intermittent email and news problem (Linksys)

Hello all.

I believe that this problem started with the addition of a Linksys WRT54G
v5. Before I start to remove pieces to troubleshoot, I want to see if
anyone else has seen this.

The Linksys is getting the Internet via a Speedstream 5200 modem/router
supplied by the ISP. At seemingly random intervals, both my email client
(Thunderbird), and my news client (Pan) will not grab mail from their
servers. When this happens, web access is fine- that is, browsers never
stop getting web pages, IM clients still function, etc. Connection in
general is not the problem.

Here's the thing: The problem is specific to my ISP's mail and news
servers.

Just now, I tried using Tbird to hit my ISP mail account, and it
connected, but didn't log in and fetch mail. I immediately used Tbird to
hit a gmail account and another pop3 account, and they worked fine. So I
tried the ISP's email again, and it still didn't connect. After a few
minutes I tried again and it logged in and got mail.

The same deal with Pan and news- Sometimes when I tell Pan to get new
headers from ISP's server, it connects but gives a bad handshake error,
and never gets the headers. If I cancel that and tell Pan to use backup
server (Astraweb), there's no problem. Switch back to ISP and try again,
no deal. After a time, maybe five minutes, maybe an hour, everything
works.

There must be SOMETHING within the Linksys that is stopping mail and news
traffic periodically, but again: ONLY WITH THE ISP'S SERVERS! Never anyone
else! And when it happens, the clients report that they ARE actually
connecting, and I can see the lights on the units, but once connected,
they're not finishing the deal.

This has been going on for about two months and it's getting old. Of
course the ISP says it's the Linksys, and Linksys says it's the ISP. No
one at either place has a clue. ISP reports that no, they have not been
performing maintenance, upgrades etc. on the servers that would cause this
for weeks on end.

So. Any ideas why ISP-specific servers would intermittently stop
responding to my machine's requests?

--
"Because all you of Earth are idiots!"
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