the problem is: 1. the error in the mailerr file is: Jul 4 19:42:26 obelix dovecot: chdir(/home/user) failed with uid 1229: Permission denied Jul 4 19:42:26 obelix dovecot: child 16385 (imap) returned error 89 2. the error msg given by Squirrelmail is: ERROR: connection dropped by imapserver QUERY: CAPABILITY the dovecot and squirrelmail settings are same on both the servers 3. the mailbox settings in dovecot.conf: default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u OS: Debian Sarge stable thanks srinivas _______________________________________________ No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com