[Dovecot] RHEL4 configuration

[f00bar]

I just installed a new email server using RHEL4.  I
only want pop3d services, no imap is desired so I
modified the dovecot.conf file by changing to
"protocols = pop3".  All is working fine.  However,
dovecot requires access to /home/user/mail or the
Thunderbird client hangs when attempting to download
email.

We have a single /home that is mounted by all servers
for all users.  We do not want the mail server to
mount this /home.  So I created directories with the
usernames in the mail server's /home.  This is not
desired from a system management perspective.  The
files dovecot creates in the /home/user/mail directory
appear to be for the use of IMAP which we do not use.

How do I configure dovecot to not access /home and to
not create any IMAP files?

Thank you