This is a strange one, at least to me. I'm using Pegasus to collect POP mail from 3 different servers, Yahoo, Gmail and Spectrum, set up in that order in "Internet Mail Options / Receiving (POP3)". The General default timeout is set at 45 seconds, and Settings for Receiving Mail is set to 15 seconds on each server definition. I have several "New mail filtering rules" set up and they seem to work properly. I also have some server side filtering rules set up that also seem to work properly.

The first time I check mail each morning I receive a "Not Responding" message in the New Mail folder while "Applying Filtering Rules" shows in the status line. Then a "POP3 Network or Protocol Error" on pop.gmail.com comes up (see attachment). After I acknowledge that error the remaining mail is collected from the other servers. I can then go back and select the "Check your POP3 host for new mail" icon and all connections work just fine. Mail is then collected from Gmail correctly. This error only happens once, the first time I retrieve mail in the morning. Throughout the day I don't get the protocol error. I don't know if this is a connection error or a filtering error but it is frustrating to deal with each day. Your help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Bob

P.S. Having trouble attaching Protocol Error image. Any suggestions?

The timeout setting in the definitions takes precedence over the timeout set in the General tab which means you have a 15 second timeout for each server. IMO and experience, that is not enough time for Gmail. I don't know why you are only experiencing a problem on first access of the day though. Then again, I am assuming that the problem is due to the connection timing out. A session log would confirm that, or perhaps identify another issue. Regardless, consider setting the timeout in the definitions to zero. They will then all use the timeout defined in the General tab.

Regarding attaching an image, I would not be surprised if only certain filetypes are accepted. What was your image filetype? The image below is a .jpg file.

Thanks, Brian. I'll try setting all the timeout values to 0 so the General definition is used. If that doesn't work, how do I capture a session log?

I changed the image format to .jpg format and was able to attach it below. The image shows some log information but ultimately says there was no extended diagnostic information. Is there a more comprehensive log I can capture?

I think I figured out the logging question. If I set "System Message Reporting Level" to 5 in Tools/Options/User Interface/Reporting/Logging that should give a complete log of activity. Is that correct?

New test:
I set all individual server timeout values to 0 and General timeout is set to 45 seconds. I set system messages to level 5 before I collected mail. Bottom line - that showed nothing about the Gmail connection error. I have included attachments showing the error alert from the Gmail connection and the system log with my notes about the process. Again today, the first time I tried to collect mail, the Gmail connection timed out but all other servers processed correctly. The second time through, using the "Check your POP3 host for mail" icon, the connection to Gmail was successful and mail was collected correctly. This is frustrating. Help is appreciated.

Protocol Error 021825.pdf

Protocol Error 021825 SysLog with Comments.pdf

The log you need is an Internet Session log. That logging is enabled by a tick box at the bottom of the General tab in Internet Options. These log files are created in a mailbox subdirectory named TCPLogs. Their extension identities the type of transaction that created the log. They are plain text files so you can append .txt to the filename and then double-click to open in your default text editor. Do not post an entire log file because they contain authentication credentials, sometimes in plain text but sometime encoded in an easily decodable form. If you feel the need to post the content of a log, locate the "Auth login" entry and obfuscate the four entries below it. Two will start with "334". These entries will only exist when using an app password. They do not exist when using OAUTH2 to authenticate.

FWIW, connection to my Gmail account has been very slow for awhile, as compared to how fast other accounts connect. My timeout for it is 120. That is likely overkill but the only drawback to a high timeout is a longer wait in the event of failure, which have not been occurring for me.

Today's run: (Internet Session Log turned on)

First connection was successful to pop.mail.yahoo.com - 11 messages processed.
This message was received when the connection closed:
" [!] Warning [Benign]: SSL connection improperly closed by remote host."

The second connection was to pop.gmail.com with the following results.

06:56:31.956: --- 19 Feb 2025, 6:56:31.956 ---
06:56:31.956: Connect to 'pop.gmail.com', timeout 30 seconds.
06:57:54.024: [!] OpenSSL reported error -1/5 during handshake - diagnostics follow:
06:57:54.024: [!] -------------------------------------------------------------------------
06:57:54.024: [!] * OpenSSL supplied no extended diagnostic information.
06:57:54.024: [!] -------------------------------------------------------------------------

(that's all that was in the log file)
According to my rough calculations, from start time to end time there's a span of about 83 seconds, yet timeout value says 30 seconds and General timeout in Pegasus is set to 45 seconds. Something is very strange here.

The next 3 connections to servers were made successfully although each received the "SSL connection improperly closed by remote host" error.

When I requested mail again from pop.gmail.com the connection was successful in a little over 1 second. The session log looks like this with the notes about fixing the client.

06:59:15.734: Connect to 'pop.gmail.com', timeout 30 seconds.
06:59:16.876: [] SSL/TLS session established
06:59:16.876: [] TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLSv1.3, Kx=any, Au=any, Enc=AESGCM(256), Mac=AEAD<lf>
06:59:16.884: [*] Peer's certificate name is '/OU=No SNI provided; please fix your client./CN=invalid2.invalid'.

This information is way beyond my pay grade so help is appreciated.

It's over my head too. The "Peer's certificate..." entry indicates that something is wrong but I don't know what. Below is from a log I just made:

13:00:00.041: --- 19 Feb 2025, 13:00:00.041 ---
13:00:00.044: Connect to 'pop.gmail.com', timeout 90 seconds, flags 16842753.
13:00:01.049: [] Setting SNI hostname to 'pop.gmail.com'
13:00:01.080: [] SSL/TLS session established
13:00:01.080: [] TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLSv1.3, Kx=any, Au=any, Enc=AESGCM(256), Mac=AEAD<lf>
13:00:01.080: [] Peer's certificate name is '/CN=pop.gmail.com'.

In the log of the failed attempt, it appears that no response is received from the gmail server. I don't know where the 30 second timeout is coming from or why the connection attempt lasted 81 seconds. You can see my timeout is 90 which I what I set it to in the host configuration before running the test.

What version of Pegasus Mail are you running?

In the POP3 host configuration Security tab, if you have the 'STLS' option ticked, try the 'direct SSL' option.

How do you have Pegasus Mail configured to check the multiple email accounts? Multiple hosts selected in one identity? Multiple identities being checked?

In the screenshot you posted, I noticed that IER was not current. I don't think that would have anything to do with the gmail issue but wanted to make sure you were aware of it.