[Dovecot] Outlook 2010 very slow when using IMAP - are there any tweaks?

[Kaya Saman]

Hi,

though this is a bit of a side question, has anybody had an issue
while running Outlook 2010 with Dovecot?

The reason why I am asking is that I have setup a Dovecot 2.1.7 server
on FreeBSD which works fantastically with Thunderbird but Outlook
seems to be twice as slow in transferring information across??


# dovecot -n
# 2.1.7: /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE amd64
auth_debug = yes
auth_mechanisms = plain ntlm login
auth_use_winbind = yes
auth_username_format = %n
auth_verbose = yes
auth_winbind_helper_path = /usr/local/bin/ntlm_auth
disable_plaintext_auth = no
info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-info.log
log_path = /var/log/dovecot.log
mail_gid = mail_user
mail_home = /mail/AD_Mail/%Ld/%Ln
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
mail_uid = mail_user
passdb {
  args = failure_show_msg=yes
  driver = pam
}
pop3_fast_size_lookups = yes
pop3_lock_session = yes
pop3_no_flag_updates = yes
protocols = imap pop3
ssl = no
userdb {
  driver = static
}




Since (like most corporate organizations out there) we solely run
Outlook coupled to Exchange, this excersize was meant to be a way of
getting rid of PST files. We don't run out own Exchange however, and
don't have any control over it either.


My workaround was to simply use the Outlook GUI space to transfer
emails between Exchange and Dovecot running the IMAPv4 protocol.


For whatever reason Outlook is being really garbage about dealing with
stuff and since I don't know Outlook or MS products very well (being
your typical average OpenSource guy) I was wondering if there were any
tweaks that could be made within Outlook to speed it up or in Dovecot
to work better with Outlook?


I guess one could get sidetracked into the argument of mdbox vs.
Maildir from my config however, Thunderbird is really fast and
transfers large amounts of data really easily. Reaches round 130Mbps
using nload performance grapher, while Outlook only manages ~50kbps
but spikes at 2-3Mbps on occassion.


Can anyone offer any guidence or assistance in this matter??


Actually wherever I run Dovecot, including my servers at home, it is
fast and reliable. Yes I know MS is the polar opposite of anything
worth using however, my company won't change and I'm stuck banging my
head against the wall while trying to get MS to interface with
ANYTHING.....


Regards,


Kaya