mail mystery

[dep]

said David Bandel:

| Problem is, the diagnostics need to be run on the server end.
| However, you might be able to run them from the client.  Turn on
| logging and watch (I believe kmail has a log window).

don't think so, alas. kppp does, but haven't found anything in kmail.

| Try this:  start pinging your mail server, then connect and send your
| mail.  The initial connection setup may just be slow enough to cause
| problems, as you say subsequent sends work.  If starting pings fixes
| the problem, it's what you may have to do.

ping goes through just fine (albeit a 1200-1800ms return time). didn't 
fix the problem, though -- tried sending during and immediately after 
ping session. 

| Sometimes a 
| slow-to-respond DNS will cause the initial connection to hesitate
| long enough not to send.  This problem actually shows up more on fast
| links than slow ones.  Check your DNS settings and make sure your DNS
| servers are responding properly as well (use dig @nameserver to check
| each one to a non-local target, like google --  a srvfail is bad,
| means your selected DNS server doesn't want to talk to you).

i had wondered about this -- satellite company insists on doing dynamic 
dns. have dns cached here, to no apparent effect. maybe i'll give it a 
shot using the server's ip address?
-- 
dep

A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it
is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes
six dead men discussing how any man can possible be alive.
		-- G. K. Chesterton