each mail four times

[Fortran]

This morning we connected to orpheus via a phone line, modem speed
45333, and received each mail item 4 times, this would not have
mattered except that one of them was over 6 Megabytes.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Kate Crennell

[Paul Vigay]

Post by Fortran
This morning we connected to orpheus via a phone line, modem speed
45333, and received each mail item 4 times, this would not have mattered
except that one of them was over 6 Megabytes.

It sounds like your software possibly disconnected from the mail server
without logging out cleanly, then logged back in again, hence
re-downloading the entire mailbox (messages are only successfully deleted
when you logout cleanly, after downloading ALL messages).

The server only stores one copy of each message (unless the sender has sent
multiple copies) and once your email software downloads the message it is
deleted from the server, so it's impossible for this to happen from a
server perspective.

[Ben Crick]

Post by Fortran
This morning we connected to orpheus via a phone line, modem speed
45333, and received each mail item 4 times, this would not have
mattered except that one of them was over 6 Megabytes.

Yes, I had a similar problem last year with a very large email
containing 3 big JPEG attachments. The biggie caused an "unclean"
disconnection; so every time I did a Fetch or QuickFetch, I just
got a repeat download of what I already had.

The remedy is to use !Webmail to get at your emails on the
Server; then find the biggie which is causing the problem, and
delete it. Delete also any duplicates of what you already have.
Then quit your browser, wait a few minutes and do another
Fetch/QuickFetch to download any newcomers.

Ben

[G Robin Edwards]

Post by Ben Crick

Post by Fortran
This morning we connected to orpheus via a phone line, modem speed
45333, and received each mail item 4 times, this would not have
mattered except that one of them was over 6 Megabytes.

Yes, I had a similar problem last year with a very large email
containing 3 big JPEG attachments. The biggie caused an "unclean"
disconnection; so every time I did a Fetch or QuickFetch, I just got
a repeat download of what I already had.
The remedy is to use !Webmail to get at your emails on the Server;
then find the biggie which is causing the problem, and delete it.
Delete also any duplicates of what you already have. Then quit your
browser, wait a few minutes and do another Fetch/QuickFetch to
download any newcomers.

I used to have to do this wretched procedure for months, in the bad old
days when News download speed were in the region of 100 CPS (after some
switch of the server system and dial up number. Can't remember exactly,
but the problem has not occurred for ages, thank goodness.

Robin