Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 13:22:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Bryan Ogawa at Work <bogawa@netvoyage.net> To: Patrick Ferguson <patrick@chloe.dmv.com> Cc: Jason Fesler <jfesler@calweb.com>, freebsd-isp@freebsd.org, Bruce Bauman <boot@mosquito.com> Subject: Re: POP timeout Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.92.960510131610.8315D-100000@digital.netvoyage.net> In-Reply-To: <XFMail.960509200228.patrick@chloe.dmv.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Thu, 9 May 1996, Patrick Ferguson wrote: > > On Tue Apr 30 20:01:34 1996 Jason Fesler wrote: > >>At 08:59 AM 4/30/96 -0400, you wrote: > >>We are running FreeBSD 2.1 at our small ISP. Customers have occasionally > >>been complaining about being unable to communicate with our mail server > >>via POP. If I check our log files, I see messages like the following: > > > >One thing to check is the *size* of the mailbox being checked. > >qpopper's major weak point is with large mailboxes, as every time > >someone checks their mail, qpopper has to scan the entire mailbox > >file. > > > >Leave it to the local wArEz kiddies to try and trade via email to > >prove this particularly weak point in qpopper, by sending each other > >10-20 megabyte email messages.. What's even worse, though, are little old ladies who have 10 megabytes of SMALL mail, who set their Eudora to: (1) check mail every five minutes, and (2) LEAVE MAIL ON SERVER!!!! Recently, our machine has been dog slow, and I've been trying to figure out why. I thought it was a not enough RAM problem, but it turns out that one of our customers is doing the above. Our pop server (popper?) reads AND WRITES the mail for people who ask to leave mail on server. The above situation leads to disk thrashing as a simple (and reasonably fast, on their end, as the pop client only sends new mail) check new mail every 4 minutes generates huge disk bandwidth. Other than telling customers DON'T DO THAT, do you guys have any other suggestions? > > > >-- > > Jason Fesler jfesler@calweb.com > > Admin, CalWeb Internet Services jfroot@calweb.com > > I like my Usenet over ice, please. http://www.gigo.com > > Disclaimer: My /dev/null can beat your /dev/null any day. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Patrick Ferguson - Systems Administrator patrick@dmv.com > DelMarVa OnLine! - Salisbury, MD > > > -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- > Version: 2.6.2 > > mQBNAzGBrOQAAAECALpR8GMUAXnKbr9LeXVv18Q8y/n1NM1+YS8ffP/5HvM0gyso > F1T9+gcGvb3L2nFwj+wnig0UQY93vXqhXPoFN4UABRG0IlBhdHJpY2sgRmVyZ3Vz > b24gPHBhdHJpY2tAZG12LmNvbT4= > =AgnQ > -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- > > Bryan K. Ogawa Questions or Problems with NetVoyage? help@netvoyage.net Check out the NetVoyage HelpWeb at.. <URL: http://www.netvoyage.net/~help/>;
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.NEB.3.92.960510131610.8315D-100000>