Timeout waiting for secure login response

I'm new to Winlink, having trouble getting connections working fully over VHF packet.

With RadioMail 1.4.2 (15) on an iPhone 14 Pro (iOS 18.1.1), I can connect via Telnet over wifi ("Connecting to WL2K with TELNET @ cms.winlink.org:8772") and send and receive test@winlink.org and internet emails with no problems.

From my home with a BTECH UV-PRO BLE KISS and a directional antenna, I have only found one Winlink gateway that I can connect to reliably (N6ZX-10) and I found that while it appears to connect OK, it just sits there doing nothing after the commands like "F> 35". This is with packet on VHF.

Today I let it sit there longer (5 minutes?) when there was one email to send and it eventually showed this on the RadioMail console:

Contact the station owner. It may be disconnected from the Internet.

I think what you describe is likely. After ~12 hours and ~20 failed attempts, I went back again shortly after posting my message and it is working now, though sometimes it takes 5 minutes for the session to finish.

In the future, are there other debugging steps I should try, such as asking the station I can reach over RF to repeat the packets to another Winlink packet gateway on the same frequency?

Thanks!

Did you ever find out what the issue was with this error message? I have the same issue with my UVPro and RadioMail when I try to connect to my own gateway at home and I know it is connected to the internet.