[Alpine-info] Problems with new server setup, IMAP, TLS... please, help!

[John A. Kunze]

I've been limping along with Exchange, but the "Message to save shrank!"
problem is very serious for me.

Does anyone know if Alpine 1.10 permits override for thousands of messages
at once (rather than individually for each message)?  

I haven't installed Alpine 1.10, but the release notes sound promising:

  "Additions include: ...
   * When Saving and the IMAP server problem "Message to save shrank!" is
     encountered, ask the user if he or she wants to continue with the
     risky Save anyway instead of aborting."

The question is:  will one "yes" work for saving a whole bunch at once?

-John



--- On Wed, 13 May 2009, Mark Crispin wrote:

> The simple answer is that the corrupt university managers took a bribe from

> Microsoft and installed Microsoft Exchange server.  Exchange's IMAP server

> intentionally does not comply with the IMAP specification, with the specific

> intent of break all email clients other than Outlook.

> 

> I reported these problems years ago, and was told to shut up since my reports

> were hampering the deployment of Exchange.  Later, at Microsoft, I was

> specifically told that Microsoft has no intention of ever supporting IMAP

> correctly.

> 

> All hail Microsoft our overlord, convicted monopolist, and slayer of the evil

> dragon IMAP that allowed people to use non-Microsoft software.

> 

> What this all means is that your choices are:

>  [1] Do what your university (and Microsoft) wants, and switch to Outlook.

>  [2] Switch to a different IMAP server that is standards-compliant.

>  [3] Continue using the broken server, and accept that you will always

>      have trouble.

> 

> Assuming that you decide to do [3], the best that you can do is as follows:

> 

> As Andrew Morgan says, the correct setting for your inbox-path is:

> 	inbox-path={email.uni-rostock.de/tls/novalidate-cert}INBOX

> 

> Your folder-collections also need to be something like:

> 	folder-collections=Exchange

> 	{email.uni-rostock.de/tls/novalidate-cert}[]

> 

> You can get rid of the /novalidate-cert if you install the proper CA

> certificate for your server on your Mac.  This is recommended, since otherwise

> you are vulnerable to hacker "man-in-the-middle" attacks.

> 

> The probable cause of your "Can not authenticate to IMAP server:

> Authentication failed" is that the server advertises Kerberos authentication,

> but it is not set up properly on your Mac and/or the server.  The most

> expedient thing for you to do is to disable Kerberos authentication in your

> .pinerc:

> 	disable-these-authenticators=gssapi

> 

> You don't need to do this if Kerberos is set up properly.  However, since

> Exchange stupidly advertises Kerberos even if it is not set up (a mere

> annoyance among the many serious bugs in Exchange), it is highly likely that

> it is not set up properly on the server -- and that may prove to be an

> immovable object.  If Kerberos is set up on the Exchange server, you should be

> able to set up your Mac to do Kerberos.  But that's a bit of work.

> 

> Last, but not least, the "Message to save shrank!" problem is part of the

> wonderful work of Exchange that Microsoft refuses to fix.  Live with it.

> 

> I thought that Alpine gave you the option of saving anyway, and hoping for the

> best.  Just understand that your saved copy may have been truncated, because

> what was fetched is smaller than what the server said was there.

> 

> In my opinion, life is too short to deal with broken Exchange servers.  I

> would choose [2], and have my messages forwarded to a working server.

> 

> -- Mark --

> 

> http://panda.com/mrc

> Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.

> Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

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