47666 - Hang when mail server becomes unreachable

Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect, P1)

Description

[Jim Roskind]

For a varety of reasons, the email server can periodically become unreachable.
One example of this appears when VPN software (such as SERA) drops the link.
When this happens, an alert dialog appears with the text:

Connection refused to the server

The above appears in an alert dialog.  Sadly, this alert dialog appears
application modal, and not only blocks the ui thread, it blocks the redisplay
activy.  Once you get this alert-from-hell, the browser locks up.  None of the
windows respond to close messages.  The only thing that redraws is the frames of
windows, inludeing the alert window. As a result, if you don't catch this alert
message before a screen saver kicks in, you'll never get to even read it (it
will be destroyed, and will never repaint).

I'm sure there are a few other reasons for this dialog... but the evil crash
ending seems the same.

I just hit the above bug on Win NT with the 8/2 build of the M17 beta2 branch,
but the problem has been in the build for many weeks (I just haven't seen the
text of the alert message till now!!!!).

Comment 1

[Scott MacGregor]

I actually don't think this has anything to do with the fact that we can't reach
the mail server. It's a problem we have with modal dialogs some times.

Sometimes hitting OK in modal dialogs just doesn't make them go away!

this blocks the UI thread as well.

I've had the server go down on me and I've gotten this dialog and was able to
dismiss it just fine in the past. But every once in a while dialogs won't go
away on okay.

It sounds like this is the same problem to me...

Comment 2

[scottputterman]

I see this all of the time when I lose my ISDN connection.  I always have to End 
Task and restart.  Should we reassign this?

Comment 3

[selmer (gone)]

This isn't a crash, changing the summary.

Comment 4

[lchiang]

+ per mail triage

Comment 5

[Scott MacGregor]

I bet this is because imap dialogs aren't properly parented off the mail window
but are instead using the hidden window (I have another bug for that issue). I
have a hunch that when I fix that, this bug might want to go along for the ride
and get fixed too...

Comment 6

[Scott MacGregor]

I checked in the dialog parenting bug fix for imap. My suspicion is that this
bug is now fixed. Hopefully nsmail-2 will go down on me again tonight like it
did last night when I ran into this problem. 

Comment 7

[lchiang]

P1 per mail triage
Scott - if you need to check this, we can use the Parp mail server/test account 
and just bring down the server.  See Fenella.

Comment 8

[Scott MacGregor]

we had some mail server outages the other day and using the code that properly
parented the imap alert dialog in front of the mail 3-pane window, I never ran
into this problem.

Comment 9

[lchiang]

We should verify this against Parp mail server.  I'll assign to Fenella to try 
since she can bring parp up/down.

Comment 10

[fenella]

Win_nt 4.0 (2000-09-12-09 M18)
I still see the problem. Alert dialog says:
Connection refused to the server.

It freezes the entire application. 

Linux is fine.
Mac not tested because of other problem. Reopen the bug. 

Comment 11

[lchiang]

Fenella, can you tell Scott which Parp account to use and help him w/bringing
the server down so he can see this problem?

Comment 12

[fenella]

Sure.

Comment 13

[fenella]

Scott said he will come to ask me to reproduce it to him when needed.

Comment 14

[Scott MacGregor]

seth volunteered to help load balance this for me.

Seth I fixed this a couple weeks ago, by making sure imap alert dialogs are
parented off of the mail 3 pane window.

Fenella says clicking okay on the dialog isn't dimissing it now on windows only. 

Comment 15

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

re-assigning.

Comment 16

[lchiang]

per PDT team: agreed P1.

Comment 17

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

mscott's fix worksforme.

I disconnected the machine from the net, and got the alert.  but I could dismiss
it no problem.

I'll meet with fenella tomorrow to see what she is seeing on her machine.

accepting.

Comment 18

[fenella]

Using today's winnt4.0 build, (2000-09-18-08 M18) I cannot reproduce the
problem.

Comment 19

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

marking worksforme.  mscott's fix has made this problem go away.

Comment 20

[fenella]

This is an example of worksforme that it did not work in one build, and then get
fixed when fixing another problem..  Mark it verified.