[Dovecot] Outlook 2000/2003 frequent disconnect issue

[Jeff Ramsey]

On Aug 9, 2007, at 4:58 AM, Timo Sirainen wrote:

> On Thu, 2007-08-02 at 12:50 -0700, Jeff Ramsey wrote:
>> On Aug 1, 2007, at 12:10 PM, Timo Sirainen wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, 2007-08-01 at 12:05 -0700, Jeff Ramsey wrote:
>>>> Aug  1 11:58:51 imap dovecot: auth(default): passwd(QUINAULT-
>>>> ileneyoung,::ffff:10.200.254.110): lookup
>>>> Aug  1 11:58:51 imap dovecot: auth(default): passwd(QUINAULT-
>>>> ileneyoung,::ffff:10.200.254.110): unknown user
> ..
>> I did the downgrade back to 0.99.11-8.EL4, which I realize is not
>> truly 0.99.x, it's got some 1.0.? updates inserted from Red Hat.
>>
>> Anyhow, I did not get anymore messages about 'user unknown'
>> immediately after the downgrade. However, I was still getting a few
>> 'IMAP Server disconnected' errors in my Outlook clients. So, on a
>> hunch I ran a diff command between the default 0.99.11-8.EL4 conf
>> file and my old, known working 0.99.11-8.EL4 conf file, restored from
>> a backup, and I noticed that even though I was not using the POP3
>> protocol at all, I still have the outlook-pop3-no-nuls and the oe6-
>> fetch-no-newmail workarounds enabled, along with the outlook-idle
>> workaround. So, I added those two workarounds to the default config,
>> and it is working again. No 'IMAP Server disconnected' errors all day
>> long.
>>
>> In 0.99.11-8.EL4, could this outlook-pop3-no-nuls be solving this
>> issue, even though I am using IMAP protocol, not POP3?
>
> No, that setting doesn't do anything for IMAP. Also none of those
> settings affect the "unknown user" error, so maybe 0.99 is somehow  
> lucky
> in not generating those. Perhaps setting blocking=yes to userdb passwd
> args would help.
>

Perhaps dovecot communicates with PAM in a different way from 0.99 to  
1.0.2? I don't know how else to explain it. Literally, the only time  
I've gotten a report of Outlook's 'IMAP server disconnected' message  
since the downgrade is when a user who was on a remote VPN connection  
left Outlook open and let his computer go into hibernation for like  
an hour. I'd expect dovecot to close that connection in that instance.

>> Since in 1.0.2, the workarounds are on a separate conf line for POP3
>> and IMAP, is there an equivalent workaround for Outlook with IMAP?
>> The wiki mentions a workaround called 'outlook-no-nuls'. Will that
>> one work with 1.0.2 under the IMAP workarounds line? And am I being
>> realistic that this may be my issue?
>
> The outlook-no-nuls only fixes Outlook completely hanging in case it
> receives a NUL byte with POP3 protocol. There's no such problem with
> IMAP.
>


Well, today, I will build by test server, and load it up with the  
latest stable. And see if I can get it to work properly. I'll post my  
results as soon as I get some.

Thanks again,

Jeff Ramsey
MIS Administrator
TMI Forest Products, Inc.
jefframsey at tubafor.com
360.477.0738





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