On March 1st, 2004, Vortech will be disabling POP3 for @mail

On March 1st, 2004, Vortech will be disabling POP3 as an access method in webmail for HSphere servers (@mail). We have enabled IMAP, and set it as the default mail type when you launch from within HSphere. If you go to the website however, you have the option to log in via IMAP or POP3. If you have been logging in via POP3, you will need to ensure you have copies of your mail. You should be able to log in via IMAP and access your old folders as well as the IMAP folders. You will need to ensure that if you are setting up custom folders, that you use IMAP folders, as "Personal folders" will be disabled.

The reason for the change is that it is unwieldly and expensive to store mail on BOTH the mail server and the webmail server. Most people have the option "Leave message on server" turned ON in webmail, which means that when webmail POP3 downloads the message, it will be left on the server as well, and thus in two places at once. As happened over the past week, once the database gets to a certain size, it begins to exhibit problems. One or two corrupt messages can hinder the ability of other users to access their mailbox as happened over the previous week.

By March 1st, we should have all the larger harddrives in place on the mail servers and will be lifting the "30-day" restriction on email storage. At this time, we will also disable POP3 in @MAIL. Ensure you have a backup of your email by that date as we do NOT perform backups of the mail on the mail servers due to the disk space necessary.

[logic404]

I'm probably a little blond, but...

Once all of the above is in place, if a client (we'll call him "Bob") is going away, and Bob has a cable connection at home. Bob leaves his computer on, Outlook running with "Leave messages on server" and Bob wants to use webmail to check his email while he's away, will that work? If he views an email in webmail prior to his computer at home having downloaded it, will he have lost it from the POP3 server? I'm just a tad confused as to how this will work when people are using a combination of Webmail and a "thick client" mail client?

(btw, really happy that mail is not going to be deleted tho!!)

[frederic]

I am a little confused. Do you mean you will disable pop3 mail access?

[Brangwyn]

No it doesn't mean pop3 access is being removed.

Currently @mail talks to the servers using POP3, it downalods a copy of the email to the webmail server so the user can view their email via the webmail interface.

What this change does is change the protocol to IMAP so that instead of having a copy of the email on the mail server, and a copy of the email on the webmail server there will only be one copy which resides on the email server.

logic404 yes that will work, if the emails are being "left on the server" by your customers outlook or other client, then they will still be there for the @mail system to view as well, and as long as they don't delete the mail using the webmail client it will be available to download locally still as well.

[Carly]

Just for Webmail, this doesn't have any effect on your pop3 mail clients such as Outlook, Eudora or Outlook Express.

[oldflatop]

Will that have any implication on squirrel mail installations?
i have a lot of SM on my accounts.
do i have to change settings or something?

No, it affects @MAIL (AT-MAIL) and AT-MAIL ONLY. The @MAIL that we run at http://webmail.hsphere.cc/

[bigdave]

Matt needs refills on his medication and they just came in.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by bigdave

Matt needs refills on his medication and they just came in.

What medication would that be?? And do I even wanna know??

[bobi]

So does this mean, if my clients have a copy of their email saved on webbased, they will lose it?!?!!?

Bobi

[bobi]

Dear Vortech,

I don't understand what will stop working?!

Will my clients who only use web-based email lose their emails?!

[admin]

bobi, moved your post to here as this has most of the info in it that you are asking..

[bobi]

Thanks Admin,

But! any replies..

[logic404]

bobi - I'm pretty sure that the answer to that is No, clients using web-based email only won't lose their email.

Just make sure you have important emails backed up. If they aren't sitll on the server (IE, you unchecked that box), then chances are you wont be able to access them from the IMAP mode. I've had mixed results with the tests I've done, and my best advice is to ensure you have backups or your important email!