Re: [Imap-uw] Outlook deadlock

[Bob Atkins]

We have all client side spam filtering to thank for the inefficiencies that have been introduced into Thunderbird and other client mail apps. When spam filtering is enabled on Thunderbird it will download all messages that it hasn't already scanned. This unfortunately negates the speed and efficiency of the imap protocol.  If you are using server side spam filtering and you don't have to deal with too much 'leakage' you should turn off the Junk mail filtering in Thunderbird and you will find that it will be a much faster imap client. As for delete mail settings. I usually don't use the Trash folder. I set Thunderbird to delete the messages immediately. However, a little known secret is that Thunderbird just flags the message as deleted but does not purge the mail folder immediately so you still have the ability to undelete - at least until it gets to the size at which it is set to compact folders to save disk space. (Tools->Options). I leave that option un checked and purge manually. That said - purging deleted messages is a big problem in general. It seems mail clients never purge and never empty the trash folders and the average user is clueless as to the concept of purging or compacting their mail folders. When a message is deleted and the user uss a Trash folder a copy of the message if placed in the trash folder and the existing message is flagged for deletion in the source folder. Now there are two copies of the message living on the server! This consumes disk space at alarming rates so some time ago we wrote an cleanup application that we run from cron every night during which we purge all messages marked for deletion and empty trash folders of messages that are more than X days old. Lest anyone think that this is a bad thing to arbitrarily do - in the last 3 years we have not had a single complaint. One of the biggest problems that IMAP services present from a system management perspective is the fact that users haven't a clue how much disk space they are using - it is just an infinite resource and the result is that the space is consumed without any ability to for a user to be made aware of the just how much resources they are using. --- Bob Oscar del Rio wrote: Mark Crispin wrote: I doubt very much that the vast majority of users think "I want all my email, including all the spam with graphics attachments, downloaded to my hard drive before I even get the chance to look at it.  I especially love this when I am paying packet charges, because my high Internet bill means that I am A Very Important Person." I guess I prefer Thunderbird because of security (compared to you know which other clients), and I usually have no problems because most of the time I have a fast connection.  However, recently while traveling overseas with only a slow dial-up connection, Thunderbird was intolerably slow, trying to download every message.  I ended up connecting to our webmail server instead.  I understood then what Mark means by "glorified POP3 client". However, on a fast connection, webmail "feels" slow compared to Thunderbird or even Outlook, perhaps because it does not have the data cached locally. I wonder if a true IMAP client would have the same feeling of slowness (I have not tried alpine much) I guess it would be nice if you could easily configure Thunderbird to be a true IMAP client when needed (on a slow connection) or do its local caching at other times (on a fast connection). I also doubt that many of them think "gee, when I delete a whole bunch of messages at once I want to wait several minutes while they are all copied to the Trash mailbox.  I just *love* watching that animation of stuff being moved." Recently I learned the Shift-Delete key shortcut in Thunderbird that deletes without copying to Trash.  It is a real time saver! OdR _______________________________________________ Imap-uw mailing list Imap-uw@u.washington.edu https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/imap-uw -- Bob Atkins   President/CEO Business Inter-net-working The Cure for the Common ISP! Phone: (310) 577-9450 Fax: (310) 577-3360 eMail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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