In Ubuntu, Mint, etc., Thunderbird works fine.

But I recently installed PCLinuxOS 2011-9 on the same computer as Ubuntu, and both Thunderbird and Kshowmail are incredibly slow to connect and actually time out part of the time. Yet, Thunderbird and Gnubiff work great in Ubuntu and Mint.

Thunderbird was v. 8, now 9.

Does anyone know why it would be so very slow on this rpm distro as compared with the deb distros? I used to use PCLinuxOS several years ago, and Thunderbird (then 3.x) worked fine.

Is there something odd about PCLinuxOS that causes Thunderbird to be so slow? Since Kshowmail is also slow, it would appear to me that there is something about PCLinuxOS that needs "fixing", but I have not a clue as to what to do.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Bill

Well, I don't think it has anything to do with RPM vs DEB.

I'd look at firewalls, what port it is using to connect to your mail server, that sort of thing.

If there is a default firewall config on PCLinuxOS, does it block ports 25 and 110?

I suggest you log the connection attempt http://http://kb.mozillazine.org/Ses..._for_mail/news to see if it is actually connecting to the mail server or not.

It shouldn't be doing anything strange, but you never know.

1 members found this post helpful.

The link above does not seem to work.

I have both SSL (ports 995 and 465) and non encrypted mail (ports 110 and 25), and the ports are not blocked by a default firewall, but if they were, would that not prevent any connection? And if it were not connecting to the mail server at all, why would mail be transferred at all?

Thank you,

Bill

If you can't find what's using up your system resources in PCL, you could switch to another email client. There should be several in your software repository. Evolution is similar to Outlook, and many like it. For newsgroups, there is PAN, which is very similar in look and feel to the Windows program Free Agent (the Windows program is hard to find but still can be found sometimes). I use The full version of Agent, which has both email and newsgroups, but it is a Windows program and has to be run under Wine or Crossover Office.

If you don't use Usenet newsgroups, Kmail (part of Kontact) might be worth looking at if you don't care for Evolution.

Here are some other email clients, programs, and utilities you may want to experiment with:

http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20...801/Email.html


TOP may be useful to help track down your system hog(s). This link discusses TOP and some other ways of doing this. I've never had the need, so I don't have the experience to help you directly.

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/top-li...ing-tools.html

Hope you get it sorted out.

Donald

Thank you for the links above. I had already tried Evolution, but it only allows one "stand-alone" identity, which is why I particularly like Thunderbird (that and long familiarity). It seems a bit much that one should have to switch email clients because PCLinuxOS cannot handle TBird, but it may be necessary!

As I stated above, PCLinuxOS used to handle TBird fine; so I am convinced there is something wrong with it, but the PCLinuxOS forum people seem to fall in one of two groups: either they are not having any problems, or they are used to long delays and it doesn't bother them.

Why I should have fallen in the long delay group is the big question of course . . . :-(

Anyway, I appreciate the info above, and I thank you,

Bill

You might take a look at Sylpheed (there is a variant known as claws-mail). The interface is similar to Thunderbird, but in my opinion it's nowhere nearly so clunky.

I don't know if it has "identities" under that label, but it does allow multiple distinct accounts each with its own signatures etc.

I have it running on my netbook and quite like it.

Edit: I just checked. I don't think it does newsgroups or RSS feeds.

frankbell--the latest Thunderbird is supposed to be similar to version 3 (?), which is the way many liked it. It is a big improvement from what I've read, but I don't use it personally. Sylpheed might be worth trying, though, to see if it is easier on Bill's system.

BillD--Try the Linux command top. I found it in my Linux "Bible" book. It lists the top resource hogs using your CPU cycles. There are options for it as well, but I think the defaults will do what you want, letting you see what's using your system and how much it's taking from it. From there, you'll have to figure out which one(s) you don't need, what's what, etc. Sort of like using Windows Task manager (or System Explorer, a better Windows task manager), but it doesn't have a GUI. I believe it's in every Linux distro, but if it's not, you can always install it.

Donald

Ok, I could be totally wrong but either it is a resource problem, in which case the whole computer should be slow,

or it is a network problem, in which case everything that works across the network should be slow,

or it is a Thunderbird problem.

In any case, I think you should try logging the connection, preferably with timestamps.

Then, log it again under the other OS on the machine (if it is still installed), and compare the two logs.

Comparing the timestamps might show a point at which the process breaks down or gets slower.

If using a different email client is still slow, then maybe there is a problem with the network setup. Maybe it's using a different route somehow.

But without logging it, you may never find the solution.

Just saying.

I believe it is a Thunderbird problem in this distro. So how do I "log the connection using timestamps"?

Thank you,

Bill