Very slow connection (or no connection) using a VPN

[BDinger3]

I have been using Pop Peeper for a good many years. I just signed up for a VPN service (virtual private network). The company I'm using is Express VPN. Since I started using this service, Pop Peeper's performance has slowed to a crawl. With the VPN, there are several protocols I can choose from for my internet connection. Right now, the program automatically chooses one for me.

I should note that my email program (Thunderbird) works exactly the same with no slowdown in connection speed. All my browsers work just like before. Therefore, only Pop Peeper is having connection problems.

Are there some settings I can modify to get PopPeeper's performance back up to speed?

Thank you,

Bill Dinger

[mjs]

I do not know much about VPN so while waiting for other members of the Esumsoft Team to drop by the forum I'll just touch on VPN in general.

It is my understanding that different VPN products work with SSL in varied ways. Some VPN products might proxy incoming SSL sessions to native protocol sessions using internal servers. Other VPN products might use SSL by way of a "generic tunneling" protocol. Your ability to use applications involving specific ports will depend on the type of VPN product used.

You could in the meantime while waiting for additional help from other Esumsoft team members, check with Express VPN support as to what they would recommend involving external Email applications.

That said, have you tried doing a computer reboot to see if this helps? (Windows may have cached something that may have caused an issue with Express VPN and POP Peeper).

Also I have found that Express VPN provides the following ExpressVPN Support tutorial setup page and FAQ page in case either might help.

Also in the meantime keeping in mind that I'm far from an expert regarding VPN, while waiting you could simply try using "Webmail" (the specific "Server type" of either "Gmail", "Hotmail/Outlook", "Yahoo" etc. that would apply) if you have not already since the VPN product will provide their own encryption security. Again other members of the Esumsoft team will certainly provide better feedback later on....

[Jeff]

Can you tell if there's a specific point in the process that's slower? e.g. does the status bar say "connecting" or "retrieving headers" or "processing data" etc.? Are you using the AntiJunk plugin?

[BDinger3]

Thanks for your ideas. After submitting the post, I can report that this problem is intermittent. For some reason, Pop Peeper works fine occasionally and at others, like right now, it's stuck on "waiting for internet connection". Sometimes it gets stuck on "processing data". Generally speaking, if I close Pop Peeper down completely and restart it, the problem is resolved. That's what I did just now and it's working.

[Jeff]

For "waiting for connection" -- Select main menu: Tools / Options / Connection and change the top option to "assume I'm always online" (assuming that what you're suggesting is that it's saying "waiting for internet connection" incorrectly).

And the next time that you see it getting stuck on "processing data" do this (allow it to finish first):
main menu: Tools / AntiJunk -> Main interface
From AntiJunk's menu, select: Tools / Display statistics

This will open a text file. Copy&Paste ONLY the top section, which ends with "Overall" on the last line (it's only about 10 lines or so). This contains some timing information (the last 3 columns). Sections below this may contain personal information (email addresses) so do not include that.

[BDinger3]

Thanks once again - made the change to Connection.

Below please find info from Statistics.

ug 16, 2017, 07:41:29
Range: 2015-04-23 <=> 2017-08-16

Filter On Processed Eval-Spam Eval-Legt False-Pos False-Neg Effective Accuracy ms-Avg ms-Lo ms-Hi
------
White List ON 42432 0 3404 0 0 8.02% 100.00% 7.35 0.141 267
Black List ON 44367 151 0 0 0 0.34% 100.00% 0.153 0.107 0.854
Rules ON 46191 1540 7 18 0 3.31% 98.84% 10.8 2.6 86.1
URI BlackList ON 43131 27 0 0 0 0.06% 100.00% 25320 22166 34631
Bayesian ON 14530 155 14370 0 3 99.94% 99.98% 14.5 1.85 275
DNS BlackList ON 45974 834 0 0 0 1.81% 100.00% 30459 22088 44390
Overall ON 46189 1504 16487 18 3 38.91% 99.88% 5222 4 68403

[Jeff]

For the sake of conciseness, here's the relevant info from your data:

Code: Select all

Filter           ms-Avg ms-Lo  ms-Hi
------
White List       7.35   0.141  267
Black List       0.153  0.107  0.854
Rules            10.8   2.6    86.1
URI BlackList    25320  22166  34631
Bayesian         14.5   1.85   275
DNS BlackList    30459  22088  44390
Overall          5222   4      68403

Of note, both the URI and DNS blacklists were taking a *minimum* of 22 seconds each, each time they were scanned. Not all email will need to be scanned for the URI, but most-to-all email will have DNS information. Considering this, you'll notice that the "overall" average and low values are suspiciously low -- this is because POP Peeper will automatically disable the URI/DNS checks if they are performing slow (I believe the report will show this information in the respective detailed sections); however, it will also "retry" occasionally to see if the situation has improved.

Both of these filters use your DNS server to perform their functions. You may not notice issues with typical websites you visit (which also relies on using your DNS server), because those are more likely to be cached by the server, whereas the values requested for these DNS/URI-blacklist lookups are far less common. That being said, a 20 second lookup seems excessive. This could indicate a configuration issue. I am *not* an expert nor even an amateur with VPN's, so I'm not sure how much relevant information I can provide in that regard, but I would seriously look into addressing that as it could very well affect any other programs that require DNS lookups (which is virtually any software that uses the internet; aka everything).

In the meantime, I'd recommend disabling both DNS and URI blacklists in POP Peeper
- from POP Peeper's main menu: select Tools / AntiJunk -> Main interface
- On the "Overview" page, remove the check from "URI Blacklist" and "DNS Blacklist" on the top-right
- Press OK

[mjs]

You could try these commands from an elevated command prompt to see if this helps (which flushes DNS and resets the network).

An elevated Command Prompt is the following: Go to Start > "All Programs" > "Accessories", Right_Click on the Command Prompt and select "Run as administrator" from context menu.

Then explicitly enter the following just as you see it (you can copy/paste to Command Prompt):

ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh int ipv4 reset
netsh int ipv6 reset

The above commands reset and clear out any accrued rubbish in the network system.

If you try this, please report back with results.

[mjs]

Follow-up:

I posted how to get to Command Prompt using Windows 7 (that's because this is the OS I use ), which also includes Vista as well.

For Windows 8: Make sure that you're on the Windows 8 Start Screen. Type CMD which will cause the Windows search bar to appear on the right-hand-side with search results. Right-Click on Command Prompt and click "Run as administrator".

For Windows 10:
Hold down the Windows key and press “R” to bring up the Run dialog box. Type CMD and Right-Click on Command Prompt and click "Run as administrator".

[BDinger3]

I have disabled DNS and URI blacklist for the time being. When I get a chance, I'll try and follow up with Express VPN to see what suggestions they may have.

I am using Windows 7 so your first list of commands was fine. I went through each of the commands and it took a quite while as at least five of them required a reboot. I might have been able to reboot only once but chose to follow the instructions per command line for each one.

We'll see what difference these modifications/procedures make.

Thanks for all the detailed assistance,

Bill Dinger

[Jeff]

I'm not sure where lakrsrool got that list of commands from and there's several I'm not familiar with, but if you have the need to try them again, I would suspect that a reboot between each one is *not* required; just one final reboot.

There's a command that may help you to diagnose the problem (to see if changes you're making are effective or not).

From a Command Prompt (does not need to be elevated), type:
nslookup 2.0.0.127.bl.spamcop.net
The result isn't particularly relevant (although, I'll tell you that in this case, you should get a reply with "non-authoritative answer"), but it's the amount of time it takes that should be noted. On most computers, you should get an almost-instant response.

If it takes a noticeable amount of time (e.g. 1-2+ seconds), then repeat the command and see if it's faster or takes just as long. If it's faster, then that means that the value is cached, and this means that you shouldn't use it for testing purposes (ie. if you change your dns server, you don't want the possibility that your computer/network is returning a cached value). So, bump the first number up each time:
nslookup 3.0.0.127.bl.spamcop.net
nslookup 4.0.0.127.bl.spamcop.net
etc. (up to 255, technically...)
note that for these subsequent values, you can expect a "non-existent domain" result.

This nslookup is effectively what POP Peeper does for the DNS/URI blacklist lookups (it doesn't directly call nslookup, but it's about the same thing).

[mjs]

FYI on the commands previously posted (I should have covered this in the event doing so would be considered to not be of any help. I've done this a few times when connectivity issues have arisen and had good results myself, PLEASE DISREGARD IF THE OPINION IS THAT PERFORMING THESE COMMANDS WOULD NOT BE HELPFUL and apologies for the post in that event ).

pconfig /flushedns:
As we know, DNS clients will automatically cache IP addresses and other DNS data which helps speed up subsequent requests to the same hostname. Sometimes bad results will be cached (corrupted DNS) and therefore needs to be cleared from the cache to communicate with the host correctly.

netsh winsock reset catalog:
Resets WINSOCK registry entries to installation defaults. FWIW, the registry locations are at:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2]
Deleting and then restoring a good set restores to the default configuration.

netsh int ip reset reset.log:
Resets TCP/IP stack to installation defaults.

ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew:
Releasing and renewing the IP address resets the underlying IP connection, which often eliminates common IP-related issues. As we know technical glitches with network hardware can lead to IP conflicts as well as other issues.

netsh int ipv4 reset and netsh int ipv6 reset:
Resets the IPv4 and IPv6 configuration state. A reboot is required for changes to take effect.

I've performed these commands to address network connection issues and as I previously posted batched these commands by using copy/paste and rebooted at the end of the process.

Again, if the consensus is that these command sets will not help or should not be used then by all means please disregard. Again, I've had good results from time to time when connections become sluggish or erratic after which performance typically smoothed out. (and btw, never had any deleterious effects)