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Thunderbird stuck in loop loading same website url

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  • Last reply by Matt

Chris
Chris
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Hello

I've come across a possible problem with Thunderbird (or at least something claiming to be thunderbird) loading my website over and over again. I'm trying to understand the circumstances in which Thunderbird would load a website.

My web logs look something like this 

 date                          url       useragent                                                                    ip      response code
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:39.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 301
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:40.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:41.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:41.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:42.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:43.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:43.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:44.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 ...
 approx 200,00 hits later...
 ...
 April 19th 2018, 12:19:17.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200

Then as mysteriously as they start they stop.

This is not a once off either, I have had the same pattern from a different IP with the same useragent (Thunderbird/52.7.0), and a couple more from Thunderbird/52.6.0


I have tried reproducing this on thunderbird by sending myself an email with a link to my website, but using Fiddler it doesn't load it at all. Are there a specific set of circumstances when thunderbird will try and load a web page? Is it possible Thunderbird is caching the first 301 redirect (I believe http->https redirect), then using this over and over again, even though subsequent requests result in a 200 OK coming back from my server?? Or might there be something specific on that pages html that is tripping up thunderbird? I have noticed some other request to pages on my site that seem fine, and don't sit there requesting it over and over again...

Any suggestions on how I can further debug this issue, or try and worth out how to reproduce this issue?

Thanks Chris

Hello I've come across a possible problem with Thunderbird (or at least something claiming to be thunderbird) loading my website over and over again. I'm trying to understand the circumstances in which Thunderbird would load a website. My web logs look something like this date url useragent ip response code April 18th 2018, 10:18:39.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 301 April 18th 2018, 10:18:40.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200 April 18th 2018, 10:18:41.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200 April 18th 2018, 10:18:41.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200 April 18th 2018, 10:18:42.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200 April 18th 2018, 10:18:43.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200 April 18th 2018, 10:18:43.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200 April 18th 2018, 10:18:44.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200 ... approx 200,00 hits later... ... April 19th 2018, 12:19:17.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200 Then as mysteriously as they start they stop. This is not a once off either, I have had the same pattern from a different IP with the same useragent (Thunderbird/52.7.0), and a couple more from Thunderbird/52.6.0 I have tried reproducing this on thunderbird by sending myself an email with a link to my website, but using Fiddler it doesn't load it at all. Are there a specific set of circumstances when thunderbird will try and load a web page? Is it possible Thunderbird is caching the first 301 redirect (I believe http->https redirect), then using this over and over again, even though subsequent requests result in a 200 OK coming back from my server?? Or might there be something specific on that pages html that is tripping up thunderbird? I have noticed some other request to pages on my site that seem fine, and don't sit there requesting it over and over again... Any suggestions on how I can further debug this issue, or try and worth out how to reproduce this issue? Thanks Chris

Modified by Chris

All Replies (2)

Chris
Chris Question owner
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(edit; worked out how to edit original question, but not delete this response, sorry!)

Log did not format well, this might be better; 

 date                          url       useragent                                                                    ip      response code
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:39.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 301
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:40.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:41.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:41.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:42.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:43.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:43.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 April 18th 2018, 10:18:44.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200
 ...
 ...
 ...
 April 19th 2018, 12:19:17.000 /my-page/ "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0" x.x.x.x 200

Modified by Chris

Matt
Matt
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Thunderbird has the capability to be a fully fledged web browser. We do not anvertise it, or recommend it. But there are folk that use it as such. most use this add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/thunderbrowse/ it has been unmaintained for a long time, but some devotees keep tweaking it to make it work for them