pop3 server looping?

[Frank Bax]

 I see this message in /var/log/daemon about every 10 minutes or so 
(starting about an hour ago); what does this mean?


Dec 27 10:30:01 bax inetd[28318]: pop3/tcp server failing (looping), 
service terminated

Re: pop3 server looping?

[Joachim Schipper]

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 10:34:31AM -0500, Frank Bax wrote:
  I see this message in /var/log/daemon about every 10 minutes or so
 (starting about an hour ago); what does this mean?
 
 Dec 27 10:30:01 bax inetd[28318]: pop3/tcp server failing (looping),
 service terminated

It means you'll want to 'grep pop3 /etc/inetd.conf' and probably 'grep
popa3d /var/log/messages'. That should get you an idea of the problem.
 
Joachim

-- 
PotD: converters/libdvd - descramble scrambled DVDs using ACSS
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Re: pop3 server looping?

[Philip Guenther]

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 7:34 AM, Frank Bax fr...@bax.on.ca wrote:
  I see this message in /var/log/daemon about every 10 minutes or so
 (starting about an hour ago); what does this mean?

 Dec 27 10:30:01 bax inetd[28318]: pop3/tcp server failing (looping),
service
 terminated

It means the host is receiving more POP3 connections per minute than
the limit set by the inetd.conf, which defaults to 255.  Now, if those
are legitimate connections because this is a host serving a large
community of pop3 users, then you should consider raising the limit,
probably by changing the max for pop3 in the inetd.conf.  Contrawise,
if this host shouldn't be seeing so many pop3 connections, then that
host may be under a dictionary attack.  Check the logs for your pop3
server to see what it's saying.


Philip Guenther