That becomes tricky in multiple-client situations, though, doesn't it?
It depends upon what you are trying to do. If the client maintains its own copy of the mailboxes and thus needs to synchronize, then yes you have an issue.
If, on the other hand, the client just wants to know if there's new mail that it needs to show the user, the job is much simpler.
The whole point of IMAP is to keep mail on the server, and the client is essentially a user interface. Some client authors can't get over the POP based idea of a message access protocol being a sort of reverse-SMTP.
Might this method run into problems with providers that limit the number of simultaneous connections from a given IP?
An ISP which does that is broken. What if that IP is a shell system, with hundreds of people logged in?
-- Mark --
http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum.
