[plug] Tracing lost emails

[Steve Boak]

Hi All

I am suspicious of losing email, but maybe only one or two out of twenty or 
thirty a day, so it's very hard to pin down. I know I definitely lost one 
yesterday, and I will be checking the logs of the sending machine today and 
trying to track either where it went to or disappeared.

Right now I suspect either Westnet losing the mail, or fetchmail not picking 
it up, as I have lost mail over the last week or two from several different 
sources. My logs files show all email picked up by fetchmail, and every 
single one is logged except the missing ones - just as though they did not 
exist on Westnet's server. There are no fetchmail errors anywhere.

For information, I am running Debian Testing with kernel 2.4.22, fetchmail 
6.2.5 , exim 3.6 and kmail 1.6.2.

Anyone else having these problems, or got some ideas for me?

Current testing in progress using tethereal (tethereal -i ppp0 -R pop) shows 
the possibly suspicious 'TCP Previous segment lost' lines in the log, 
although to my untrained eye the following recovery looks OK. This email was 
received, and just happens to be from the plug list :-)

180.338248 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Response: +OK MailSite POP3 
Server 6.0.11.0 Ready <41746440.1093998886.520 at westnet.com.au>
180.339052 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP Request: CAPA
180.431238 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Response: +OK Capability list 
follows
180.433089 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP Request: AUTH CRAM-MD5
180.511205 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Continuation
180.511562 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP Request: <MD5-string-deleted> 
180.626187 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Response: +OK sboak's mailbox 
has 1 message(s) (4458 octets)
183.628552 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP Request: STAT
183.695715 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Response: +OK 1 4458
183.697888 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP Request: LIST 1
183.768705 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Response: +OK 1 4458
183.770110 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP Request: RETR 1
184.038433 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP [TCP Retransmission] Request: 
RETR 1
184.132698 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP [TCP Previous segment lost] 
Continuation
184.196669 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Continuation
184.358635 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Continuation
184.554634 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP [TCP Retransmission] Response: 
+OK 4458 octets
184.560603 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP [TCP Retransmission] 
Continuation
184.779788 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP Request: DELE 1
184.850538 202.72.128.70 -> 202.72.147.33 POP Response: +OK message 1 deleted
184.853333 202.72.147.33 -> 202.72.128.70 POP Request: QUIT

I will now leave tethereal logging to a file for the next couple of days to 
see if I can pick up any other clues.

Steve

-- 
Ph: +61 8 97560662, IP-Phone: FWD# 454566, e164.org# 61897560662 

"Most men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves
up and continue on as if nothing had happened." - Winston Churchill