avast! message

[John271828]

Recently I have observed the following message, sometmes several copies, on my display:

Internet Connection
timeout elapsed. continue waiting?
Server: 'pop-server', port 110

   Yes   No

Does anyone know what this means?

Thanks in advance.

John271828

[RejZoR]

Hello!

This means your connection (mail) did not respond in specified time frame. You can press YES to try again for specified time or NO to cancel.

[John271828]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Why is my mail connection timing out? What did it not respond to?
I have cable, and am sending and receiving email regularly.

John271828

P.S. I received an email notification from avast! even as I was writing this; within five seconds the same message appeared.

[RejZoR]

Maybe your ISP or mail service provider has some problems or they are maintaining (fixing) their services at the moment.
Other possibility is that your line is heavily used (some P2P programs like eMule or Shareaza),but they usually don't couse any troubles.

[DavidR]

Recently I have observed the following message, sometmes several copies, on my display:

Internet Connection
timeout elapsed. continue waiting?
Server: 'pop-server', port 110

Hi John, welcome to the boards.

You can extend the timeout duration within your email program, in OE I think it is 60 seconds by default.

It doesn't matter whether you connect by cable or dial-up if the mail server at your isp is down/busy, etc. for the timeout duration you get the warning.

Perhaps your email program is constantly checking for new mail, so it keeps checking the mail server, you could reduce the frequency you check for new mail.

Sending mail (via smtp port 25) could be successful, whilst receiving (pop3 port 110) mail may fail if the isp uses different mail servers for smtp and pop3.

David