[Dovecot] retr errors

[Noel Butler]

On 07/10/2013 11:19, Bill Morgan wrote:
> On 10/6/2013 5:58 PM, Daniel Parthey wrote:
>> Hi Bill,
>> 
>> any intercepting virus scanner or personal firewall software between 
>> your mail client and the dovecot server?
>> 
>> Regards
>> Daniel
> McAfee....
> 

As I'm sure Daniel was implying, did you also test without these?
Also, do they provide webmail?  next time you get a stuck message, login 
to webmail and see if its OK there, try using only webmail for a week or 
two, if you have this trouble every day, you'll soon reproduce it, or 
rule out the ISP end.

> and the ISP wasn't interested in the wireshark traces.

Baring in mind, that ISP tech support, is exactly that, "ISP, Tech 
Support" not Microsoft support, or apple support or whatever, the ISP 
can only support its services, not your local client software, if they 
can prove, and your ISP should have by process of elimination, for 
instance, webmail, you have no trouble, then they have ruled out an ISP 
related cause, and they are very within their rights to say "not our 
problem".

Also remember, engineers tend to act/get-involved when complaints are 
en-mass, its to their advantage to look at it then, IOW, the care factor 
will increase with multiple people exhibiting the same problem over a 
short  or same period of time.

> 
> I know, I should change the ISP and see if the problem goes away. :-)
> 

Sounds like a fair idea to me if you rule out everything on your end and 
can prove beyond doubt it is the ISP, else you'll just be moving the 
problem sideways, not up towards resolution.