I would suggest you try renaming HOSTS file to something like HOSTS.OLD, then add the new line to that file, and do a SaveAs to HOSTS with no filetytpe
Martin
Pegasus 4.7, Win XP SP3 fully updated, as much as possible....
Long time, very happy Pegasus user, more than 20 years, thanks David [8-|]
For the past few months I've been having an unusual problem with Pegasus. I get up in the morning and boot my PC. First thing I do after login is selective download of email via Pegasus 4.7. This works fine. Then I read and compose replies, which may take me an hour. During this time I will also check a few web sites using Opera and Firefox. Typically, when I'm ready to send the emails I've composed, I get an error message from Pegasus, something to the effect of "bad address" naming the email address of the first email (or it may be the SMTP address, I'm not sure at this time. I can copy the error message next time it occurs.) Once this happens, neither the SMTP nor the POP3 connection will work.
If I check Firefox and Opera, I still have a good internet connection. If I take Pegasus off-line and back on-line it doesn't help. (I have NOT tried changing IDs; I have several. I'll try that.)
The only thing that I have found that works, and it works every time, is to close Pegasus and restart it. The odd thing is that Pegasus will then work flawlessly for the next 14 hours, until I shut down the PC for the night. While this has been happening for a few months with my desktop, it just happened to me tonight with my laptop for the first time.
Any suggestions as to where to look for the cause and a solution?
[quote user="Jim Adney"]Any suggestions as to where to look for the cause and a solution?[/quote]
Do you have Tools => Options => Advanced settings => Load Windows Internet Services set to Always? If not do so (and restart Pegasus Mail).
Michael -- IERenderer's Homepage PGP Key ID (RSA 2048): 0xC45D831B S/MIME Fingerprint: 94C6B471 0C623088 A5B27701 742B8666 3B7E657C
The symptoms you describe almost exactly match those that I am experiencing with my new 64-bit Windows 8.1 system. The Pegasus Mail definitions came from my old XP system which worked without a problem. My Winsock loading switch has been set at "Always" for ever.
The common thread I have detected so far is that this problem occurs following either a Hibernate or Sleep pause. Changing the hibernate/sleep settings to longer periods then affects how long I can go without this problem. So I am inclined to suggest that you do the same, and either elongate the interval settings, or turn off Hibernate and Sleep modes completely. By the way the enable/disable of screen saver does not seem to have any effect on the problem. With the speed of powering up a PC improving quite a bit, I see very little advantage to hibernate/sleep modes. The only thing I am wondering about is the power-down of the harddrive, or should I just keep it spinning?
Comments?
Martin
It is strange that power settings could be the cause of this problem since it does recur throughout the day.
FWIW, I have my Win7 laptop configured to never sleep but I routinely put it to sleep manually. I remember solving a problem by going into the power management setting of each applicable device and turning off the option to allow the computer to turn the device off to save power. Unfortunately I don't remember the specifics of the problem.
As for the hard drive, I have it set to turn off after 15 minutes which I believe is the default.
An unknown to me is whether MS changed the power behavior or power options in Win 8.1.
Yes, I am set to "Always."
For me, the problem occurs in the morning when I've been busy at my PC. It hasn't had a chance to go to sleep or hibernate. Later in the day, when I've been away from it for long periods and it's gone to sleep, it never has this problem. So I don't think this is power related.
Here's what the error messages look like:
When doing POP3:
07:59:03.062: --- 27 May 2015, 7:59:03.062 ---
07:59:03.062: Connect to 'mail.vwtype3.org', timeout 60 seconds.
07:59:03.062: 2: Bad address "mail.vwtype3.org"
When doing SMTP:
08:00:00.218: --- 27 May 2015, 8:00:00.218 ---
08:00:00.218: Connect to 'smtp.att.yahoo.com', timeout 15 seconds.
08:00:00.218: 2: Bad address "smtp.att.yahoo.com"
Those are my normal POP and SMTP servers.
I don't think it has anything to do with the timeouts, because it works flawlessly all other times, including when I downloaded email 30-60 minutes before this problem occurs, and I don't always get up and get started on my email at the same time each morning
I still haven't tried changing IDs. I'll try to remember that tomorrow morning.
Is there somewhere that I should look in XP to check the TCP/IP and WinSock connection status?
I suggest you try the command prompt, typing in:
ipconfig /flushdns which will clear the DNS cache of old/incorrect entries
Martin
Does flushing remove everything, or just invalid entries? In other words, does it cause the system to go thru the list and check each entry, discarding anything that can't be verified?
Can you tell me where (path/filename) this dns info is stored under XP? I did a bit of research on this and came up with the filename localhost, which rang a very old bell, but I didn't find a localhost file anywhere on my C: drive. I'd like to manually edit this file if possible.
I DID do a ipconfig /displaydns and note that my POP entry is there, but there is no entry for my SMTP server. That seems odd, since I use both equally often. Ahhh, but I just realized that the POP info that's there is actually for where I occasionally go and check mail there with a web browser. So, neither my POP server nor my SMTP server show up when I do an ipconfig /displaydns. Should they?
ipconfig /displaydns gave me a list of only about 30 entries, of which 3 are listed as non-existent. Those 3 are unrelated to my email, and are all very old.
This topic of the dns cache intrigued me because I knew nothing about it so did some research.
The ipconfig /flushdns command appears to clear the cache except for entries contained in the HOSTS file. A MS TechNet article states that it "Flushes and resets the contents of the DNS client resolver cache". I searched for a explanation of what "resets" means and found a reference that said entries that exist in the HOSTS file will not being cleared from the cache. I found no corroboration on that though.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490921.aspx
I believe the Hosts file is the file you are referring to when you say "localhost". It is located in \Windows\System32\drivers\etc.
Another thing I learned is that the dns cache is a per session cache. Dynamically added entries are supposed to be cleared automatically after a period of time of no use. I found reference to that time being 24 hrs in XP but could not corroborate that either. I did not find anything specific to Win7 or 8. This fact begs the question of why you see old entries in your cache.
As for whether the smtp and pop servers should be in the cache, my two pop ones were there but my smtp one was not which didn't surprise me since I hadn't smtp'd in awhile. I sent a test message then checked the cache and the server was now there.
I agree that the problem sounds DNS related but none of my research sheds any light on the cause of problem. I would do a flush and look inside the HOSTS file for anything odd but have no suggestions beyond that.
Further to my previous posting regarding DNS problem, I think I have solved it for me. Backup your Hosts file before updating it. I placed an entry in my Windows 8.1 HOSTS file (located in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc). The file does not have a filetype extention, but can be opened simply using Notepad. I then added a line that contained the actual IP address (use NsLookup to get this address) of the POP3 server at my ISP, followed by a blank, and then the name of the POP3 service at my ISP. So the line, in my case looks like:
207.167.198.23 Mail.telus.net
Remember to save the file. Shut everything down and restart Windows. For me, error messages no longer appear. If for any reason the ISP changes the POP3 server IP address you will have to rework the value on this line. I have not so far seen a need to do the same with my ISP SMTP service address.
Any problems with this solution can be easily backed out, by deleting the line that you added.
Martin
I have now tried ipconfig /flushdns. It clears out most of the dns entries, leaving only 2 behind. I've had a few days to try this, and it hasn't helped my problem with Pegasus. What I find is that the dns entries appear again each day, so it's possible that I should try flushing the dns BEFORE I do any Pegasus communication.
The dns entries that appear automatically each day appear to be from tabs on my browsers that start up, and presumably refresh, each time I start the PC. Most of them do not appear to be a problem. Two dns entries are listed as "Name does not exist." I believe these may be related to a service that came with my AT&T Uverse. The software came from "Pure Networks" and the service is nmsrv, or something like that (Network Magic.) To my knowledge I've never used it, so I killed the service and set its startup to Manual.
I'll let you know if that makes a difference.
PS: I just tried to edit my hosts file (as administrator) to add my POP server to the (very short) list in there. My SMTP server doesn't show up when I displaydns. XP wouldn't let me save the changed file, even though Administrators are supposed to have full control of that file. There's also another file in that directory named lmhosts. Should I try adding my entries to THAT file?
thanks,
