dovecot - Apr 2007 - Dovecot and Outlook - IMAP Timeout error

Hey guys,

I'm having a problem with Dovecot and Outlook.  I'm testing with Outlook
XP (2002), but the problem occurs with Outlook 2003 as well.  I'm using 
Dovecot 1.0.rc28.

The specific error generated (for IMAP) is:
"A connection to the server could not be established.  <servername>
is
now in offline mode."
In the details:
"There may be a server or network problems or your timeout interval may 
be too short.
                Protocol: IMAP
                Server: <servername>
                Port: 143"

It is set up with a POP3 account and an IMAP account within Outlook -- 
using the same physical email account.  The IMAP portion is only used 
for spam / ham submission, while the POP3 is used for downloading the 
actual email.  The account on the server being used is named 
"me2.pg.east.eacsd.com"

I have a single IMAP account set up in Thunderbird, which is using the 
account name "me.pg.east.eacsd.com".  All mail that is received at 
"me.pg.east.eacsd.com" is forwarded to
"me2.pg.east.eacsd.com" to
generate some traffic.

Here is the snippet of the mail log which involves me2.pg.east.eacsd.com 
( | grep me2.pg.east.eacsd.com | grep -i imap):
Apr 25 02:40:11 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 02:40:13 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected 
in IDLE
Apr 25 02:41:10 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected: 
Logged out
Apr 25 02:45:41 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 02:45:41 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 02:46:18 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected
Apr 25 02:46:18 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected
Apr 25 02:50:49 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 02:50:50 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 02:51:27 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected
Apr 25 02:51:27 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected
Apr 25 02:55:58 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 02:55:58 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 02:56:56 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected
Apr 25 02:56:56 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected
Apr 25 03:01:27 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 03:01:27 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me2.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38
Apr 25 03:01:58 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected
Apr 25 03:01:58 east dovecot: IMAP(me2.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected

There's more before that, but I'd figured that would be enough:
Apr 24 17:18:05 east dovecot: IMAP(me.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected 
in IDLE
Apr 24 17:19:34 east dovecot: IMAP(me.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected 
in IDLE
Apr 24 17:19:42 east dovecot: IMAP(me.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected 
in IDLE
Apr 24 17:20:27 east dovecot: IMAP(me.pg.east.eacsd.com): Disconnected 
in IDLE
Apr 24 17:20:42 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38, TLS
Apr 24 17:43:18 east dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<me.pg.east.eacsd.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.14.165.23, 
lip=64.22.71.38, TLS


As you can see from the logs, Thunderbird didn't have a problem, which 
eliminates the possibility of a bad net connection (I'd assume...but I 
could be wrong).  The problem occurred at 3AM.  Some people during the 
day can get it every hour or so.  I was able to get it to occur twice 
(the first time is not shown in these logs).

My questions. . .
1. Is there any way to fix this Outlook problem?  I have all of the 
outlook workarounds enabled (along with some for Netscape):
  imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh
  pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh

2. Should Outlook really be connecting and disconnecting that often?

3. Could the problem be occurring because of POP3 and IMAP being used by 
the same account, and the quick downloading of email via POP3 is 
eliminating the email for IMAP, thereby causing inactivity in IMAP?  Is 
there a workaround or a known Outlook settings to fix this?


Thanks,
Phillip

On Wed, 2007-04-25 at 08:37 -0500, Phillip T. George
wrote:
> Hey guys,
> 
> I'm having a problem with Dovecot and Outlook.  I'm testing with
Outlook
> XP (2002), but the problem occurs with Outlook 2003 as well.  I'm using
> Dovecot 1.0.rc28.
> 
> The specific error generated (for IMAP) is:
> "A connection to the server could not be established. 
<servername> is
> now in offline mode."
> In the details:
> "There may be a server or network problems or your timeout interval
may
> be too short.
>                 Protocol: IMAP
>                 Server: <servername>
>                 Port: 143"
I think this means that it couldn't get a TCP connection to the server
at all.
> As you can see from the logs, Thunderbird didn't have a problem, which 
> eliminates the possibility of a bad net connection (I'd assume...but I 
> could be wrong).  The problem occurred at 3AM.  Some people during the 
> day can get it every hour or so.  I was able to get it to occur twice 
> (the first time is not shown in these logs).
I couldn't figure out from the log what were Thunderbird and what were
Outlook connections. Or were they all TB? In any case the important
thing would be to know what is in Dovecot's logs when Outlook gives the
error. If there's nothing, then Dovecot never even saw the connection.
If Dovecot logged a "Disconnected" error (but no login) then there was
some problem with logging in, auth_debug=yes might be helpful there.
> 1. Is there any way to fix this Outlook problem?  I have all of the 
> outlook workarounds enabled (along with some for Netscape):
>   imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh
>   pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
The error comes before user is even logged in, so these don't matter.
> 2. Should Outlook really be connecting and disconnecting that often?
Yea, it's stupid and keeps reconnecting all the time for some reason.
> 3. Could the problem be occurring because of POP3 and IMAP being used by 
> the same account, and the quick downloading of email via POP3 is 
> eliminating the email for IMAP, thereby causing inactivity in IMAP?  Is 
> there a workaround or a known Outlook settings to fix this?
No idea about this.
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