[Dovecot] 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. . . pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
- 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
Should Outlook really be connecting and disconnecting that often?
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.
- 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.
- Should Outlook really be connecting and disconnecting that often?
Yea, it's stupid and keeps reconnecting all the time for some reason.
- 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.
participants (2)
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Phillip T. George
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Timo Sirainen