[axlepin]

I had a problem with OS X Mail.app shortly after upgrading to Panther last year. The problem was that suddenly and without apparent cause, Mail was unable to get mail from my e-mail accounts. "Can't connect with server" I believe was the dialog box I got. All of the Mail boxes for the various accounts would then go grey. Sometimes quitting mail and relaunching would help, often it wouldn't.

Yet, I could use web mail to get that same mail, and could use other e-mail apps also to get that very same mail.

Apple denied there was a problem, yet there was a *lot* of discussion by others having the same problem I was having.

My question is: is this problem fixed? anyone here have the trouble I had and if so, can you say that it's been dealt with?

thanks!

axle

[larkost]

There never was any generic issue. It sounds like you had/have some setting problem. "Can't connect with server" can be indicative of any number of issues. Better troubleshooting is the solution here, not blaming Apple.

[axlepin]

I think you misread my post. there was an issue, such as I described, experienced by other people. I wouldn't describe it as being "generic," but would describe it rather specifically, as I did. Perhaps you didn't experience this problem, but not all problems are experienced by all users. I can assure you that I did quite a *lot* of troubleshooting.

No blame was being cast; rather, a malfunction was being cited. I love Apple's stuff as much as anyone, but they're just as capable of putting out software with bugs as are other hardworking software developers.

thanks for your contribution.

[wataru]

Oh yes, I can assure you there is an issue. I still get it occasionally. I put up with it, though.

[larkost]

You both missed the main point of my post: the message described could mean any number of things, many of them have nothing to do with Mail.app. It could be:

You ISP limits the number of times per hour you can check your mail. Usually this is a "password denied" message, but some system simply close the door which would prompt that message. There is no standard in POP3 for this, so there is no "correct" behavior.

You IPS could be requiring authentication... and there are different forms of that. This also usually generates the "password denied" message, but there are broken methods out there that don't negotiate properly.

You could have the information wrong. This is not uncommon.

Your ISP could be requiring SSL/TSL and you are now on the wrong port. This is uncommon, but possible.

And these are just a very few of the possibilities that I could think up off the top of my head.

None of them have anything to do with Mail.app. All of them give the same error message and thus everyone in these cases would have the same "complaint"... but none of them are at all similar, thus negating the "lots of people are having this issue". Just because the symptoms are similar (but you don't even properly remember those) does not mean that the causes are.

And axlepin: you are assigning blame directly to Apple. Calling it a "malfunction" or a bug directly blames Apple. I don't think you know enough to assign this. In 10.4 Apple is going out of their way to solve ISP problems in Mail.app with a "connection troubleshooter" which will detect a number of these situations. But that is not fixing a bug, that is providing an extraordinary product.

[wataru]

Uh, Mail.app is the only program that behaves this way. So yes, I am fairly confident that the problem is with Mail.app.

[larkost]

Well, I work as a troubleshooter and I have seen a lot of mail programs behave that way. And taking your logic I could just as easily say: "Mail.app works for me, so the problem must be with you".

You don't really understand the problem, and from the information you have included in this thread one can only assume you have not done enough troubleshooting to even isolate the problem. You are not even sure of the error message you are getting. It really sounds like you have a setting problem, but are just flailing around blindly.