IMAP on Pocket PC 2003

[stevenf]

I just got Pocket PC 2003 running on my Toshiba e755 (thanks to the awesome info from this very forum)

It appears that the Inbox app now supports secure IMAP of some form, as I'm able to connect to our secure mail server without any tricky port mapping. (I'm not sure if it's connecting on the secure port 993 or if it's connecting to 143 and initiating a secure session from there, but the server log definitely shows a secure connection being started.)

The ONLY THING that leaves me still unable to to use Inbox is that I can't specify a mail root path... We are running UW-IMAPD, and Inbox thinks every file in my home directory on the server (of which there are many) is a mailbox! I can't believe this is still not fixed.

Does anyone know any tricks (registry hack? anything?) to either let me specify a root path for IMAP folders _OR_ completely disable folder support and access the INBOX folder only?

So close... yet so far..!

[manywhere]

I think you should be able to adjust it through the server, not the PPC... have you tried searching the net for solutions?

BTW, if MS finally included SSL-IMAP in Pocket Inbox, I've GOT to get the upgrade! :lol:

But when (if @ all) will an upgrade be available for iPaq 3870??? :|

[stevenf]

The new option in Inbox 2003 is in the Options (2/3) section of account configuration... A simple checkbox: "Require SSL connection". (That was never there before, was it?)

The server log shows a secure connection when I get & send from Inbox:

Jul 1 01:22:49 ourserver imapd[6114]: imaps SSL service init from 12.231.xxx.xxx

But again, I'm not sure if it's originating from port 993 or 143. Either way, SSL is SSL. Hot damn.

I have found kind of a solution to the problem with the UW-IMAP server... It seems that if you create a file named /etc/c-client.cf containing the following two lines:

I accept the risk
set mail-subdirectory mail

It does everything exactly right -- only the mailboxes under the "mail" subdirectory in my home directory are scanned.

Before I turn this on permanently, I need to figure out exactly what "the risk" is that I'm accepting, as it's not clear at the moment.

But this is the closest I've ever come to IMAP nirvana on a handheld device.

[Janak Parekh]

Before I turn this on permanently, I need to figure out exactly what "the risk" is that I'm accepting, as it's not clear at the moment.
You're accepting the risk that you're using undocumented directives for the UW IMAP server, and that they're not responsible if you mess up a configuration option.

That said, I believe the setup you've done is pretty safe. I've configured machines that way before myself. It's a much cleaner thing to do anyway.

BTW, thanks for the heads-up on the built-in SSL. It's about time! :D

--janak

[BigKev]

Stevenf - I like your solution, but given that I don't have root access so I can't change files in /etc, do you know how to do this on a per user basis?

Cheers,
Kevin

[imacamper]

I've searched many times over the past year or so but have never found a solution for the Courier IMAP server. Does anyone know what to do to get the PPC working correctly with Courier?

Thanks,

Drew

[Janak Parekh]

I've searched many times over the past year or so but have never found a solution for the Courier IMAP server. Does anyone know what to do to get the PPC working correctly with Courier?
What happens? You can certainly read mail with Courier... are you referring to the namespace issue, where everything is prefixed with "INBOX." and you can't delete items?

If so, I've heard creating a "shared namespace" folder called Deleted Items (e.g., for all users) seems to work OK. I have yet to try it on my box.

--janak

[imacamper]

What happens? You can certainly read mail with Courier... are you referring to the namespace issue, where everything is prefixed with "INBOX." and you can't delete items?

If so, I've heard creating a "shared namespace" folder called Deleted Items (e.g., for all users) seems to work OK. I have yet to try it on my box.

Yes, I'm referring to the namespace issue. Reading mail is no problem. I'll try your suggestion and post my results.

Thanks,

Drew

[imacamper]

I've tried creating a shared folder called "Deleted Items" but can not get Courier to see it with that name. Specifically, I used "maildirmake -S Deleted_Items" to create a folder and then added:

'Deleted Items' /path/to/Deleted_Items

in /usr/local/etc/courier-imap/maildirshared. I've also tried surrounding with double quotes but no luck. If I change to:

Deleted_Items /path/to/Deleted_Items

Courier sees the folder as 'Deleted_Items' in the 'shared' folder. Do you have any idea how to create the right folder?

Thanks,

Drew

[Janak Parekh]

I have no idea if it'll actually work. I tried for 5 minutes on my server without success. :|

I'll try some more later, but here are some usenet references you might find useful. Some potential workarounds are also discussed there.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&threadm=alllh1%24lmi%241%40knossos.btinternet.com&rnum=3&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dcourier%2Bimap%2Bpocket%2Bpc%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26selm%3Dalllh1%2524lmi%25241%2540knossos.btinternet.com%26rnum%3D3
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&threadm=c150ddcd.0302231155.6ed8dcb2%40posting.google.com&rnum=5&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26q%3Dcourier%2Bimap%2Bpocket%2Bpc%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&selm=8ec1dc60.0210111103.337edfdf%40posting.google.com

Another approach might be to see if there's a patch that eliminates the INBOX. prefix. Take a look at this:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&selm=96n1jp%2419kj%241%40FreeBSD.csie.NCTU.edu.tw

Unfortunately, it's a bit old.

--janak

[imacamper]

Thanks for your reply.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&threadm=c150ddcd.0302231155.6ed8dcb2%40posting.google.com&rnum=5&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26q%3Dcourier%2Bimap%2Bpocket%2Bpc%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&threadm=c150ddcd.0302231155.6ed8dcb2%40posting.google.com&rnum=5&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26q%3Dcourier%2Bimap%2Bpocket%2Bpc%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg
Yeah, I've seen these. Not much there.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&selm=8ec1dc60.0210111103.337edfdf%40posting.google.com
Now I know where you got the idea. :) I suspect this might not work with Courier as it used the "shared" namespace. Thus "Deleted Items" will still not show up as a top level directory.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&selm=96n1jp%2419kj%241%40FreeBSD.csie.NCTU.edu.tw
Sounds the most promising but also the most likely to cause problems when upgrading. Since I'm not a programmer, I think I'll leave this one alone unless it's the last resort. (I'm starting to think it is) :frusty:

Thanks for your help and please let me know if you find anything that works.

Drew

[Janak Parekh]

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&selm=8ec1dc60.0210111103.337edfdf%40posting.google.com
Now I know where you got the idea. :) I suspect this might not work with Courier as it used the "shared" namespace. Thus "Deleted Items" will still not show up as a top level directory.
Yeah, I noticed that too. :cry:

Sounds the most promising but also the most likely to cause problems when upgrading. Since I'm not a programmer, I think I'll leave this one alone unless it's the last resort. (I'm starting to think it is) :frusty:
... unless you use a different IMAP mailserver. There is another Maildir IMAP server out there -- http://dovecot.procontrol.fi/ -- that seems to use the Courier directory name model, but perhaps it doesn't have the INBOX namespace issue and/or is reconfigurable? Once again, I haven't had a chance to check. One of these days, I'll get really irritated by it and develop a solution myself if I have to, but I don't think it'll be anytime soon. If I do, I'll update this thread. ;)

There's also Cyrus too, right? It scared me away, though. 8O

--janak

[imacamper]

... unless you use a different IMAP mailserver.
Maybe I should switch to Exchange? :roll:

There is another Maildir IMAP server out there -- http://dovecot.procontrol.fi/ -- that seems to use the Courier directory name model, but perhaps it doesn't have the INBOX namespace issue and/or is reconfigurable?
From what I've read in the past couple of days, it seems the namespace is used by the most common IMAP servers, thus I suspect the lesser ones use it as well. Apparently it is up to the IMAP client to interpret the namespace and treat it as the root folder. Pocket Outlook does not do this. I have also noticed that Outlook Express doesn't do it either, however there is a place in the options where you can set it manually.

There's also Cyrus too, right? It scared me away, though.
Cyrus uses INBOX and shared just like Courier.

I've joined the Courier users mailing list. I expect I'll lurk a few days and then ask if there's some way to get around this with soft links. Might be a possibility.

Thanks,

Drew

[Janak Parekh]

... unless you use a different IMAP mailserver.
Maybe I should switch to Exchange? :roll:
Of course, Inbox supports Exchange superbly -- even with NTLM authentication.

That said, a standard mbox-style IMAP server (like UW-IMAP) would work fine as well. You'd have to convert away from Maildirs, though.

I'm also hoping that WebIS (www.webis.net) (makers of Pocket Informant) come out with a new version of @mail (a Pocket PC email client) that properly supports prefixes...

--janak

[adk]

Stevenf - I like your solution, but given that I don't have root access so I can't change files in /etc, do you know how to do this on a per user basis?

Cheers,
Kevin

I think you can put the commands

I accept the risk
set mail-subdirectory <subdirectory>

into an ~/.imaprc file, but you might need to get your system administrator to put a line saying

set allow-user-config 1

into the /etc/c-client.cf file to enable the use of .imaprc files.

Has anyone tried this? Does it work? :lol: