Hi folks, I've got a head scratcher here and I'd really like your help, 
please.

  The problem arose when we replaced a RedHat 6.2 server with a Mandrake 8.1 
server.  On the new Mandrake server, a few clients (out of about 400 or so) 
are now having difficultly POP'ing their mail where they didn't have before. 

  What happens is that they are experiencing an extended connection time, up 
to 60 seconds before the mail transfer starts after starting a mail run via 
pop.   In some cases, this is causing the client to time-out and report the 
server is unreachable.

  If I monitor /var/log/secure and /var/log/syslog while one of these users 
does a mail run, I see the POP3 connection made almost instantly in 
/var/log/secure (so it's not a net latency).  However, the pop service init 
login doesn't show up (in /var/log/syslog) until quite a while later; when it 
does, the user gets his mail. 

  Thus the delay is occurring between the pop connection and the pop login.

  I was at one client's machine this weekend, trying to figure out what is 
going on.  He has one of those  4 port Linksys home router/NAT firewall 
units.   If I bypass the Linksys router and connect the cable modem directly 
to his machine, the POP latency disappears and mail transfers are fast.  Put 
the Linksys router in the path and the long latency re-appears; the log 
entries in /var/log/secure and /var/log/syslog are almost simultaneous.  (I 
do not know whether all the clients having problems have such a router/NAT 
firewall or not). 

 So far, I've not found out what happens on a POP connection after the 
initial connection via xinetd and I have no idea what can be causing this 
delay. 

  Does anyone have anything to suggest?  Thanks!

-- 
Cheers,
Rob

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