pop3 and imap problem

Hi all

I have a Redhat 8 box running sendmail-8.12.8-9.80. I use both imap and pop3 for clients to donwlaod mails. imap is used by some application related stuff. The users use opp3 to download their mails. The problem started a yesterday when 1 user complained that he was not able to download his mails:
I noticed the following in the /var/log/maillog:
Dec 2 17:27:49 MUSTANG ipop3d[16579]: Login user=<<username>> host=<<IP>>.cox.net [<<IP>>] nmsgs=1/1
Dec 2 17:29:54 MUSTANG ipop3d[16579]: Connection reset by peer while reading line user=<<username>> host=<<IP>.cox.net [<<IP>>]

All subsequent login attempts have had:
Dec 2 17:34:36 MUSTANG ipop3d[16669]: Login user=<<username>> host=<<IP>>cox.net [<<IP>>] nmsgs=1/1
Dec 2 17:38:40 MUSTANG ipop3d[16669]: Command stream end of file while reading line user=<<username>> host=<<IP>>cox.net [<<IP>>]

Only this one user has been having this problem.

Also there is a similar problem with the user that is using imap to poll a mailbox. He is however able to poll the mailbox and retrieve the mail.

What could be the cause of this? And how can I rectify this?

I did so some resaerch and could not find a satisfactory answer. The one answer I got was from http://www.polarhome.com:793/manual/imap-devel-2001a/FAQ
Said that this was due to the client not terminating the connection properly! But then how could it have started suddenly. The user has always been using the saem mail client for polling his mailbox\ (outlook express 6).

Thanx

KS

I've ssen lots of inquiries about this topic but seldom any useful answers. Here's an oddball answer that may save someone the time I wasted chasing it down.

I had a user who was consistently but intermittently unable to successfully get his Outlook mail client to download mail from the server (just in the other room) using POP3 protocol. Manually telnet'ing to the server's port 110 was ALWAYS successful.

It turned out that his ETHERNET cable was (apparently) faulty because replacing it eliminated - COMPLETELY - the problem. We started by running a different cable from his computer to another port which was always sucessful; then we ran that same cable to the original port and THAT was always successful. The only thing eliminated - and subsequently replaced - was the cable.

There were no other symptoms that the network connection was anything other than 100% good.

keith ericson

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