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petercreasey's profile

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235 Messages

Thursday, November 29th, 2018 2:43 PM

inbound.att.net is not responding (renewed)

The ATT Moderator apparently, despite numerous requests, refuses to remove the "Solved" flag on the prior 8-page, 108-message thread...

 

inbound.att.net is not responding

https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Internet-Email-Security/inbound-att-net-is-not-responding/td-p/5392045

 

Thus, this thread is created to reopen this important issue as the problem is still recurring.  Oftentimes "inbound.att.net" is not responding thereby making email retrieval via client impossible.

 

. . . . .   Pete

 

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15K Messages

5 years ago

Oftentimes "inbound.att.net" is not responding thereby making email retrieval via client impossible.

Does that mean it works sometimes?  That's a serious question because I am working on a theory about this.

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235 Messages

5 years ago

@_xyzzy_

 

Up to now it has been intermittent.  Sometimes the problem is occurring but most of the time everything is fine.

 

The problem was occurring early this morning and it is occurring right now (about 8 hours later).  Whether it has been this way all day, I can't say.

 

. . . . .   Pete

 

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5 years ago

OK, that's what I thought.  My (current) theory (and it's only a theory) is the problem is both the servers and your email client.  The servers because I think they slow down under load which would vary over the course of a day.  Your client because it has its server timeout setting set low enough to consider no response within a certain preset amount of time a timeout error during those slow server times.

 

We can't do anything about the server response time.  But it may be possible to increase the timeout setting in your email client.  How you do that is a function of which client you use and not all clients support changing their timeout - you need to google for the instructions if they exist. 

 

For example Thunderbird has a "hidden" config setting (mailnews.tcptimeout) to control its email and NNTP newsgroup server timeout.  Mine was increased from its default setting (did it years ago) to 120 seconds and I have never had any problems accessing the att email.  I forgot all about the timeout setting and that's why I always keep posting "there is nothing wrong with the att servers".  From my point of view there isn't...or wasn't.

 

I recently had the idea of linking my att account to another email service I use.  That requires the other service to access the att servers as POP just like any other email client would do.  I discovered the POP access was intermittent.  And that's why I asked if yours was intermittent too. 

 

When the access from that other account failed it was always due to a timeout (error message told me so).  As part of the server setup for the account linking it allows me to try the access without having to send an email mainly to verify the server settings but it also makes for a convenient server test.  If it fails it has a retry button to click and try again.  I can see it succeed sometimes and not others (with a timeout error).  This reinforces my theory about the att servers just being slow at times and, unfortunately, my other service having a timeout setting that just a little too low for att at least (also linked to gmail, never have timeouts there).

 

Just to reiterate, this is still only a theory.  But it may be worthwhile for you to research how to increase the server timeout setting in your client.  I just mentioned Thunderbird has such a setting (config mailnews.tcptimeout).  If you use outlook then googling for its server timeout setting yields results like this one.  At the very least it might be worth playing around with the setting if can change it in your client.  If it works then my theory is not a theory any more.Man Wink

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235 Messages

5 years ago

@_xyzzy_

 

Sorry, but doesn't look likely.

 

I just tried to get messages and failed.  Changed the config mailnews.tcptimeout setting from 100 to 200 and it still fails just like before.

 

The failure notice pops up way before either 100 or 200.

 

. . . . .   Pete

 

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15K Messages

5 years ago

Oh well, so much for theory.  Didn't know you were also using TB.  Don't know why I never have any problems then with my TB unless it's in some way related to me not having a legacy account.  But that wouldn't explain why I also have intermittent (timeout) behavior from my other email service accessing my att account via POP.   It could still be a short timeout in my other service while being an entirely different problem with you.

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235 Messages

5 years ago

@_xyzzy_

 

Not that it matters, but I use SeaMonkey which is founded on the Gecko system as is ThunderBird.

 

. . . . .  Pete

 

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235 Messages

5 years ago

@_xyzzy_

 

I wish AT&T felt as challenged as you about finding a solution to this problem that reflects so badly on AT&T.  

 

AT&T's non-response on this widely reported problem seems out of character and inconsistent with their expressed goal of providing high quality products and services.

 

. . . . .   Pete

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15K Messages

5 years ago

Att considers email a free service.  You get what you pay for IMO.  It's just a checkoff item they can list as "services" they provide.  If they really cared they would probably charge for it and provide adequate support. 

 

----

 

Sorry.  I accidentally click accept solution for post 8 and then had to go back a uncheck it.  You may have gotten a notification of that.

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235 Messages

5 years ago

@_xyzzy_

 

Thank you for making the correction and salvaging this thread.  It would be a shame of this thread met the same fate as the other thread in which the "Solved" flag was never removed.

 

. . . .   Pete

 

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15K Messages

5 years ago

You still obsessed with that? Man SurprisedMan Happy  @ATTHelpForums flagged that. It was back in February shortly after the article about OAuth and the sccure mail key came out.  At the time, and as far as what was posted in the previous 10 posts it wasn't wrong and for a lot of users isn't wrong today.  Yes, I could remove the flag, but since I didn't flag it, and the fact that isn't entirely wrong, I won't.  Take it up with @ATTHelpForums if you want (assuming they still accept PM's).

 

I don't know what is going on with some users like you with the inbound.att.net.  At this point though, based on my access to the servers from my other email service, I'm inclined to agree with you there something unexplaineable and wrong with that server.  As a test I re-enabled the linking of my att account with that other server email service account.  There when the service can't access inbound.att.net I get an error email back to my other service (it's always a timeout error).  Since the service periodically polls inbound.att.net I see a number of these error emails throughout the day.  So sometimes inbound.att.net works and sometimes it doesn't.  When it does work, whatever is bottled up in the att/yahoo inbox, is downloaded successfully.

 

The only explainable and confusing aspect in all of this is my Thunderbird which never has had any problems with inbound.att.net.  If this isn't a timeout problem what is it?  I am going to have to bounce this problem off my other email service support (yes, a service with real support) and see what their opinion is on this problem.

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