Mail doesn't connect properly after recovering from sleep

[jeremynsl]

I have a Macbook Pro 2.2 with Leopard installed. I'm relatively new to Macs - this is my first Mac though I've used them in the past.

I am connected wirelessly to a 2Wire DSL modem (supplied by my ISP Sasktel). The connection works fine. The problem is when I recover from sleep, Mail doesn't connect properly to my mailservers. All other internet works fine though. But with Mail I get a little (!) next to each account, and nothing I can seem to do fixes this except restarting the computer.

This is a pretty frustrating problem since I frequently put my Mac into sleepmode and generally want to check my email right as soon as its starts up.

 

[Makosuke]

Just to check, what happens when you right-click on one of the accounts and select "Take online..."? Does the ! stay?

If only a restart will fix it, I assume quitting and re-opening Mail doesn't do anything, but does the ! appear immediately after a restart, or not until Mail first tries to check (maybe disable auto-checking temporarily to confirm this).

I've seen Mail fail to get mail immediately after a wake because it takes the network connection a couple seconds to kick in, but never once seen it just die like that.

 

[jeremynsl]

When I select 'take online', the accounts become black instead of gray - but once I check for mail the (!) appears again.

Quitting and reopening Mail isn't helpful. The (!) appears after the first time I check new mail after waking.

I would understand if it was just a matter of waiting a minute or two for the wireless to kick in - but after 15 minutes Mail still doesn't connect properly. Which is so odd because Safari works instantly after waking.

Just to check, what happens when you right-click on one of the accounts and select "Take online..."? Does the ! stay?

If only a restart will fix it, I assume quitting and re-opening Mail doesn't do anything, but does the ! appear immediately after a restart, or not until Mail first tries to check (maybe disable auto-checking temporarily to confirm this).

I've seen Mail fail to get mail immediately after a wake because it takes the network connection a couple seconds to kick in, but never once seen it just die like that.

 

[Makosuke]

Ok, that confirms that Mail is specifically having trouble checking, it's not a more "general" error. Which narrows it down, but I still can't think of anything that would actually cause that, much less something that sleep would bring on. If it were some sort of DNS caching issue, then sleep wouldn't haven anything to do with it, and that really shouldn't occur with a mail server anyway.

One diagnostic to try would be a (temporary) wired connection. I'm assuming that router has at least one ethernet port on it; if so, try disabling Airport and plugging the MBP directly into the modem and doing a sleep cycle. If the same thing happens, that at least narrows it down to some sort of network issue internal to Mail. If not... well, not sure.

I would understand if it was just a matter of waiting a minute or two for the wireless to kick in - but after 15 minutes Mail still doesn't connect properly.

No, it's definitely something more than just a delayed start--the wireless connection usually takes a few seconds at maximum to warm up, and of course Safari wouldn't work either if that was the issue.

Oh, there is one other thing to try just for the heck of it--when Mail is doing that, try turning Airport off for a second then back on (a quick toggle using the Airport menu should work) and see if that revives it. Again, that'd narrow down what exactly about the restart may be causing it to kick back in.

I suggest this because at one point I was having an issue with periodic wireless dropouts that could be (temporarily) corrected by toggling power to my MPB's wireless card, though in my case it was all networking that was having trouble, and the cause turned out to be a neighbor's wireless router signal fighting with mine.