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List:       debian-user
Subject:    Every 36 to 48 hours, can't send mail via smtp(.gmail.com)--must reboot to recover
From:       Randy Kramer <rhkramer () gmail ! com>
Date:       2013-09-03 19:25:32
Message-ID: 201309031525.32193.rhkramer () gmail ! com
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I was going to write a long email, detailing the various things I've tried, 
but I thought I'd start with a short email, just generalizing on the problem, 
to see if it rang a bell with someone.  Read the entire email to see the 
recent changes I made to my LAN--the problem did not exist before I made the 
changes.

Somewhere between 36 and 48 hours after a reboot on my Debian (5.0) system, I 
can no longer send email via smtp.gmail.com from kmail.  Receiving mail 
becomes somewhat erratic, and some web pages either don't load or load very 
slowly.  At the same time, quite a few other pages load just find at 
apparently normal speed.  The only way I have regained the ability to send 
email is by rebooting (more below).

I think the problem with smtp.gmail.com is a slowdown rather than an outright 
failure, but the slowdown is such that kmail always times out while 
attempting to send an email.  

My incoming email is fetched automatically every 10 minutes, and sometimes I 
find new mail while the problem is occurring--I think maybe sometimes things 
are just fast enough so some emails are received.  Other times I've tried to 
manually request the mail and received nothing (but, I don't know for sure 
that there was mail to receive).

The pages that become slow always include those from a google.com or gmail.com 
domain, but also a seemingly random selection of other pages.  It often 
includes pages from wikipedia, and a recent attempt to load a newegg page did 
not work.  (At one point I was beginning to think that I could only get new 
pages from domains that were already open in a different tab or browser--I 
haven't convinced myself of that.)

Things I've tried (some of these things may have been silly to try, but, as I 
really don't have a clue, I'm trying most things I can think of):

   * shutting down and restarting relevant applications, i.e., Iceweasel, 
konqueror, Opera, kmail, pidgin (btw, if a page is a problem on one browser, 
it is a problem on all 3)
   * ifdown -a, ifup -a
   * ifupdown restart and ... force-reload
   * network-manager restart
   * network-manager-director restart
   * networking restart
   * running tracert, ping, dig, ifconfig, looking for anomalies--I'll report 
some of those results in a future email if someone asks, but they don't tell 
me anything (I am not, by any means, a network expert)
   * changing the DNS servers
   * changing the hosts file--several times, and trying without a hosts file

Nothing seems to restore the performance short of a reboot.  (I've also tried 
just waiting several hours to see if the problem goes away.

Other computers on the LAN also experience the problem (one is another Debian 
5.0 system, another is a SuSe system).   I have to reboot the other Debian 
system as well.  Sometimes, it seems the problem is more erratic on the SuSe 
system--it seems that sometimes either the problem does not occur or seems to 
correct itself somehow--on the other hand, sometimes I have to reboot (I need 
to do more testing to confirm--that is a laptop, and I don't always have it 
connected nor leave it on overnight).

The problem may be related to changes to my LAN that I made starting about a 
month ago.  The basic thing I did was drop RCN (cable) as my ISP and switch 
to Earthlink (DSL).

But, other changes either went along with that or seemed appropriate to do at 
the time.  These included:

   * changing the LAN from coax to twisted pair
   * changing from manually assigined IP addresses to using DHCP provided by a 
router on the system (GigaFast EE-420)

The problem may have started with the first computer I switched over, but, as 
I don't use it for emails, I didn't notice a problem until I switched my main 
computer over.  Since then, the problem has occurred like clockwork, every 
two days (two weeks so far).

Aside: I usually find the problem in the morning, reboot, and then the problem 
occurs during the night of the second day (36 to 48 hours) after a reboot.

Ok, sorry that wasn't all that short.  If anybody can give me a clue, I'd 
appreciate it.  

Randy Kramer





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