59682 - IMAP: Should display correct warning Alert and specify server name when IMAP server is down or network disconnecting problem

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect, P1)

Description

[Karen Huang]

Used 11-08-01-MN6 build

Overview:
Refer to bug 58547, we should display a correct warning Alert when IMAP server 
is down or network disconnecting problem.

Setup Info:
1) Setup SERA Internet/Intranet Access
2) Disconnect SERA Internet/Intrant Access

Steps:
1) Login to above setup IMAP mail account.
2) Read and view existing mail messages.
3) Break current network connection (such as by disconnecting from SERA)
4) Actual Results: Will display an general alert: "Connection refused to the 
server".

Expected results: 
netscape 6 should display correct warning Alert(as 4.x) to warn users that there 
is server down problem or network problem, so users can try connecting again.

Additional Info: The warning alert displaying from the 4.x is as following:
"The server has disconnected. The server may have gone down or there may be a 
network problem. Try connecting again.."

Hope the correct warning Alert will display on Netscape 6.5.

Comment 1

[Karen Huang]

I believe that this bug should apply to other IMAP servers as well (Webamil, AOL 
...etc.)since currently we all get the general alert: "Connection refused to the 
server" when AOL/Webamil servers are down.......

Comment 2

[David :Bienvenu]

There is a difference between connection refused and the server being down.
We're trying to be more specific, so we don't want to put up the general alert.
In this particular case, it's not a network problem - the host machine is up and
running, but not accepting connections. Perhaps some more explanatory text would
be better, but the error msg is basically correct, and the 4.x one you're
suggesting would be incorrect.

Comment 3

[jglick]

cc'ing Robin for wording suggestion.

Sounds like we need two different text strings then? Is that correct?

1. Connection refused by the Server. 
2. The server is down.

Comment 4

[Karen Huang]

*** Bug 95302 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5

[Karen Huang]

According to PRD, this should be nominated nsbeta1 for better error handling.

Comment 6

[Brian Duff]

Although Bug 95302 has been closed as a dup of this bug, this bug says nothing 
about the fact that the error message does not refer to the server which 
caused the error, which was the point of bug 95302. Please advise whether 
95302 should be reopened, or if this bug is being generally used to track 
improving the friendliness of network alerts.

Please stop using "the server" and indicate the name of the server the error 
is referring to at least one in the error dialog.

Comment 7

[Brian Duff]

Ah, ok... untangling the web of bugs led me to bug 66860 which does talk about 
including the server name, this bug is languishing because it's also 
suggesting changing the status bar.

There's a much stronger case for fixing the alerts, because they are really 
useless if you have multiple accounts. In addition, it's less contraversial 
than changing the status bar, the benefits of which are negligable. Could the 
lack of server name be fixed as part of this bug (see Tuukka Tolvanen's 
comments at the end of bug 66860)?

Comment 8

[Karen Huang]

Good suggestion! I added "specify server name" on this bug summary too.
Hope this bug can fix the server name as well, if developers think that should 
be treated as different bugs, at least we have bug 66860 for tracking the 
server name too. Thanks for bring this up!

Comment 9

[scottputterman]

nsbeta1+ for seeing if we can get the server name in there for being able to
distinguish between multiple accounts we might be trying to open.

Comment 10

[robinf]

Suggested wording for "Connection refused": "Your network connection to the 
server <server name> has been lost. Check your network connection and try 
connecting again."

Suggested wording for "server is down": "The server <server name> has 
disconnected. The server may be unavailable or there may be a network problem. 
Try connecting again."

Comment 11

[scottputterman]

reassigning to cavin.

Comment 12

[Karen Huang]

>I believe that this bug should apply to other IMAP servers as well (Webamil, 
AOL ...etc.)since currently we all get the general alert: "Connection refused to 
>the server" when AOL/Webamil servers are down.......

Cavin, should this fix POP as well?

Comment 13

[Cavin Song]

Yes.

Comment 14

[Cavin Song]

Marking fixed because bug 100167 has been fixed.  In addition, we do have
different error messages for different 'connection failures':

1. Failed to connect to server %S.
2. Could not connect to server %S; the connection was refused.
3. Connection to server %S timed out.

Please reopen it if you don't agree.

Comment 15

[Karen Huang]

Verified on Windows 05-20-08-1.0.0 build
Now, our client is displaying "Could not connect to mail server parp.mcom.com; 
the connection was refused" instead of "Connection refused to the 
server" general alert.
Marking as verified.