[OTR-users] Dropped large messages with Pidgin 2.5.5, OTR plugin, and Yahoo

[Doug Breaux]

Doug Breaux wrote:
> Ian Goldberg wrote:
>   
>> On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 05:02:30PM -0500, Doug Breaux wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> I'm not sure when this started, but I did recently upgrade my Pidgin
>>> to 2.5.5 and I know that now if I send large messages encrypted with
>>> OTR over Yahoo (problem seemed to not occur over GTalk), they are
>>> dropped silently.
>>>
>>> I used to at least see a string of error messages when this kind of
>>> defect existed, but now neither I nor the recipient receive any
>>> indication at all.  (Me that there was a problem or him that any
>>> message was sent.)
>>>     
>>>       
>> Weird.  It sounds like the max message size of the Yahoo protocol has
>> gotten smaller (or maybe pidgin 2.5.5 adds more overhead?).
>>
>> You can try this:
>>
>> In your pidgin/purple directory (the same directory your
>> otr.private_keys file is in), make a text file called
>> otr.max_message_size and put this line in it:
>>
>> prpl-yahoo	800
>>
>> that's a tab between the protocol name and the number.
>>
>> See if that works.  Try slightly smaller numbers if it doesn't.  [The
>> default for yahoo is 832.]
>>
>> Please report back if making this number smaller fixes things.  (Or if
>> it doesn't, I guess.)
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>    - Ian
>>     
> Ok, thanks for at least something to try.  I'll have to wait until my
> "test partner" is back from vacation, but we'll try to
> see if we can find the limit.
>
> Doug
>   
FYI, Still happening in Pidgin 2.6.2, still only with Yahoo and OTR.
I've got a repeatable testcase now (first 2 paragraphs from the Pidgin
Wikipedia article), so I'm able to try some things.

I created the otr.max_message_size file with a value of 750 for
prpl-yahoo in C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\.purple
(with a tab between the values), restarted Pidgin, and it still failed.
Should I keep trying smaller? I also happen to have the debug version of
Pidgin installed right now due to another problem, if that helps.

Note that on some send attempts, which I haven't yet seen a pattern for,
I receive an error message, "(10:32:07 AM) *Unable to send message: The
message is too large.*"  But subsequent attempts report no error at all,
they just don't deliver it.