[Dovecot] Feature request for pop3

[Ken A]

Jakob Hirsch wrote:
> Quoting Joseba Torre:
> 
>> two days ago we talked about this same feature. Having plenty of 
>> outlooks around, preconfigured to check mail every minute, this would 
>> be a great feature for us.
> 
> Outlook's default is 10min, AFAIR.
> 
> Anyway, what do you expect dovecot to do if somebody's logging in too
> soon? Delay until the right time has come? Rejecting the login is bad,
> as many MUAs (including Outlook and OE) don't like that very much, they
> will simply think the account data is wrong (as there's no mechanism
> telling the real reason in a way understandable by a machine) and prompt
> users for the "correct" login, which will certainly will not make them
> happy.
> 
> And btw, what's the problem with "frequent logins"?
> 


We looked at a patch for qpopper called happymail. It would return an 
error to the client, asking them to check less frequently:
"-ERR [AUTH] Please wait at least 15 minutes between checks"
It has some interesting ideas.
http://home.uchicago.edu/~dgc/sw/qpopper/

We've found that this patch would generate too many other issues for 
users, and support calls.

With Dovecot's indexed mbox though, there really isn't much penalty for 
frequent pop checks.

Ken
Pacific.Net