On Fri, 31 Jan 2003, Ilya Konstantinov wrote:
On Friday 31 January 2003 16:22, you wrote:
How can they?
In pop3 you can
* get a message
* delete a message
keep mail on server basically means that the client does not order the
sever to delete those messages.
The server can delete the messages the user fetched anyway, even if not
directed to by a DELETE command. It might violate some RFC, but real life
(the large number of users who simply mark 'Keep mail on server' without
thinking of the consequences) requires it
this will cause user support problems from the other side - a user
connected, started downloading, got disconnected, and lost all their
email. (i.e. it is not transaction-based, and handling mail in a
non-transactional manner is a bad idea).
you might thus say 'we'll delete all messages only if we got the 'quit'
command from the client' - but this is not a good idea as well - what if
the client only downloaded some of the messages? so you need to keep track
of which messages from the mailbox were actually downloaded by the user.
-- otherwise, lots of users'
mailboxes would quickly grow to enormous sizes. The ISP can enforce mailbox
size limits to solve this, but this way they'll hurt legitimate users (who
expect a one-time large delivery or leave for a 2 week vacation) and increase
complaints from the users who lightheartedly enabled the 'Keep mail on
server' option.
actually, i don't remember ever seeing a problem with using 'keep mail on
server' to-date - except for configuration problems on the users' side.
can you name an ISP that added this odd feature to their pop server? or
rather, a pop server that supports this feature?
i did see 'mail box over quota' messages several times.
most ISPs limit the mail box to a given number. if a user goes on
vacation, then ask to enlarge their quota (for a fee) for the duration.
some ISPs give you different 'soft' and 'hard' quotas, so you can have a
larger mail box temporarily.
--
guy
For world domination - press 1,
or dial 0, and please hold, for the creator. -- nob o. dy
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