FossaMail IMAP connection failure with Yahoo

[sanjayen]

Hi,

I have been using FossaMail since the 25.0 release. I updated to the 25.1.2 version after which I am getting this error for every Yahoo! email request.

The error message states "Unable to connect to your IMAP server. You may have exceeded the maximum number of connections to this server..."

I had not changed the 'Maximum number of server connections to cache' from the default value of 5. I tried changing it to a smaller number but the message only goes away when it is changed to 1. However, when the setting is at 1, I am able to receive emails but unable to send any.

I even unchecked both 'Check for new messages at startup' as well as 'Use IDLE command if the server supports it' as mentioned in this article - http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=2571275

However the problem is not getting resolved. Is there a change in the code between the 25.1.1 and 25.1.2 versions which may be causing this problem? I have not tried rolling back to the 25.1.1 version to see if this problem goes away but will update when I do so.

I tried searching on this forum as well but did not find a relevant thread. Please excuse if I have missed any.

[Moonchild]

Are you using encryption to connect to Yahoo's IMAP server?
Since the mail client takes its security from the back-end, RC4 has also been disabled for encrypted IMAP connections. It's possible that Yahoo's IMAP server is restricting itself to RC4.

[sanjayen]

Yes, I am using SSL/TLS as connection security with normal password as authentication method. IMAP connects over the default 993 port. Similar setting for SMTP but over default port 465.

Do let me know if you want me to try out any different methods/ settings. Want this error to be solved.

Thank you.

[Moonchild]

OK, go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Tab "General", and click the "Config editor" button bottom right.

In the editor's filter list, type in "rc4" to quickly filter the list.

Double-click the values security.ssl3.rsa_rc4_128_sha and security.ssl3.rsa_rc4_128_md5 to set them to "true"

If that fixes your problem, then you should contact Yahoo and let them know about this problem. They should offer more secure encryption than just RC4 on their IMAP servers.

[sanjayen]

I changed the two rc4 settings to true and increased the cache connections to 5 but the IMAP error still comes up.

Any other setting which I can change?

[Moonchild]

Well it was the most likely cause without having more information.

You'll have to check the error console to see if there are any issues specifically noted there. I use IMAP to Google over SSL/TLS myself as well, and there's not problem, so it's not something inherently broken in the client for all IMAP. We just need to figure out exactly what the problem is.

[sanjayen]

Have installed the latest version of Thunderbird. The IMAP sync is still happening. Will let you know if it behaves the same way or if it works as usual.

One thing which is surprising is that Thunderbird defaults the maximum number of server connections to cache to 1 whereas in FosssaMail it was set to 5. I do not even remember changing the value.

[Moonchild]

Installing Thunderbird and using that won't really help much with your FossaMail issue. It either works or it doesn't; if it doesn't work, then getting to the bottom of this would be important and that will have to be done in FossaMail.

How many IMAP accounts are you using in FossaMail?