Re: Our POP server "hangs"

[Mark Crispin]

Your reported symptoms look very much like [x]inetd is throttling the 
server port due to too many simultaneous connections.  I suggest that you 
use the netstat program to see if you can find a particular IP address or 
addresses which is attempting an excessive number of connections, and 
remedy that.

Since your Linux system uses PAM for authentication, there may also be an 
overload of the PAM facility.

It's probably accidental; but in effect you have a denial-of-service 
attack going on.  You need to find the responsible machine and put a stop 
to it.

-- Mark --
http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.