One of my users is having problems with email server timeouts and duplicate email. I'm assuming the two problems are realted. It started after he returned from a long vacation. I cleaned several virus's from hundreds of files, installed and implemented SpyBot to take care of adware and put AVG on his system.
Server timeouts occur every time he tries to get his email, (OE). Some messages are being duplicated a dozen or more times. His ISP says they can't help and the problem must be at his end.
I found a thread here that talks about a corrupted Pop3uidl.dbx file but it is a very old thread(2001), and I can't find that filename on my system.
sounds to me like he is checking his mail from several locations and one of them has the "leave messages on the server" box checked causing him to think hes getting duplicates.
He only has the one location and leave messages on server was the first thing I checked. It's definitely not on.
I changed the server timout value on OE from 1-minute to 5-minutes and it makes no difference.
I am confused about how email clients and servers talk to one another. I have been assuming that each message is handled seperately. By that I mean if there are 10 messages on the server and the client reads the first one then starts to read the second one before timing out, the server recognizes that the first has been read and removes it. The next attempt to read by the client should then see only 9 messages.
In this case we were reading message 6 of 10 before the server connection was terminated. The next attempt still sees all 10 messages. Shouldn't 1 thru 5 have been removed from the server?
not usually. The server sends a list of messages and then gets a complete response at the end. If it fails in the middle the messages are usually saved just in case they got lost somewhere between client and server.
If its timing out on the same message number have his isp check and see if he has an oversized or corrupted message stuck in his box. Usually if they delete that message it will allow the others to download.
The reason it confuses me is that I have the same ISP and my email messages are deleted from the server one at a time. If I have 150 incoming messages and the read fails after 50, (which is common since I started using AVG), the next time my email client starts a read there are only 100 incoming messages.
The differences between his system and mine are that I use Outlook Pro--he uses Outlook Express, and I have high-speed cable--he has high-speed lite.
We can get to his mailbox using the ISP's webmail service and delete from there. This has been going on for about a month now so the mix of messages has been different. I'll have to keep a close eye on the problem to see if it's related to a specific email or sender or ???
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