[Twisted-Python] Twisted protocol instances : a puzzle

[Marcus.CM]

Hi,

This might seems like a trivial question or at least i would have 
thought so but it has eluded me for some time on how to do this elegantly.
In twisted mail, since the only part where we instantiate an instance of 
account  is under :

   def requestAvatar(self, avatarId, mind, *interfaces):
        account = xxinterface() # instantiate our account

How do i find out if a particular connection is already dead in the 
given "account" class? For smtp for example,
"mind" is None and avatarId is just the id of the login user. Even if 
this is pop3 or imap, the same problem arise
how do i know if the connection of the particular "Server" instance is 
dead.

Thanks for looking.

Marcus.