dovecot - Feb 2006 - Thunderbird 1.5 and dovecot 1.0 beta 3 problem

My mailhosting provider has been testing dovecot 1.0 beta 3 as a proxy server
and they asked the customers if they would like to test it out and report any
issues. I am using Thunderbird 1.5 (IMAP) and have been with this mailhosting
company for two months and have no issues at all with their current setup which
uses Perdition as their proxy servers.

The problem(s) I am encountered have been reported here a few times previously
over the last couple of years but in searching I have not found any concrete
solutions. When I first tested it out there was a continuous problem of a
failure in saving a copy of an email to the sent folder although the message was
sent. One of the staff of the mailhosting company noted this exact problem as
well and believed the issue was Dovecot announcing different IMAP capabilities
than the real backend IMAP servers (via the CAPABILITY command). This was
supposedly fixed and initially there were no issues with the first set of test
emails. However, in short order, this problem re-emerged and there would be
sporadic failures to copy a message to the sent folder. Another issue would be
that every now and then, when clicking on a folder in the left-hand pane (and no
other activity going on with Thunderbird like downloading a new mail)
Thunderbird would hourglass for 10-15 seconds as if it were trying to open a
connection and was having difficulty. The maximum number of connections setup in
Thunderbird is the default 5 and I am advised that this is the correct setting
with their servers. Reducing the maximum number of connections does not appear
to change matters in terms of avoiding these problems.

Changing back to the current system (ie not using the test proxy server) both
these issues disappeared. I have been in communication with the mailhosting
provider as to my findings but it would be most appreciated if others here would
perhaps have some insight into this matter. 

Peter

Hello,
this problem seems to be well known (more or less). We have these
complaints from time to time ("cannot save to Sent folder"). I think
there were no problems when we used UW-IMAP (but I'm not sure).

It is not specific to dovecot-beta3. It happened with all dovecot
versions, all Thunderbird versions and all OS. AFAIK it is a client
problem (Thunderbird).

I found some entries in a Mozilla/Thunderbird forum (I'll try to find
the URL, if someone wants it). It seems that this problem exists since
at least 2 years within the source code. But since only a few people
are having this problem and the developers can't reprocude it, they
can't fix it.

If I remember correctly, there were also people reporting the problem
with UW-IMAP.

Martin

Peterg wrote:
>... 
> The problem(s) I am encountered have been reported here a few times
previously
> over the last couple of years but in searching I have not found any
concrete
> solutions. When I first tested it out there was a continuous problem of a
> failure in saving a copy of an email to the sent folder although the
message was
> sent. One of the staff of the mailhosting company noted this exact problem
as
> well and believed the issue was Dovecot announcing different IMAP
capabilities
> than the real backend IMAP servers (via the CAPABILITY command). This was
> supposedly fixed and initially there were no issues with the first set of
test
> emails. However, in short order, this problem re-emerged and there would be
> sporadic failures to copy a message to the sent folder. Another issue would
be
> that every now and then, when clicking on a folder in the left-hand pane
(and no
> other activity going on with Thunderbird like downloading a new mail)
> Thunderbird would hourglass for 10-15 seconds as if it were trying to open
a
> connection and was having difficulty. The maximum number of connections
setup in
> Thunderbird is the default 5 and I am advised that this is the correct
setting
> with their servers. Reducing the maximum number of connections does not
appear
> to change matters in terms of avoiding these problems.
> 
> Changing back to the current system (ie not using the test proxy server)
both
> these issues disappeared. I have been in communication with the mailhosting
> provider as to my findings but it would be most appreciated if others here
would
> perhaps have some insight into this matter. 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Preen, Universitaet Freiburg, Institut fuer Informatik
Georges-Koehler-Allee 52, Raum 00-006, 79110 Freiburg, Germany

phone: ++49 761 203-8250      preen at informatik.uni-freiburg.de
fax: ++49 761 203-8242        www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de

On Wed, 2006-02-15 at 17:58 +0000, Peterg wrote:
> My mailhosting provider has been testing dovecot 1.0 beta 3 as a proxy
server
> and they asked the customers if they would like to test it out and report
any
> issues. I am using Thunderbird 1.5 (IMAP) and have been with this
mailhosting
> company for two months and have no issues at all with their current setup
which
> uses Perdition as their proxy servers.
> 
> The problem(s) I am encountered have been reported here a few times
previously
> over the last couple of years but in searching I have not found any
concrete
> solutions. When I first tested it out there was a continuous problem of a
> failure in saving a copy of an email to the sent folder although the
message was
> sent.
There have been bugs in Dovecot before that have caused the
sent-mail-saving problems, but those aren't related to proxy server at
all.

Are you using SSL with these connections?

I looked at the code but didn't see any obvious problems. But I suppose
there could be something..
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