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On Monday, January 11 at 05:58 PM, quoth Jostein Berntsen:
> He replied with this link:
>
> http://piiis.blogspot.com/2007/08/stop-annoying-imap-error-message-in.html
>
> Can this help in any way?
Whoever wrote that blog posting doesn't *quite* understand how IMAP
works, but what they're essentially advocating is putting Outlook into
a "nearly offline" mode. What happens with the configuration they're
creating is that Outlook doesn't check with the mail server for so
long that it assumes the connection has expired and simply opens a new
connection every time it has to do something.
That's not helpful.
> I have tried to regulate the timeout value to higher, with no
> result. The Imap_keepalive is set to standard value.
A higher $timeout won't help, in part because the $timeout setting
doesn't do what you think it does. And even if it did, the point is
that your server's administrator has apparently decided not to support
persistent IMAP connections. In other words, connections to your IMAP
server are apparently not allowed to last longer than a minute or two.
If anything, you want a *lower* timeout value so that the server
thinks you're busy using it. But if (as it appears) he's set an
absolute limit on the length of your connections, then it doesn't
really matter how often you remind the server that you're still there:
it will simply disconnect you after a certain time period, NO MATTER
WHAT.
The link your admin sent you is essentially a way of configuring
Outlook to more effectively hide the fact that the server violated the
IMAP spec and disconnected it. This only works because clients like
Outlook (or Thunderbird or Apple Mail) often simply open a new
connection to the server without bothering you. Mutt, however, does
not (generally) do things without telling you, and so when its
connection to the mail server dies (for ANY REASON), it will let you
know about it.
I could give a dissertation about the apparent basic misunderstanding
of the IMAP protocol in this blog post your admin sent, but I don't
think it would help anything.
I'll repeat: the IMAP protocol is DESIGNED to be used for LONG TERM
CONNECTIONS. A well-administered IMAP server (and a well-configured
IMAP client) should allow you to remain connected for as long as you
want (even years at a time). If you cannot remain connected for as
long as you want (assuming your client has a reasonably low (e.g. five
or ten minute) timeout), then something on the server is
broken---either the server configuration or the server software.
Heck, IMAP even has the IDLE command, which allows clients to tell the
server "let me know when new mail arrives", thereby avoiding periodic
checks and saving tons of bandwidth.
~Kyle
- --
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
-- Shakespeare, in Julius Caesar
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