Steve,
Several months ago I spent all of my waking hours fretting over invisible
mail, and you can find my comments and test results in the list archives.
After I upgraded, I thought the problem was solved, but I recently found one
invisible message in my mailbox. I have a call in to Ipswitch tech support,
but I've been too swamped this week with other fires to pursue it further
just now.
In general, if you turn on the IMAP logging in Outlook Express, you will
find that OE can't download some messages because they have malformed
headers. I blame MS for not having OE notify the user when a message
download fails -- it's the fact that there is no error message that makes
these messages "invisible," as opposed to "blocked" or "bounced." However,
OE does not cause the malformed header. I verified this by extensive
testing. I also contacted Brian Livingston, well-known Windows columnist
whose life is built on "Windows Secrets," and he had never heard of this
problem.
The problem is with IMail, at the server. You can open a mailbox file
(e.g., main.mbx) and read and edit the headers directly. You can start
modifying the header for an invisible message until it becomes visible. I
did this, and I was able to determine exactly why I had invisible messages
on my server. However, and this is important, it appears that the exact
problem with malformed headers varies by the version of IMail that you are
using. I know that messages that used to be invisible on our server are
visible since we upgraded. So when I have an invisible message now, I know
that the exact header problem will be slightly different what I dealt with
last February.
I have never seen Ipswitch comment on the problem of invisible mail, and I
have never heard of anyone getting a response from their tech support on
this subject. As soon as I have some time, I intend to pursue it with them,
but I am not hopeful. I really believe they are aware of this problem and
are burying their heads in the sand to avoid legal and financial problems.
Of course, burying your head in the sand can only protect you for so long,
but they've managed it for at least three years, so far.
Does this answer your question?
Ben Bednarz
IMS (Invisible Message Slave)
----- Original Message -----
From: "STEVEN MOORE (IFL)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 1:01 AM
Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] IMAP Too Broken?
> Is anyone with the invisible mail problem going to answer this with some
> technical detail?
>
> You could turn logging on it OE or Eudora.
>
> Though I do not believe we are seeing this issue, we make extensive use of
> IMAP so if there are problems I want to find them.
>
> Cheers
>
> Steve
>
> Steven Moore
> Internet Development Engineer
> Research Machines
> +44 1235 823522
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Steven Moore
> > Sent: 12 June 2001 19:41
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] IMAP Too Broken?
> >
> >
> > Sorry I could respond in timely fashion, been away being .NET ified...
> >
> > I am not sure if this is the same problem, I am convinced
> > that this problem
> > was related to OE escaping speech marks in the From: header
> > of an email with
> > the "\" character.
> > for example
> >
> > From: \"Steven Moore\" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >
> > And this was caused by users filling in their name with
> > speech marks around
> > it, if this is not the case I am not sure. Do you know much
> > about IMAP, if
> > so what happens if you telnet in and do a fetch bodystructure on the
> > relevant message? What IMAP error messages do you get?
> >
> > If that last statement didn't make any sense this might help.
> >
> > 1. locate the offending mailbox (.mbx) file with the relevant
> > message. Find
> > the relevant message and then in the headers find the UID field (can't
> > remember the exact header name)
> > 2. telnet to the imap service (port 143)
> > 3. login by typing
> > 1 LOGIN username password<CR>
> >
> > 4. Select the relevant folder
> > 1 SELECT "foldername"<CR>
> > (replace foldername with the relevant folder or just INBOX
> > for the root)
> >
> > 5. Get the message bodystructure and header replace uidnumber with the
> > relevant message UID.
> > 1 UID FETCH uidnumber (RFC822.HEADER BODYSTRUCTURE)<CR>
> >
> > 6. Do you get a result, post up the error message to the
> > forum. If you don't
> > get an error message do the following command.
> > 1 UID FETCH uidnumber (BODY.PEEK[])<CR>
> >
> > 7. This should return the message in it's entirety, this is
> > all that needs
> > to work for Outook Express to show you the message, so again
> > post up the
> > error message to the forum.
> >
> > 8. To logout
> > 1 LOGOUT
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jack Taugher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 12:30 AM
> > Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] IMAP Too Broken?
> >
> >
> > > The 'invisible mail' that I get is not internal, its
> > external which is
> > > clearly beyond our control. They are 'counted' in Outlook
> > Express, just
> > not
> > > there. They are available in Webmail (KWM).
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Steven Moore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 5:20 PM
> > > Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] IMAP Too Broken?
> > >
> > >
> > > > > | So in other words, does this fix the "invisible mail" problem?
> > > > As I remember, the invisible email issue was more about
> > the way clients
> > > > interpretted and encoded speech marks in the real name
> > section of an
> > email
> > > > address when sending it, rather than anything to do with
> > commas, if you
> > > look
> > > > through an Imail archive there will be numerous emails
> > working out this
> > > > issue including a pretty exhaustive explanation by myself
> > (if I wasn't
> > at
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
> > > to be removed from this list.
> > >
> > > An Archive of this list is available at:
> > > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/
> > >
> >
> >
> > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
> > to be removed from this list.
> >
> > An Archive of this list is available at:
> > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/
> >
>
>
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