[Dovecot] Unsuccessful POP sessions on dovecot-1.0.3-13_60

[Patrick Ben Koetter]

A Client runs a RAS network. Users access mailboxes using Outlook Express.
The server runs dovecot-1.0.3-13_60.

Almost a week ago users began to report that they can't retrieve their mail.
The session starts, they seem to retrieve messages, but then the client
reports a problem and the session is terminated.

Here's what I have in the log:

May 28 08:56:46 server dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<user at client>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:10.11.9.18, lip=::ffff:10.11.9.108
May 28 08:59:00 server dovecot: POP3(user at client): Disconnected top=0/0, retr=5/448621, del=0/58, size=8991962
May 28 08:59:29 server dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<user at client>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:10.11.9.18, lip=::ffff:10.11.9.108
May 28 09:03:49 server dovecot: POP3(user at client): Disconnected top=0/0, retr=5/448621, del=0/58, size=8991962
May 28 09:04:24 server dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<user at client>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:10.11.9.18, lip=::ffff:10.11.9.108
May 28 09:12:11 server dovecot: POP3(user at client): Disconnected top=0/0, retr=5/448621, del=0/58, size=8991962
May 28 09:14:32 server dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<user at client>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:10.11.9.18, lip=::ffff:10.11.9.108
May 28 09:17:10 server dovecot: POP3(user at client): Disconnected top=0/0, retr=5/448621, del=0/58, size=8991962
May 28 09:17:52 server dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<user at client>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:10.11.9.18, lip=::ffff:10.11.9.108
May 28 09:20:27 server dovecot: POP3(user at client): Disconnected top=0/0, retr=5/448621, del=0/58, size=8991962
May 28 09:23:23 server dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<user at client>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:10.11.9.18, lip=::ffff:10.11.9.108
May 28 09:30:05 server dovecot: POP3(user at client): Disconnected top=0/0, retr=5/448621, del=0/58, size=8991962

What I see is that the client seems to try to retrieve the same mails
(retr=5/448621) over and over again.

If they login using IMAP they don't experience any problems.

Any idea what this could be?
Rumor has it it's a know problem with Outlook Express and its POP
implementation. Is that rumor or a fact?

p at rick

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