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Re: Pop 3 server timeouts



On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 10:28:23AM +0200, Ian Forbes wrote:
> The trouble is, if they have a mailbox with say 100 messages, they 
> download say 80 of them then loose their connection. The POP3 session 
> times out, but all 100 messages remain in their mailbox. At the next 
> attempt they download the same 80 messages again, often never reaching 
> the end of the list.

> We are using Maildir folders with courier-pop as a pop 3 server.

> As I understand it, the POP3 RFC specifies that no mail should be 
> deleted from the mailbox unless the entire session is completed 
> successfully. I also recall when we used old fashioned mailboxes, that 
> one of the popular POP3 servers violated the RFC by allowing individual 
> messages to be deleted after they had successfully been downloaded.

> I know this problem should be managed on the client end. But the client 
> software (M$ Outlook), the end users and the 3rd party network are 
> equally inept and so the problem gets referred back to us as the ISP.

I'm surprised MS Outlook doesn't handle this, I never had such a problem
when I've used it.

I'd suggest checking if your POP3 daemon properly supports whatever the
command Outlook is using in (either UIDL or LAST) except that I was
running the exact same combination (MS Outlook VS courier-pop) and never
had it duplicate emails on me.

Maybe peak in on an Outlook POP session and see if it's doing what it
should for identifying previously-downloaded emails.

Otherwise, someone has suggested IMAP, which Outlook does support, give
or take.

-- 
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Paul "TBBle" Hampson, MCSE
8th year CompSci/Asian Studies student, ANU
The Boss, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd (ABN: 51 095 284 361)
Paul.Hampson@Anu.edu.au

"No survivors? Then where do the stories come from I wonder?"
-- Capt. Jack Sparrow, "Pirates of the Caribbean"

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.1/au/
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