[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
> _______________________________________________
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> Imap-uw at u.washington.edu
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-- 
*Bob Atkins * 
/President/CEO/

*DigiLink, Inc. <http://www.digilink.net>*
Business Inter-net-working
*/The Cure for the Common ISP!/*

	

Phone: (310) 577-9450
Fax: (310) 577-3360
eMail: bob at digilink.net

 

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