Re: Suppressing unavailable imap server by default

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de> writes:

> Hi,
>
> maybe it is a known technique, but even after RTFM I couldn't find it ...
>
> I have configured an imap server which is reachable only sometimes (when
> I have entered the company's lan). Connecting it via gnus takes always
> ~2 min, until there is a timeout, and the server is ignored ("denied" in
> the *Server* buffer).
>
> How could I change my configuration, that this timeout is reduced? Or
> that prior to connecting the server via imap there is a check, whether
> the server is reachable?
>
> Extra bonus if I could configure it such a way that I don't need to
> confirm that the server isn't reachable.
>
> Thanks, and best regards, Michael.

I think what people do is to make sure all the groups belonging to that
server are set at a fairly high level, and then, when starting Gnus and
checking for news, only check at a lower level. I have wrapper functions
that call (gnus 4) and (gnus-group-get-new-news 4), and set less
interesting servers at level 5.

What I think would be preferable would be if a server status of "closed"
persisted between Gnus restarts. Then you could just leave it closed,
and open it manually when you decide you want to check news.

Eric