[Dovecot] Dovecot and Outlook - IMAP Timeout error

[Phillip T. George]

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