Question

err [in-use] mailbox in use

Asked by: Marshes

Hi all when trying to telnet onto port 110 to the mail server i can log in with username and pass no worries.
But after that i recieve this message "err [in-use] mailbox in use"
I have searched for lock files on the server but there does not appear to be any.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
O.S on server : slackware 8.x, Pop3 server

Thanks in advance.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2003-06-22 at 17:05:46ID20656384
Tags

mailbox

Topic

Linux Administration

Participating Experts
2
Points
0
Comments
8

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. POP3 Error "User or Password incorrect (-ERR being r…
    heya all . . BIG problem I need fixed.. when I use a pop3 email client to read email. I get the following error. User or Password incorrect (-ERR being read already /usr/spool/mail/username) where username is my username. how do I fix this? I have tried rebooting, nice...
  2. Qmail: -ERR this user has no $HOME/Maildir
    All pop3 connection fail with -ERR this user has no $HOME/Maildir Quite usual for a new qmail setup but I been banging my head for hours searching for something I missed on the web... Please give me hints on what-else to check: /var/qmail/service/pop3d/run contains hostname...
  3. POP3 error --> S: -ERR Bad login
    I am running a simple mail program that logs into a pop3 server. Using jre1.4 on win32 accessing a exchange server. See code below. Store store = mailSession.getStore("pop3"); store.connect(serverNamePOP3, username, password); Folder inbox = store.getFolder("...
  4. telnet & pop3
    Sometimes I use telnet to login to pop3 servers. A server's software version is changed by the hosting company, and now whenever I hit a key (ie, 'u' for 'user'), the server returns; ERR Command unrecognized: "" I guess there is a timeout value for a command entry...
  5. How do I pop3 enable an exchange 5.5 mailbox?
    How do I pop3 enable an exchange 5.5 mailbox?
  6. Cyrus POP3 gives error -ERR [SYS/PERM] Unable to l…
    While trying to telnet localhost on POP3 port 110 , and giving appropriate user and password the POP Sever returns error -ERR [SYS/PERM] Unable to locate maildrop Please help !!!

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: moonbeamPosted on 2003-06-22 at 19:02:12ID: 8778369

The pop3 server is started via inetd. The "mailbox in use" message happens if the a pop3d process is still running from a previous session.

Eg:

-->telnet mink 110
Trying 192.168.1.2...
Connected to mink.catmanor.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK mink POP3 Server (Version 1.006d) ready at <Sun Jun 22 18:46:53 2003>
user xxxxxxxx
+OK please send PASS command
pass yyyyyyy
+OK 62 messages ready for moonbeam in /var/spool/mail/moonbeam

In a separate window....

-->ps -ax | grep pop
 9290 ?        S      0:00 in.pop3d
 9293 pts/3    S      0:00 grep pop

After I quit the original session...

quit
+OK mink POP3 Server (Version 1.006d) shutdown.
 Connection closed by foreign host.

The pop3d process terminates, removing the lock on the mailbox. There is no file lock.

I am running slack 8.0 and have the following entry in my /etc/inetd.conf.

# Traditional BSD-based in.pop3d:
pop3    stream  tcp     nowait  root    /usr/sbin/tcpd  in.pop3d

It looks like the original pop3 connection is not releasing the inetd connection. If the connection was not properly terminated with the pop3 'quit', it will remain active up to the default timeout period. (300 secs.. I think).

Hope that helps.

William

 

by: MarshesPosted on 2003-06-22 at 19:42:53ID: 8778499


But how do i unlock it tho ?

 

by: MarshesPosted on 2003-06-22 at 22:51:10ID: 8779110

Sorry i was in a rush,

The user usually access her email via outlook 2k the only reason i telneted to the server was to try and trouble shoot  her problem.

So not 'quit' ing out of telnet is not the problem unfortunatly.

If anyone has any ideas how i can unlock this mailbox that would be fantastic!

 

by: MarshesPosted on 2003-06-22 at 23:10:58ID: 8779200

Seems to be fixed now.
There was a lock file in

/var/spool/mail/<username>.lock

Thanks for ur comments moonbeam.

 

by: moonbeamPosted on 2003-06-23 at 00:11:13ID: 8779449

Glad you got the problem resolved.
William

 

by: CleanupPingPosted on 2003-08-04 at 21:51:52ID: 9076399

Marshes:
This old question needs to be finalized -- accept an answer, split points, or get a refund.  For information on your options, please click here-> http:/help/closing.jsp#1
EXPERTS:
Post your closing recommendations!  No comment means you don't care.

 

by: MarshesPosted on 2003-08-04 at 23:10:35ID: 9077014

But i answered my own question ?

 

by: MarshesPosted on 2003-08-04 at 23:14:21ID: 9077051

ok i have requested a close.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...