[Dovecot] squirrelmail inbox empty

[Paul Cartwright]

I am running Dovecot + Postfix +Squirrelmail on Debian Lenny.Fetchmail 
pulls the mail, dovecot spreads it around.
I had squirrelmail setup & I tested it from within my router ( internal 
LAN).
yesterday I had to go babysit my grand daughter, and I setup port 
forward for IMAP port 143, and I can use squirrelmail through firefox on 
my laptop.
All the other folders have all the mail from the time I left til now. 
Yesterday I was reading inbpox mail, deleted a few junks, etc, and 
suspended my laptop. When I came back my inbox was empty, and I've never 
seen any more messages in it. I know I should have LOTS of older+new 
messages that don't get filtered. Unfortunately ssh doesn't seem to work 
from this linux side, it does from the windos side ( ssh keys?), so I 
can't get in to look at the logs..
I already removed ( I think ) all the inbox index files... & restarted, 
but no joy. I am not sure if it is getting filtered from the ibox, or if 
I just can't see it. I am not familiar with how squirrelmail works with 
local IMAP folders, so I am unsure where to look or what logs to browse. 
I will be home later today.

suggestions clues or otherwise??

-- Paul Cartwright