Hello g00r00!

I just noticed that the passive FTP timeout when retrieving QWK mail from a "slow" server still seems to be 10 seconds (rather than 30 seconds as per whatsnew.txt):

Nov 21 14:41:28 QWKPOLL Startup (v1.12 A47 Linux/64 Compiled 2020/11/17 13:40:00)
/../
Nov 21 14:41:31 Downloading QWK packet
Nov 21 14:41:31 S:PASV
Nov 21 14:41:31 R:227 Entering Passive Mode (71,95,196,34,7,211)
Nov 21 14:41:31 S:RETR VERT.qwk
Nov 21 14:41:41 Unable to open data connection

Could you please double-check the timeout in the code?

My QWK polls usually succeed after a while (due to Round Robin DNS for the QWK server) but it would be nice if they always succeeded. :-)

Many thanks in advance!

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/17 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (77:2/107)

I just noticed that the passive FTP timeout when retrieving QWK mail
from a "slow" server still seems to be 10 seconds (rather than 30
seconds as per whatsnew.txt):

Could you please double-check the timeout in the code?

I believe we've chatted about this via e-mail a couple of times and I've explained it in the WHATSNEW as a result too:

When connecting TO the FTP server I cannot control how long that connection as allowed to take. There is a maximum amount of time where a connect socket call will return an error and I cannot control it. I've searched Stackoverflow to confirm this as well.

When in a non-passive mode, I *can* control the amount of time the QWKPOLL client waits for the data connection from the server, and in that situation QWK poll waits for 30 seconds.

I made a new socket library that does support a kludge to make a connection with a configurable timeout. It uses non-blocking sockets and just retries over and over for a period of time in a separate thread until the time runs out or it gets a connection. The issue is that QWKPOLL does not use this library.

The plan is to merge QWKPOLL into MIS and at that time I would also switch it over to the new library. This is the same approach I used with MIS POLL and FIDOPOLL and if there are problems with the new stuff then people can fallback to QWKPOLL until I get things stable.

The only way to improve your situation right now with QWKPOLL would be to not use passive or if somehow your hub wasn't taking 30 seconds to make a QWK packet. Not using passive means you need to open up firewall ports for incoming FTP data connections though, so that is a bad solution too.

I really just need to get the new QWKPOLL done but I haven't been very motivated lately.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/17 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 | Mystic WHQ (77:1/138)

Hello g00r00!

Thank you for your reply!

On 22 Nov 2020, g00r00 said the following...

When connecting TO the FTP server I cannot control how long that connection as allowed to take. There is a maximum amount of time where
a connect socket call
will return an error and I cannot control it. I've searched
Stackoverflow to confirm this as well.

Ah, OK, didn't know that -- that explains it...

I really just need to get the new QWKPOLL done but I haven't been very motivated lately.

No problem!

(DNS Round Robin -- which hits a "fast" server every now and then -- makes mail flow anyway. :))

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/17 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (77:2/107)

I really just need to get the new QWKPOLL done but I haven't been ver motivated lately.

No problem!

(DNS Round Robin -- which hits a "fast" server every now and then --
makes mail flow anyway. :))

Well at least it works sometimes :) I'll try to get myself motivated to get the new QWKPOLL working so this will resolve itself for you.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/22 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 | Mystic WHQ (77:1/138)

I really just need to get the new QWKPOLL done but I haven't been ver motivated lately.

No problem!

Hey if you want to upgrade to the latest A47 (as of about 10 minutes ago) I tried to make some more changes to QWKPOLL to help with the transfers timing out. Please let me know if you try it.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/23 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 | Mystic WHQ (77:1/138)

Hello g00r00!

On 23 Nov 2020, g00r00 said the following...

Hey if you want to upgrade to the latest A47 (as of about 10 minutes
ago) I tried to make some more changes to QWKPOLL to help with the transfers timing out. Please let me know if you try it.

Thanks a lot, g00r00! Seems to be working:

Nov 24 07:16:02 Downloading QWK packet
Nov 24 07:16:02 S:PASV
Nov 24 07:16:02 R:227 Entering Passive Mode (71,95,196,34,7,209)
Nov 24 07:16:02 S:RETR VERT.qwk
Nov 24 07:16:13 R:550 No QWK packet created (no new messages)
Nov 24 07:16:13 Packet does not exist on remote: VERT.qwk
Nov 24 07:16:13 Response: 550 No QWK packet created (no new messages)

...clocking in at a successful (non-)retrieval taking 11s, instead of a 10s timeout.

Thanks a lot! :)

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/23 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (77:2/107)

Thanks a lot, g00r00! Seems to be working:

Nov 24 07:16:02 Downloading QWK packet
Nov 24 07:16:02 S:PASV
Nov 24 07:16:02 R:227 Entering Passive Mode (71,95,196,34,7,209)
Nov 24 07:16:02 S:RETR VERT.qwk
Nov 24 07:16:13 R:550 No QWK packet created (no new messages)
Nov 24 07:16:13 Packet does not exist on remote: VERT.qwk
Nov 24 07:16:13 Response: 550 No QWK packet created (no new messages)

That is promising thanks for letting me know! It should wait up to 60 seconds now assuming it actually works :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/23 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 | Mystic WHQ (77:1/138)

Hello g00r00!

On 24 Nov 2020, g00r00 said the following...

That is promising thanks for letting me know! It should wait up to 60 seconds now assuming it actually works :)

Thanks! Sounds great!

No failed transfers any more in the logs here. :)

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/23 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (77:2/107)