Hi Paul.
Ok, that was it. The SMTP Auth is what was slowing things down. Once I turned it off, it sent instantly.
I went back and removed the -H from the service manager and it still works like a champ without SMTP Auth. Now the question becomes why is that slowing things down that significantly. I use it on several other servers with no appreciable speed hit. Any thoughts?
Thanks again for your help…At least now I know.
-Phil
I just remembered why I grew to like SMTP auth. I was with a host (couple years ago), that forced the POP/IMAP first, then SMTP method. It was so incredibly annoying, because if my the mail client had not checked for new messages within 15min, I was denied the right to send mail. I leave my mail client open all day, so it’s not reasonable to expect me to open it (POP/IMAP check naturally occurs then) before sending, but that is the excuse the host used to ignore me. That is worse than the 3 second delay. 
With a new host, SMTP auth was an option, but it had the delay. It was a cPanel-based server.
With my own OS (Gentoo, with all of the services configured manually), the delay was not there and SMTP was required (only choice). I was using Postfix.
Now with InterWorx-CP, we are back to the problem. Of course, we gained the best CP out there. 
I just am having trouble understanding how a simple user/pass lookup can add 3 seconds to each connection. :eek:
Just imagine how fun DB-web apps would be if MySQL connections took that long. 
I just remembered why I grew to like SMTP auth. I was with a host (couple years ago), that forced the POP/IMAP first, then SMTP method. It was so incredibly annoying, because if my the mail client had not checked for new messages within 15min, I was denied the right to send mail. I leave my mail client open all day, so it’s not reasonable to expect me to open it (POP/IMAP check naturally occurs then) before sending, but that is the excuse the host used to ignore me. That is worse than the 3 second delay.
If you use pop before smtp method, it’s only reasonable if you set your e-mail client to automatically check e-mail more often, so you never have a problem sending. For example if the window for sending closes 15 minutes after e-mail is checked, making sure your e-mail client checks for new messages at least every 10 minutes should be sufficient. If you don’t want to do this then smtp-auth is the alternative.
As for why SMTP-Auth is taking this long - I don’t know. I don’t use Thunderbird, but I do use smtp-auth with outlook express, and I’ve never seen this kind of reported delay when sending. We’ll look into it more.
Paul
I just wanted to chime in and say that I do use smtp-auth and Thunderbird and am not seeing the same slowness. I’m not saying they don’t exist (it’s obivous something is up) but the TB+smtp-auth combo may not be the main culprit. I’m using TB 1.5 beta 1.
Chris
This is a good answer, but it unfortunately what I expected to hear. I use IMAP, which maintains a persistent connection using the IDLE command, so there is no reason to check every X minutes. All my email arrives within seconds. 
I am curious to see if my IMAP connection (persistent) is going to cause my virtual SMTP auth to timeout.
Thanks!
This is a good answer, but it unfortunately what I expected to hear. I use IMAP, which maintains a persistent connection using the IDLE command, so there is no reason to check every X minutes. All my email arrives within seconds. I am curious to see if my IMAP connection (persistent) is going to cause my virtual SMTP auth to timeout.
I used to use TB with imap-before-smtp and didn’t have this problem jimp. I’m not sure how often TB triggers a re-login or if the imap-before-smtp sees “idle” commands as triggers for refreshing the window but hopefully it works out for you ok as it did for me :).
Chris
Just to add my 2 cents…
I’ve tried it with a number of mail clients (currently Entourage but I’ve tried Apple Mail, ,Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.) on several different platforms (Windows, OSX, Linux) and while the delay varies, it is still there across the board. There are some similar reports in the qmail smtp-auth forums but I didn’t see any clear ctu resolution to it.
I’ll be curious what you end up finding. Thanks again for all your help and feedback.
Take care.
-Phil
It appears to work like you described. I am using connection idling, and not checking for new messages at a set interval, and so far (a couple days), I have not been rejected when sending mail. It would seem the host I was using in the past did not broadcast the IMAP IDLE capability.