Horrendous Performance using IMAP

rgiltrap · 6 Dec 2006, 11:15 AM

My mail seems to be getting slower and slower. I checked ping time yesterday and they were about 1200ms and today about 4000ms.

I'm in New Zealand, but ping times to NY servers are normally around 250-260ms. Trying other servers is returning normal performance

Pinging mail.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.51] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.111.4.51: bytes=32 time=3941ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.111.4.51: bytes=32 time=4049ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.111.4.51: bytes=32 time=3942ms TTL=48
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 66.111.4.51:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 3941ms, Maximum = 4049ms, Average = 3977ms

... and to contrast...

Pinging fastmail.fm [66.111.4.56] with 32 bytes of data

Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=238ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=231ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=274ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=229ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 66.111.4.56:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 229ms, Maximum = 274ms, Average = 243ms

Something seems quite wrong here!

I cannot even get a traceroute to mail.messagingengine.com to complete allowing 250 hops and 120000ms.

brong · 6 Dec 2006, 11:48 AM

We had about 20 minutes where we couldn't access FastMail or anything else at NYI from either Westnet or iiNet here in Australia. I looked like a problem in above.net somewhere.

rgiltrap · 6 Dec 2006, 06:46 PM

Seems improved but all the Americans are currently asleep..

Pinging fastmail.fm [66.111.4.56] with 32 bytes of data

Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=238ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=231ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=274ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=229ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 66.111.4.56:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 229ms, Maximum = 274ms, Average = 243ms

missileboat · 6 Dec 2006, 08:16 PM

I also manage my e-mail through IMAP but have not noticed any significant performance change on my end in Japan. Although, I probibaly would have blamed poor performance on my bad internet connection. Even still, I have not had any noticable changes though I did not think to ping the servers.

William9 · 6 Dec 2006, 11:23 PM

What I've noticed is that messages arrive in my mailbox (webmail), but it's several minutes before they show up in my IMAP mail client, despite frequent "get new mail" requests.

NJSS · 7 Dec 2006, 01:15 AM

Latency is dreadful at present on FastMail.

I have just renewed some domains, and the receipts (forwarded from POBox.Com) arrived from the registrar at my back-up account at RunBox 19 minutes before they arrived at FastMail.

At this moment an e-mail which arrived at RunBox at 17:07 GMT has yet to arrive at FastMail.

What's wrong please?

Pinging mail.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.51]:

Ping #1: Got reply from 66.111.4.51 in 6.9ms [TTL=59]
Ping #2: Got reply from 66.111.4.51 in 8.1ms [TTL=59]
Ping #3: Got reply from 66.111.4.51 in 9.7ms [TTL=59]
Ping #4: Got reply from 66.111.4.51 in 6.5ms [TTL=59]

Variation: 3.2ms (+/- 41%)

Shortest Time: 6.5ms
Average: 7.8ms
Longest Time: 9.7ms

Edited to add Ping - and to say response times are thankfully better now - actually faster then RunBox by about 60 seconds!.

brong · 7 Dec 2006, 05:31 AM

I'd have to see the headers of specific delayed messages to see where the delay is.

William9 · 7 Dec 2006, 07:01 AM

I've found a problem with one of my IMAP client accounts. There must have been some corruption in the configuration file. The application appeared to be polling the FM server, but it really wasn't until I restarted the application. The delays that I was seeing were probably a result this issue rather than FM. I apologize.

robmueller · 8 Dec 2006, 04:29 PM

Just as an FYI...

I get emailed if any of the mail queues on the mx servers reaches 3000 messages (there's 4 servers), and paged if they reach 5000 messages. At peak times we're delivering about 1500 messages a minute, so if we fall about 3000/1500*4 = 8 minutes behind, I get emailed, and about 10-12 minutes means I get paged.

I haven't been emailed since the last status blog report last week, so I don't believe there's been significant delays at our end.

As bron said, we need to see the headers to work out why.

Rob

7 Dec 2006, 01:15 AM	#6
NJSS Master of the @ Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Hampshire, UK Posts: 1,239	19 - 20 minutes delay to incoming e-mail ! Latency is dreadful at present on FastMail. I have just renewed some domains, and the receipts (forwarded from POBox.Com) arrived from the registrar at my back-up account at RunBox 19 minutes before they arrived at FastMail. At this moment an e-mail which arrived at RunBox at 17:07 GMT has yet to arrive at FastMail. What's wrong please? Pinging mail.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.51]: Ping #1: Got reply from 66.111.4.51 in 6.9ms [TTL=59] Ping #2: Got reply from 66.111.4.51 in 8.1ms [TTL=59] Ping #3: Got reply from 66.111.4.51 in 9.7ms [TTL=59] Ping #4: Got reply from 66.111.4.51 in 6.5ms [TTL=59] Variation: 3.2ms (+/- 41%) Shortest Time: 6.5ms Average: 7.8ms Longest Time: 9.7ms Edited to add Ping - and to say response times are thankfully better now - actually faster then RunBox by about 60 seconds!. Last edited by NJSS : 7 Dec 2006 at 01:36 AM.

6 Dec 2006, 11:15 AM	#1
rgiltrap Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 2	Horrendous Performance using IMAP My mail seems to be getting slower and slower. I checked ping time yesterday and they were about 1200ms and today about 4000ms. I'm in New Zealand, but ping times to NY servers are normally around 250-260ms. Trying other servers is returning normal performance Pinging mail.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.51] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 66.111.4.51: bytes=32 time=3941ms TTL=48 Reply from 66.111.4.51: bytes=32 time=4049ms TTL=48 Reply from 66.111.4.51: bytes=32 time=3942ms TTL=48 Request timed out. Ping statistics for 66.111.4.51: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 3941ms, Maximum = 4049ms, Average = 3977ms ... and to contrast... Pinging fastmail.fm [66.111.4.56] with 32 bytes of data Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=238ms TTL=48 Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=231ms TTL=48 Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=274ms TTL=48 Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=229ms TTL=48 Ping statistics for 66.111.4.56: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss) Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 229ms, Maximum = 274ms, Average = 243ms Something seems quite wrong here! I cannot even get a traceroute to mail.messagingengine.com to complete allowing 250 hops and 120000ms.

6 Dec 2006, 11:48 AM	#2
brong The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,698 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	We had about 20 minutes where we couldn't access FastMail or anything else at NYI from either Westnet or iiNet here in Australia. I looked like a problem in above.net somewhere.

6 Dec 2006, 06:46 PM	#3
rgiltrap Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 2	Seems improved but all the Americans are currently asleep.. Pinging fastmail.fm [66.111.4.56] with 32 bytes of data Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=238ms TTL=48 Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=231ms TTL=48 Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=274ms TTL=48 Reply from 66.111.4.56: bytes=32 time=229ms TTL=48 Ping statistics for 66.111.4.56: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss) Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 229ms, Maximum = 274ms, Average = 243ms

6 Dec 2006, 08:16 PM	#4
missileboat Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 4	Odd I also manage my e-mail through IMAP but have not noticed any significant performance change on my end in Japan. Although, I probibaly would have blamed poor performance on my bad internet connection. Even still, I have not had any noticable changes though I did not think to ping the servers.

6 Dec 2006, 11:23 PM	#5
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	What I've noticed is that messages arrive in my mailbox (webmail), but it's several minutes before they show up in my IMAP mail client, despite frequent "get new mail" requests.

7 Dec 2006, 05:31 AM	#7
brong The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,698 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	I'd have to see the headers of specific delayed messages to see where the delay is.

7 Dec 2006, 07:01 AM	#8
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	I've found a problem with one of my IMAP client accounts. There must have been some corruption in the configuration file. The application appeared to be polling the FM server, but it really wasn't until I restarted the application. The delays that I was seeing were probably a result this issue rather than FM. I apologize.

8 Dec 2006, 04:29 PM	#9
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,102 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	Just as an FYI... I get emailed if any of the mail queues on the mx servers reaches 3000 messages (there's 4 servers), and paged if they reach 5000 messages. At peak times we're delivering about 1500 messages a minute, so if we fall about 3000/1500*4 = 8 minutes behind, I get emailed, and about 10-12 minutes means I get paged. I haven't been emailed since the last status blog report last week, so I don't believe there's been significant delays at our end. As bron said, we need to see the headers to work out why. Rob