, click the post message bulletin. Youre
done with your first one! Congratulations! THAT IS ALL you have to do.
Jump to different newsgroups and post away. After you get the hang of it,
it will take about 30 seconds for each newsgroup!


****REMEMBER, THE MORE NEWSGROUPS AND/OR MESSAGE BOARDS YOU POST IN, THE
MORE MONEY YOU WILL MAKE!! BUT YOU HAVE TO POST A MINIMUM OF 200****

Thats it! You will begin receiving money within days. The things to
remember are thousands of people all over the world are joining the
internet and reading these articles everyday, JUST LIKE YOU are now! So
start with $6. 00?? And see what the outcome will look like . Thank you
for reading this letter. Now give yourself the opportunity to try it out,
there is really nothing to lose.