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eggster34

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windows 2003 server coming to a crawl after running for 30 minutes.

Hello

I have a windows 2003 server with sp1 and all the recent updates.
I have Merak mail running on it.
Since yesterday, the server has been unbearably slow. I rebooted it and it was ok for 20-30 minutes before it started acting slow again.
When I unplug the network card, it immediately returns back to normal. the server has 4 cpus and the cpu usage is never above %25 while this is happening.

I have a firewall in front of this server and it is open to the public through the usual smtp, pop3, imap and http ports (for webmail..)
there are not any other unusual ports that are open.
what do you think is the problem?
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eggster34

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the problem is solved as soon as I restart the smtp service..
the number of smtp connections open clicm up to 550 and then it stops serving requests around that number.
is there a fix for this in merak? have you heard of it before? it's almost as if connections that are supposed to be timing out are getting stuck and that is the reason for the problem.
ok I found out what the problem is.
the smtp sessions get stuck for some reason although I have set the session timeout value to 10 seconds.
I have over 100 smtp sessions that have been active for the last 50 minutes.
naturally, when this number increases to above 500, the server just dies.
would anyone have an idea why the sessions would get stuck?
Yes...I figured that this was probably a mail problem..  However, I am not familiar with the mail system.