Subject: IMAP error message -- ??

From: "Cornelius C. Noack" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 18:27:12 +0200 ((MEZ) - Mitteleurop. Sommerzeit)

I am using pcpine 4.56, and a commercial IMAP server. Since about a week
ago, upon opening pcpine, I sporadically get a strange error message:

      "IMAP protocol error: syntactically invalid command"

Then, after a short wait, my INBOX loads, and no further disturbance.
This happens sporadically, i.e. NOT always. As far as I can see, the
error message goes away most of the time, after I have deleted all the
spam mail, left pine, and restarted it; but this is not in any way
reproducible.

What might be going on ?

ccn.
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From: "Tim M." <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 01:49:31 -0500

> spam mail, left pine, and restarted it; but this is not in any way

Hello --

My thought would be to check your pinerc (configuration) file.

If it is happening at your login, look for any missing, extra or incorrect
letters or character strokes in your domain name. Another likely candidate
would be the server path to your INBOX. Are you using any SECURE(TLS,SSL)
qualifiers ? Are they supported on your IMAP server?

Hope this gives you a starting point & possibly a resolution.

(p.s., check your paths carefully, saying each letter or character stroke
audibly to yourself - sometimes it can be the smallest thing that can
escape a casual glance)

Regards, Tim

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From: Matt Ackeret <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:13:31 -0700 (PDT)

>qualifiers ? Are they supported on your IMAP server?

This prompted me to look at my setup again to see if I was causing the
various SSH warnings I see sporadically (such as trying to compose a message
again, or go to a folder... it sometimes fails, and if it does, I just do it
again and it works).

I have this in my config:
/notls

First of all, I don't actually see TLS referred to in the
                         Server Name Syntax for Folders
help page.  (It does talk about ssh, but I don't have anything related to
ssh in my inbox path)

Nor do I see "no" as an acceptable prefix to turn features off.

Is this "/notls" what's causing my "insecure server advertized auth/plain"
messages, and other failures?  (The above one happens but the command succeeds,
I get another one sometimes that causes it to fail.)

I know some people just recompile and comment out that warning.. I'd really
like to get to the bottom of the true cause.

---

From: "Cornelius C. Noack" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 22:27:06 +0200 ((MEZ) - Mitteleurop. Sommerzeit)

> >       "IMAP protocol error: syntactically invalid command"
Thanks everybody who tried to help me. I finally wrote to my IMAP
provider. They anwered promptly: it's a problem with their server, they
know it, and they are working on it!

(Well, it's been more than 2 weeks --- they don't seem to be getting
anywhere ...)

ccn.