Something funny is going on - I've been fighting the same problem with at least
two other sites I maintain for the last week. One turned out to be an open
SMTP forwarder on the server spewing SPAM and chewing up the bandwidth, the
other is ongoing with a different provider.
** Reply to message from "Lewis G Rosenthal"
<os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com> on Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:15:58 -0500
> (N.B.: I am sending this posting to hosted mailing lists as this issue
> may impact list messages as well. I will subscribe all hosted lists to
> the mailusers list for future notices.)
>
> Beginning Saturday, January 27, we started seeing some
> unusual performance issues with the primary DSL connection
> here on the network. This condition manifested itself as
> erratic bandwidth (perceived as "speed" by end users)
> while sending mail through our server, fetching mail from
> it, or connecting through IMAP or webmail. In addition,
> websites and ftp repositories hosted here were similarly
> affected.
>
> As the condition continued into Sunday, I performed some
> standard troubleshooting which culminated in my opening a
> trouble ticket with Verizon. (According to their system
> status log, there was a ticket opened and "resolved" on
> Friday in our immediate vicinity; it is entirely possible
> that this "resolution" is the cause of our current
> trouble.) We are currently rolled over to our backup
> interface which, though reliable, is somewhat
> bandwidth-constrained. This constraint may appear to the
> end user as slow response from our servers, but should not
> result in timeout conditions as several people were
> observing with the primary interface.
>
> As soon as Verizon has resolved the issue(s) to my
> satisfaction, I will return connectivity to the primary
> interface, and performance should return to expected
> levels.
>
> To help alleviate any possible saturation of the available
> bandwidth here, I would kindly ask for your patience when
> checking for mail, and request that you exercise restraint
> in not immediately re-trying for mail while operations may
> already be in progress at your end of the link. Such
> repeated attempts to fetch mail serve only to further bog
> the network and make things more difficult for everyone.
>
> My apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused,
> and for any additional delays while this trouble ticket
> remains open.
>
?????