POP3 Collection problem

[kgoodknecht]

I have a client that I installed Wingate on to mostly act as a mail gateway for his Exchange server, there is a second provider that receives mail for his same domain, and I have configured Wingate to retrieve mail from that server then forward it to the proper Exchange account. While most of his mail goes directly to Wingate, some gets sent to his second MX server. Occaisionaly Wingate hangs up retreiving mail from the POP3 provider whaich causes the Wingate server to completely stop accepting mail through the SMTP service. He called me today about this when I logged into Gatekeeper it had four accounts showing in the POP3 collection and mail was building up on the second MX server and Wingate's SMTP server wasn't recieving either.
Restarting Wingate disconnected the POP3 collection when I looked at the history it showed the POP3 collection connected for just under two days on these four accounts and since Wingate hadn't gone through all messages and marked them for deletion there was still 600 messages on the POP3 server.

Now for the question, is there anyway to force Wingate to download the messages faster?

I've had this same issue with this server before once it gets over 300 to 400 messages on the POP3 account, Wingate stops before it all the way through and I have to use OE to POP the account to delete the messages off the server. Simply restarting Wingate doesn't fix the issue, it just leaves the messages on the server and downloads the same messages again creating multiple copies of the same messages.

[adrien]

Hi Kevin

It's pretty odd that POP3 collection would block email reception.

Is this happening quite regularly?

How is the POP3 collection for this configured? If it is pulling everything down, does it delete anything it downloads?

Also, is "enable secure connection if supported by server" enabled? We had some problems with OpenSSL and callbacks going missing, so try disabling this and see if it helps (you should be able to see if this is going to make any difference beforehand by looking in the POP3 collection log (debug logging on for SMTP), and see if it is issuing an STLS command).

Adrien

[kgoodknecht]

Hi Kevin

It's pretty odd that POP3 collection would block email reception.

Is this happening quite regularly?

How is the POP3 collection for this configured? If it is pulling everything down, does it delete anything it downloads?

Also, is "enable secure connection if supported by server" enabled? We had some problems with OpenSSL and callbacks going missing, so try disabling this and see if it helps (you should be able to see if this is going to make any difference beforehand by looking in the POP3 collection log (debug logging on for SMTP), and see if it is issuing an STLS command).

Adrien

POP3 Collection is configured to delete regardless, which I assume is to delete anything it downloads. Originally it was configured to delete only if it can be delivered, I made this change shortly after I installed, about 8 months ago. It didn't take long to find out that if Wingate blocked it due to content or infection it would leave those on the server causing a rapid buld up of infected emails.
It checks for mail every 10 minutes.
Use TLS if supported is not enabled.

I checked to server this morning and there were two accounts hung up in POP3 collection, so I restarted Wingate, this apparently caused the POP3 collection to reset and the history showed the duration to be 12535 Seconds. Then I forced a POP3 collection and it was able to finish the POP3 collecting in 16 Seconds.

What I have done to work around this is to use a scheduled task to restart the Wingate service once a day. I see this only as a viable fix on a very temporary basis. I've checked all the settings and one I don't see is one to make the collection timeout after a period of time.

[adrien]

We have made a couple of fixes to pop3 collection since 6.0.4

Would you be able to try a later version? We are about to release a new one, but would be good to make sure we nail this problem.

Adrien

[kgoodknecht]

We have made a couple of fixes to pop3 collection since 6.0.4

Would you be able to try a later version? We are about to release a new one, but would be good to make sure we nail this problem.

Adrien

What kind of changes are we talking about?

Yes, I would try a later version, this client is really getting upset when his mail stops flowing, especially with as many emails he gets a day.

[adrien]

we had some issues with SSL/TLS connections losing recv notifications which we got around.

Also there was a problem with the UIDL command on some servers that would mean the POP3 client could end up leaving mail on the server that had never been downloaded (if the UIDLs were not unique - e.g. non-compliant POP3 server).

We can send you the latest build if you like.

Send me an email to adrien at qbik dot com to tee it up.

Adrien

[kgoodknecht]

we had some issues with SSL/TLS connections losing recv notifications which we got around.

Also there was a problem with the UIDL command on some servers that would mean the POP3 client could end up leaving mail on the server that had never been downloaded (if the UIDLs were not unique - e.g. non-compliant POP3 server).

We can send you the latest build if you like.

Send me an email to adrien at qbik dot com to tee it up.

Adrien

It is not that the POP3 collection leaves mail on the server, the server stops responding and Wingate latches on the account like a pit bull and won't disconnect, no matter how long you wait.
This is a problem that the timeouts aren't working, and there's no way to force the POP3 account to timeout and disconnect without restarting the Wingate server. If the POP3 collection doesn't timeout and disconnect it just stays connected until Wingate restarts. Is there no way for you to put a timeout on the POP3 collection account? Or a way to force the POP3 account to disconnect?

[adrien]

understood

This can happen if we don't get recv notifications though.

I set the switches in the code now to use the same session timeout settings that the SMTP server uses, so now the POP3 collection sessions should time out.

Email me if you would like me to send you the latest one.

Adrien

[aalexx62]

Hello!

I've got the same problem here in laterst verstion declared 6.0.4. Wondering why you don't like to publish a newer version of Wingate to download (6.0.5). Please send me this bug fixer as well.

[adrien]

Hi

We're just finalising a new release, should be out next week.

Adrien

[aalexx62]

We're looking forward to download/install 10th anniversary version of Wingate!

[aalexx62]

Hi

We're just finalising a new release, should be out next week.

Adrien

Is new version delays? When are you going to release it? Or still selebrating 10th anniversary?

[adrien]

Hi

Due date is Wed 19th October.

Adrien