ot: data consumption IMAP vs POP

Sami Ketola sami.ketola at dovecot.fi
Wed Jan 27 09:51:08 UTC 2016



On 27/01/16 04:35, voytek at sbt.net.au wrote:
> I have a domain with about 50 mailboxes, server is located here in AUS but
> most of the users are on a LAN is SEAsia location. They were using POP
> (with Thunderbird), I suggested then can use IMAP instead, so they did.
>
> now they are asking;
>
> "Looks like Imap is adding a lot to our internet bandwidth"
>
> I guess they have some bandwidth limitation on their link
>
> I think I can understand that IMAP would increase bandwidth requirement,
> didn't expect it to cause 'problems'
>
> is there any optimization or changes I can make to reduce that ?
> the b/w limitation are at the client LAN link
>
> any other suggestions ?
>

When you change from POP3 to IMAP then user agents will redownload all 
messages once.
I can't see any other reason for any significant bandwith increment 
other than that.
Are you sure there really is more bandwith used once the mails have been 
redownloaded?

Sami



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