MSN timeout/ connection errors mid-conversation

[Hawkeye]

A very strange issue. Middle of a conversation, some of my messages won't go through to the server, to the person I'm talking to. Then, a moment or so later, Pidgin'll pellet th messages back, once to tell me that the "Message may have not been sent because a timeout occurred," and again, a moment after, to say "Message could not be sent because a connection error occurred"

I never see a connection error pop up anywhere other than the conversation window. This only affects MSN connections.

I do hate to sound like one of the lusing classes, but I'm not sure how to give additional information. (you may send me to room 12)

[pi]

That kind of things happens also to me (in MSN). I thought that was due to network congestion (I have a slow internet connection) and so I filed #2799 asking for Pidgin to automatically retry the sending but if it's actually a Pidgin issue...
I hope MSNP14 code in 2.2.1 will solve this problem.
See you,
Pietro

[jernst]

One of my user reported the same issue.

[spersons]

I have been having the very same problem for a while now. and it isn't every time, or with every msn contact. And most of the time with me, the message actually was delivered to the person. The most annoying part is that after it continues long enough it crashes pidgin causing me to have to restart it, after which it will usually crash quicker when it restarts and starts having the same problem again.

[maxxtwayne]

Same problem here with a 2.3.1.

How could we help to debug this ? This is a really annoying problem.

[khc]

I don't know, as I never experienced this. Maybe try running pidgin under valgrind?

[Robby]

This is a major issue, very frequently reported, too, at Adium's Trac: #a2475.

[Hawkeye]

Problem is, it's *very* intermittent. In my case, some times it doesn't crop up for days on end, then kicks me in the head to remind that it IS, in fact, still there. Bothersome, but more often than not, resending the message that got lost to the aether the first time usually gets it through.

[nitbix]

I noticed this is more likely to happen if I'm transferring a file via MSN. And some contacts using the latest version of MSN messenger (or whatever it's new name is) are more likely than others to make it happen.

[Dagur]

This happens to me a lot, but only at work when I'm chatting with collegues (i.e. someone on the local network). We use a proxy.

[digitaldingo]

This problem persists as of Pidgin 2.4.1. I'm using Pidgin under Ubuntu 8.04 and it was installed using the package manager, so I believe that it has been compiled correctly. I really don't get why the priority has been set to "minor". This can be a huge problem for a conversation, and I have currently abandoned Pidgin because of this! I can tell you that there doesn't seem to be problems with Emesene.

[rekkanoryo]

Replying to digitaldingo:

This problem persists as of Pidgin 2.4.1. I'm using Pidgin under Ubuntu 8.04 and it was installed using the package manager, so I believe that it has been compiled correctly. I really don't get why the priority has been set to "minor". This can be a huge problem for a conversation, and I have currently abandoned Pidgin because of this! I can tell you that there doesn't seem to be problems with Emesene.

The priority field is meaningless. We don't use it.

At any rate, this problem may be resolved for 2.5.0.

[togume]

I just wanted to throw some more weight to this issue. It's been going on for a while. It happens on every version I use, but especially under Ubuntu 8.04.

Hope it gets resolved soon.

[tawny]

It still appears to be a problem in 2.5.0

It doesn't happen all the time, sometimes mid conversation when I send a message it gets returned with the following message:

"Message could not be sent because an error with the switchboard occurred:"

Incoming messages still arrive ok though.

[khc]

Ticket #6806 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[khc]

Ticket #6776 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[khc]

Ticket #5186 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[khc]

Ticket #3696 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[Merlyn614]

error log for msn failure to send message

[Merlyn614]

I added a debug log of the problem happening. I didn't catch the beginning of the error, but I could tell by the conversation that the message didn't go through, so I turned on the debug log as quickly as I could and caught the error when it popped up. Not sure how useful it will be. It seems that pidgin though the connection was lost? I never lost my msn connection, nor did the person I was IMing. She was able to send me messages just fine when mine failed.

[khc]

Merlyn614: are you using 2.5.1?

[khc]

Ticket #2799 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[Merlyn614]

Yes, I am currently using 2.5.1 on Windows XP SP2. The person I was communicating with had Windows Live Messenger 8.1(I'm not sure if thats right version, I'll double check it when I can) on Windows Vista, if that matters.

[Dimmuxx]

I've got this error today a while after I sent a message to a person:

17:17:28: (Libpurple: msn) servconn read error,len: -1, errno: 54, error: Connection reset by peer
17:17:28: (Libpurple: msn) Connection error from Switchboard server (207.46.27.19): Reading error
17:17:28: (Libpurple: msn) Switchboard with unassigned conversation
17:17:28: adiumPurpleConvWriteConv: Received Message could not be sent because a connection error occurred: from *******@hotmail.com [512]

There is nothing else out of the ordinary in the log.

Reconnecting solved the problem. I'm using some post-2.5.1 revision, I don't remember exactly which one atm.

[khc@…]

(In [80fb82dc844b42eca8d68dbbfa81f8b08ff27028]):
attempts to resend message on switchboard error once, tested by maually disabling switchboard connection on the receiving side

I have a feeling that there is a real bug somewhere, but this would at least allow the message to make through (after some delay)

References #3330

[khc@…]

(In [bc6b3fef73fc96e9d4e6f741284e11d84a4857cb]):
print out the servconn number when it's disconnected

References #3330

[dfr]

Pidgin 2.5.2 on Ubuntu, I can confirm this problem. I really like to see the problem fixed, I have these problems quite a lot. Relatively a lot conversations 'die' this way. Really annoying. I'm not sure but It looks like this problem is put in the fridge.

Is there anything I can do to help fixing this?

[stoffe]

Persists in 2.5.2 and 2.5.4 (the later one via getdeb) on Ubuntu 8.10.

It's a big problem because it may take a minute or so before even noticing that one, a few or all of the messages failed. Causes a lot of confusion between me and the others I talk to. I also get logged out on occasion due to "writing error" which is really annoying because it seems Pidgin does not try to reconnect?

On a sidenote, i think the latest amsn also suffers from a similar problem, though not as severe, which means that it may be triggered by me having a flakey connection, but since the official client has no such problems, it means they are not impossible to overcome. My connection is via 3G USB modem, and the connection in itself is stable and has no problem doing downloads at quite high speeds easily comparable to ADSL, so it's not as if it breaks up - but since it is over cellular, of sorts, maybe it still is slightly different in some way.

[vvarder]

I can confirm this happens to me, and it has been far more frequent since I switched to AT&T Uverse from Comcast, although this has happened to me for a long time. I'm currently using 2.5.2 on Ubuntu 8.10, but have seen the issue dating back to 2.4.x on Ubuntu and OpenSuSE. There is no rhyme or reason that I can see as to WHO it effects when sending, as sometimes it will go through to one user and not another, and vice versa.

Bascially, for me, if the problem occurs, it will be one minute EXACTLY (to the second) before I get the "Message may have not been sent because a timeout occurred", then in approximately 15 minutes (within an error margin of about a minute) I get "Message could not be sent because a connection error occurred" - However, I've noticed that more often than not it actually resends successfully at the 15 minute mark, making for some confusing conversations, especially when I've already gotten mad and emailed or used another form of IM (if available).

I have a debug log but there aren't any specific errors, other than:
(13:56:49) msn: servconn 003 read error,len: -1, errno: 110, error: Connection timed out
(13:56:49) msn: Connection error from Switchboard server (207.46.26.192): Reading error
(13:56:53) dns: Wait for DNS child 25983 failed: No child processes
I can supply the whole debug log if necessary, but I'll have to scrub it a bit since there are many "updating buddy status for <email address>" messages peppered throughout. Let me know if that would be useful in debugging.

Normally I log in with 2 MSN accounts, 1 AIM, 1 Yahoo and 1 Gmail/Jabber, but I was only logged into 1 MSN account to gather a cleaner log.

[yelo3]

I have 2.5.5 and the problem persists. I want to add that this problems is also available in pidgin<-->pidgin

[yelo3]

I have to add that even if the error shows, the message is delivered to the other contact. I can't tell you if this happens every time, but today happened this: - I sent a message to a user - immediately after I hit 'return' the error came out - but the other contact answered me, as she's received the message.

[khc]

do you happen to have the debug log for that?

[yelo3]

Not yet. Is there a way to have privacy enabled debug logs?

[natdsuarez]

I am using 2.5.5 and have the same exact issue...very annoying & kills productivity since all my colleagues use MSN

[mt1086]

Hi,

This problem has been around for a long time ago but it started to happen more and more offen when the MSN protocol was updated. I believe that after 2.5.4 this started to happen very frequently and still in 2.5.6 the bug persists. This is what happens to me:

I start talking to someone AND I NEVER CLOSE the conversation window.

I talk non-stop with this person without problems BUT when me AND this person I'm talking to stop talking for about a minute (I believe that after a minute of silence the connections is dropped) all my messages start bouncing. Sometimes, if I close the window and open it again, the problem is gone (but if there's silence for a minute or two again, the problem is back).

It's a very annoying bug, I stopped using pidgin when working for communicating with my colleges because I cannot respond inmmediatly to someone's question/comment.

Thanks, Matías

[carpathianchic]

well... i had this issue too... expecially if my buddy is invisible... then went to just crashing pigin if i replied to a buddy that showed offline... was msn only... i got to where i dont talk as much on msn... its a nuisance... now, if my buddy shows online, it pops up 2-3 mins after i send the message, and tells me the user is offline... its very delayed...

[rasmusth]

It probably doesn't come as a surprise, but I have the exact same issue.

I log on (to msn), everything appears to be fine, I start a chat with my buddy and the messages get through perfectly. Then I do something else for say - 15minutes, and I message him through the chat window which I did not close. A minute or so passes and then I get "Message may have not been sent because a timeout occurred," and then a moment later "Message could not be sent because a connection error occurred". 10minutes later, or something like that it happens again because Adium tries to resend the message, and then 10minutes later again untill the message eventually gets through.

I am consistenly having this problem, and it seems to appear with all my contacts. It happens both at home, at work, at the university and both on my imac and my macbook pro. I've tried making another MSN user to make sure that wasn't the problem, and not so surprisingly it was not.

This is and Adium/libperl debug log of the problem: http://pastebin.com/m117d5374

I really really hope this problem will be resolved. It renders both Adium and Pidgin useless to MSN users.

/Rasmus

[rekkanoryo]

Ticket #7268 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[gatiba]

Same exact problem here on Pidgin version 2.5.8, Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04. It's a very annoying problem, now i'm forced to use another MSN client...

[khc@…]

(In [0c2f544829df2f3a369504315f8b3a6cc325749a]):
Timeout switchboard connections at 60 seconds, should Fixes #3330 for most people.

[khc@…]

(In [38b87e46724433c14727a9952319c4abcad9db14]):
if I return FALSE to remove the timeout handle, I should probably set timeout handle to 0 as well so we won't try to remove the non-existent handle later

Refs #3330

[vvarder]

I just upgraded to 2.6.1 using the Ubuntu 9.04 PPA builds, and I confirm that the issue is NOT fixed:

(03:55:19 PM) Work MSN: test2
(03:56:19 PM) Message may have not been sent because a timeout occurred:
test2
(04:13:30 PM) Message could not be sent because a connection error occurred:
test2

Note the 1 minute "may not have been sent" error and then the 15 minute "could not be send because connection error occurred".

The debug log is uninteresting (once again, I have the whole thing if that will help), until the 15 minute mark is hit, and this is the entire log of what happens now (obviously scrubbed with <me> and <him> in place of our email addresses):

(16:13:30) msn: servconn 003 read error, len: -1, errno: 110, error: Connection timed out
(16:13:30) msn: Connection error from Switchboard server (65.54.172.189): Reading error
(16:13:30) msn: new httpconn (0x97ceba0)
(16:13:30) msn: queuing unsent message to <him>@hotmail.com: test2
(16:13:30) msn: switchboard send msg..
(16:13:30) msn: Appending message to queue.
(16:13:31) msn: destroy httpconn (0x9ebae70)
(16:13:32) msn: switchboard send msg..
(16:13:32) msn: C: SB 004: MSG 2 U 97
(16:13:34) msn: unqueuing unsent message to <him>@hotmail.com
(16:13:34) msn: C: NS 000: XFR 23 SB
(16:13:34) msn: S: NS 000: XFR 23 SB 64.4.9.53:1863 CKI 636348704.1773327.1411988 U messenger.msn.com 1
(16:13:34) msn: Switchboard:auth:{636348704.1773327.1411988} socket:{64.4.9.53:1863}
(16:13:34) dns: DNS query for '64.4.9.53' queued
(16:13:34) dns: Wait for DNS child 26993 failed: No child processes
(16:13:34) dns: Created new DNS child 27026, there are now 1 children.
(16:13:34) dns: Successfully sent DNS request to child 27026
(16:13:34) dns: Got response for '64.4.9.53'
(16:13:34) dnsquery: IP resolved for 64.4.9.53
(16:13:34) proxy: Attempting connection to 64.4.9.53
(16:13:34) proxy: Connecting to 64.4.9.53:1863 with no proxy
(16:13:34) proxy: Connection in progress
(16:13:34) proxy: Connecting to 64.4.9.53:1863.
(16:13:34) msn: C: SB 005: USR 1 <me>@hotmail.com 636348704.1773327.1411988
(16:13:34) msn: S: SB 005: USR 1 OK <me>@hotmail.com <me>
(16:13:34) msn: C: SB 005: CAL 2 <him>@hotmail.com
(16:13:34) msn: S: SB 005: CAL 2 RINGING 636348704
(16:13:34) msn: S: SB 005: JOI <him>@hotmail.com <him> 2789003308
(16:13:34) msn: Processing queue
(16:13:34) msn: Sending message
(16:13:34) msn: C: SB 005: MSG 3 A 148
(16:13:34) msn: switchboard send msg..
(16:13:34) msn: C: SB 005: MSG 4 U 98
(16:13:34) msn: S: SB 005: ACK 3
(16:13:59) msn: S: SB 005: MSG <him>@hotmail.com <him> 92
(16:14:00) msn: S: SB 005: MSG <him>@hotmail.com <him> 118

While this is intermittent, I can usually reproduce this 75% of the time by:
1) Opening a conversation window
2) Talking with the other person
3) Leaving the window open with No IMs for 15+ minutes
4) Attempting to send another IM (usually the last IM was by me as well)

Note that this is very similar to what rasmusth reports above. Please let me know if I need to open a new ticket.

[Dimmuxx]

People are also claiming that they don't receive messages properly which might be related to this fix. Somebody mentioned it in #pidgin and there have been some reports on Adium's trac. #a12877

Maybe it's not closing the switchboard properly so that's why messages gets lost?

[vvarder]

Actually, sorry everyone, I apologize profusely. For some reason when I copied the update box I missed the echo command which updates the sources, so when I updated pidgin, I got the latest security update, not the PPA version. I really should have checked the version.

Now that I've updated (and verified it IS 2.6.1) I can no longer reproduce the problem. Again, my apologies, I deserve a good beat down.

[ola]

I'm having similar issues in Finch in Ubuntu 9.10. I'm having troubles both receiving and sending messages.

Ideas?