Subject: POP3

From: J T Breitner <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 11:18:12 EDT

I've run into an interesting problem with the UW POP3 daemon and use with
Norton's anti-virus.

Apparently, Norton runs a POP proxy on the local machine, and has the POP3 client
software talk via the local loopback address.  When a request goes to check mail,
the POP3 client requests the mail via the POPproxy, which then grabs the mail
from the mail server, POPproxy scans the mail for nasties and then passes it along to
the mail client.

The problem lies in the fact that for whatever reason, the POPproxy software
loves to attempt multiple POP3 sessions.  My POP3 daemon immediately returns "mailbox
in use", and the entire thing grinds to a halt.

Has anyone experienced this problem?  Symantec is of little use, their response
has been "we officially follow all POP3 protocols, read the RFC's and fix your POP
software".  Ok, I will.  Yippee.

Thanks...

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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 10:37:52 -0700 (PDT)

On Fri, 14 Apr 2000 11:18:12 EDT, J T Breitner wrote:
> loves to attempt multiple POP3 sessions.

This is a violation of the POP3 specification, which explictly refers to a
lock being applied when a session is active.

It is also a sign of extremely poor programming.  There is no excuse for a
POP3 client to open more than one POP3 session at a time.  POP3 is completely
network I/O bound; there is no performance gain possible with multiple
sessions.

> Symantec is of little use, their response
> has been "we officially follow all POP3 protocols, read the RFC's and fix
> your POP software".  Ok, I will.  Yippee.

Here's the fix: delete Symantec's client.

I'd also post the fact that Symantec refuses to acknowledge their bug and
instead tries to bluster their way around it.