AIM regularly disconnects due to timeouts when other clients do not

[jas8522]

See #9015 on the Adium Trac. There is a debug log attached, as well as a link in the comments to another user who also posted a debug log.

The user found that iChat did not disconnect regularly, but Adium does.

[TaTonka]

i'm one of the users mentioned above. and i hope you can fix this soon.

sometimes others do not receive my messages, or see me as offline...only a relogin can help then. this is very annoying.

[ralphschindler]

Hello,

I am having the same issue. I would like to see this resolved and can help in any way possible (I have adium logs as well).

Thanks, Ralph

[kstuard]

Sadly, not fixed in 2.4.1.

I am also suffering from this issue (AIM - no ICQ to test). Some additional information:

• Only happens behing company firewall
• Company using Facetime
• Other protocols do not timeout (YIM, MSN, Sametime)
• Miranda version 0.7.4 does not drop while idle
• Talking to IT, they are of the oppinion that AIM is not sending traffic while idle (causing it to be dropped from the server)

This seems directly related to closed ticket:2289:

Snooping the network traffic shows that Pidgin sends a ping packet (basically a keepalive) every 30 seconds for MSN and Yahoo, but does not send any type of keepalive for AIM sessions. My theory is, the session times out with no activity.

Solution? I'm guessing that somehow the keepalive packet went away between Gaim 1.5 and 2.0, and has never been put back in. Any chance we can get this back in the code?

Is there anywhere in Pidgin's preferences to update where AIM sends keep-alives and how often?

Please let me know if I can be of any help in this matter.

[TaTonka]

I've found a workaround. Just change the connection port to 443 (HTTPS) and it does not disconnect as often as before.

[kstuard]

Thank you for the HTTPS information. Unfortunately, the Facetime IM proxy server my company rewrites login.oscar.aol.com to its server IP (internal) and only allows connections on default port (5190). I realize that my issue is a Facetime issue - others may be having the same issue due to stateful firewalls or proxies closing "inactive" connections.

I am relatively certain from looking at the logs that IT provided me that the issue is that all the other services send keep-alives at regular intervals and the AIM protocol does not.

Thank you for your workaround and should i find a solution I will be sure to do the same.

[MarkDoliner]

AIM should be sending a keepalive every 30 seconds, just like other protocols. To anyone having this problem, can you post the exact error message that Pidgin shows you when you're disconnected? How long are you able to stay online before you're disconnected? If you exchange IMs with people every few minutes are you able to stay online longer? Can you paste text from Pidgin's debug window (Help->Debug Window) from around the time you get disconnected (feel free to edit out screen names, if you want)?

[MarkDoliner]

Oh, I guess it's possible oscar doesn't SEND a keepalive if it receives one within the 30 second timeout. Could your firewall be closing connections that receive data without sending anything?

[kstuard]

Log of AIM disconnect and automatic reconnect through Facetime

[kstuard]

Added attachment:oscar-idle.log

Contains debug window content from Pidgin. It shows (I believe) MSN sending an idle ping and reply, AIM crapping out and reconnecting, followed by another MSN idle ping and reply.

I then disconnected from the network (bypass Facetime). Now I am still getting the ping/reply from MSN. I also have YIM and it seems to be doing some sort of ping/reply at a lower rate (no problems with YIM). Still no ping/reply related to AIM (oscar).

I do not talk often enough through AIM to know for sure if it is idle-related. I will find someone who will agree to be texted every minute until it disconnects.

[kstuard]

Log of AIM, YIM, and MSN with no Facetime

[kstuard]

Added attachment:oscar-idle-nofacetime.log

Contains debug window content from Pidgin. It shows only idle activity while not logged in through Facetime's proxy.

MSN sends ping/reply every 30 seconds. YIM seems to only send data when changes are made. It does not seem to send ping/replies. I guess I get enough changes to never be disconnected? AIM does weird stuff, as the log shows. It does not seem to be sending ping/replies.

Is there any additional information I can get to you? Any more controlled experiment? Different variables or constants?

[MarkDoliner]

I don't think AIM prints anything to the debug window when it sends or receives a ping, but it probably IS either sending or receiving pings. It should be sufficient to IM yourself once a minute. Can you post the exact error message that Pidgin shows you when you get disconnected? How long are you able to stay online before you're disconnected?

[trac-robot]

This ticket was closed automatically by the system. It was previously set to a Pending status and hasn't been updated within 14 days.

[ralphschindler]

Adium Log File

[ralphschindler]

Please reopen. I have attached my log file for this issue.

[MarkDoliner]

I think the important part of the log file would be the part that contains the disconnected message. Specifically the reason

[MarkDoliner]

Oh, that comment was a little half-baked. I'm really interested in the error message that is shown to the user. It might not even be printed in the log.

[evands]

If there is an actual disconnection event, the error message will show up in the log, something like

(21:50:00) CBPurpleAccount<0x3094f> accountConnectionReportDisconnect: You are too awesome to stay connected.

[ralphschindler]

This is a full log from the last known message that got through - till the new reconnection

[ralphschindler]

The newest attachment needs to be downloaded - I put a marker in the column on the left to indicate the last known message to go through, and the log record it created.

This log file goes from the last known message through the new connection. It will include all of the disconnection messages that are available. There is NO user (UI) error messages, I simply see a disconnect and reconnect on the AIM account.

Thanks, Ralph

[ralphschindler]

Any new news on this? This is killing me. :)

-Ralph

[pentor]

Debug log for AOL session dying and coming back up in Pidgin (Facetime issue)

[pentor]

Hello:

My IT department just upgraded FaceTime? 2 weeks ago. Siince hat time, any AOL connection in Pidgin goes down every 1.5 min (~ 90 sec). I have attached a DEBUG log (purple-debug.log).

From the IT department: ======================= "Regarding AOL, what version of AOL are you using? Version 6.x is not supported at this time as AOL has made a change that requires a certificate."

I would assume that Pidgin is accurately reflecting the latest implementation of AOL IM (version 6.8 AIM Client, or something close). I would think that Pdigin is trying to use Certificates as well, in it's mimicing of AOL IM.

I tested AOL IM Version 5.9.6089, and indeed it is "ROCK SOLID" under the new Facetime server. So, it does seem directly tied to what IT noted.

Is there any way, in the Pidgin client, to simulate the older AOL IM behavior ?

[MarkDoliner]

pentor: Pidgin's AOL connection uses a login process similar to AIM 5.9. It does NOT use certificates in any way. Looking at the debug log it looks like the server is disconnecting Pidgin. I don't know if that's some FaceTime? server or an AOL server.

[pentor]

ok. The only "odd" part about this is, when I run the native AOL IM Client 5.9.6089 on it's own, it stays up and rock solid (connected to the same FaceTimeserver?).

So there must be a "keepalive" or "hearbeat" mechanism that Pidgin might be checking, that the native AOL IM Client does not. It could very well be that (just speculation) some other port numbers are being used for the keepalives that Facetime doesn't allow (again, just a hunch).

Something is different between the Pidgin implementation, and the native 5.9.6089 client. I fuly realize, that up until now (before the Facetime Server upgrade) things worked wondrfully. So, I realize it's not a Pidgin "bug" per se, but something that used to work, doesn't now.

[bernmeister]

Not sure where this ticket is at...

1) Is it still an issue in Pidgin 2.5.8?

2) If so, what's needed in terms of debug logs, etc. to help resolve?

[kstuard]

I'm one of the earlier (pre-1st-close) users having this issue. Unfortunately, I cannot add more information to this as I no longer interact with the Facetime server. Good luck with the fix.

[pentor]

This is still an issue in 2.5.8. HOWEVER, now even YAHOO! is broken :(

I was using 2.5.5 (or 2.5.6) before.

Upon loading 2.5.8, YAHOO! is now borken and AIM is still having issues.

Please tell me what LOGS you need, and how to collect them

[darkrain42]

Replying to pentor:

This is still an issue in 2.5.8. HOWEVER, now even YAHOO! is broken :( I was using 2.5.5 (or 2.5.6) before. Upon loading 2.5.8, YAHOO! is now borken and AIM is still having issues. Please tell me what LOGS you need, and how to collect them

Your Yahoo issue is separate and you should file a separate ticket for it and attach a debug log of the account disconnecting.