[H-GEN] POP3, v42.bis, and the Facts of Life

[Mark Suter]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and
Unix-related topics. ]

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Wayne,

> 1) What is the consensus regarding use of v.42bis over a dial-up PPP
> connection? (All I found in the HOWTOs was stuff about the futility of
> compressing compressed files, yada-yada-yada.)

I really don't know if it matters.  I think that it shouldn't matter
that one hop, from your PC to the boxen at your ISP, is a compressed
dialup link.

> 2) To what extent is the POP3 protocol reliable? (ie. is it guaranteed to
> succeed if left to its own devices for sufficient time, save for
> insurmountable network faults?)

I've generally found it to be so.  What POP3 client are using?
If the answer isn't fetchmail, then I suggest you upgrade :-)

    http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/fetchmail/

> 3) What are the indicators of failure? (ie. will a POP3 server give up, and
> how would you know that it had?)

If an error occurs at the POP3 protocol layer, then it should be
obvious.  It appears that you aren't actually having POP3 problems
per say, but network issues...

For more info on POP3, read RFC 1939, aka STD 53, as follows.

    http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/rfc/rfc1939.txt

> 4) What tools are available to identify points of network congestion? (and
> are there ISPs which are less prone to it, or is it a fact of Life On The
> Australian Internet?)

It doesn't sound as though your problem is the ISP you are dialing
into.  Maybe you should consider .forward'ing the email to a better
location?

As for tools, try "mtr" or some of the following traceroute pages.
Have a look at the BSD ports network tools for other options.

    http://www.questnet.net.au/cgi-bin/nph-tr1
    http://www.telstra.net/cgi-bin/trace
    http://www.debug.net/connectivity/

Yours sincerely,

- -- Mark John Suter | I know that you  believe  you understand
suter at humbug.org.au  | what you think I said, but I am not sure
PGP encryption is OK | you realise that what you  heard  is not
Ph: +61 4 1162 2316  | what I meant.                  anonymous


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