On Wed, May 19, 2004 at 08:22:54AM -0500, Sean Smith wrote: > So in a sense, what your saying is that I would have to convert all my > users from POP3 to IMAP?
Ah, didn't realise they were on POP3. In that case, mail which has been filtered into a different folder (in sqwebmail) would become impossible to access when they get back home. That might be ok for "spam" but probably not useful for "important". > The reason I use POP3 is so that my server does not get filled up with > users saving all their messages on the server. With POP3 they get > downloaded to the client and then wiped off the server. Those few users > that use Webmail exclusively or use the "save messages to server" option > have been warned that if their mailbox usage is determined to be > excessive we will go in and wipe their mailbox. That is done with > periodic scripts, very little intervention on my part. > > Maybe, I am misinformed of how the two (POP3 and IMAP) work but that is > what I remember from my reading. That's usually how it's done. In theory you could pull all your mail down using IMAP and delete it from the server every time, but usually the way people work is to leave it there. That's the main advantage for users - store your mail server-side and be able to access it from anywhere; home PC, cybercafe PC, or hand-held PC. > IMAP does have advantages especially > for my current situation, but POP3 looked like the right choice when we > first set everything up. Can you all share your experiences and/or > opinions of the two (POP3, IMAP)? For large-scale (ISP) deployments, my experience is mainly in POP3 because that's what people get configured with. A few hundred users have discovered the IMAP server, but there are hundreds of thousands on POP3. Quite a lot more use webmail though. We control the abuse issue with quotas. A regular customer might have a 25MB quota; if they fill it, their incoming mail bounces. They get an automatic warning at 90%. It's a good way of making sure they delete their mail from the server periodically. Another way to control mailboxes is to have an ageing policy, e.g. - if the mailbox hasn't been opened for 45 days, bounce incoming mail with "550 Mailbox is inactive". If they login again, this state is cleared - if the mailbox hasn't been opened for 180 days, then delete its contents Cheers, Brian.
