Blackberry Users and IMAP-IDLE concurrent connections???

Our customers using Blackberry's has suffered over the last few days and couldn't figure out why.

After a little research I am finding threads like the one pasted below which talks about a change BlackBerry has made in which the mail servers (our DA server) needs to support IMAP-IDLE or IMAP concurrent connections. I guess this allows a persistent connections to Blackberry's servers for faster delivery of emails to customer's blackberry devices.

Two questions:

1- How do we get this setup on a DA machine
2- Is this a smart thing to do?
3- Will each customer/blackberry account maintain a persistent connection?
4- So could there potentially be hundreds or thousands of persistent connections to their server left open all the time, one for each blackberry user?

Maybe I just don't get it so that's why I am asking for help on this..

I am a Blackberry user and I can tell you that my Blackberry not getting emails like normal is a HUGE problem for me and I am sure for our other customers. Specifically I use Tmobile..

Thanks!

http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-blackberry-discussion/87283-bis-servers-visiting-my-imap-server-infrequently.html

Have you switched to Dovecot or are you still using the original POP and IMAP servers?

If you're using Dovecot, then you should read this, from the /etc/dovecot-example.conf file which should be installed on your server:

# Should each login be processed in it's own process (yes), or should one
# login process be allowed to process multiple connections (no)? Yes is more
# secure, espcially with SSL/TLS enabled. No is faster since there's no need
# to create processes all the time.
#login_process_per_connection = yes

Click to expand...

It's up to you to decide whether or not to turn it on.

Or contact Blackberry (through your provider) to switch you back to the old protocol; Use the link in WholesaleDialup's post to see how to do that.

Jeff

jlasman said:

Have you switched to Dovecot or are you still using the original POP and IMAP servers?

Jeff

Click to expand...

Nope, just using whatever comes with DA.

I have noticed that it's all working sweet with our other mail server (NON DA). We are not getting emails from the other mail server to our Blackberry devices in a minute or so vs the old 15 minutes. It's great except that all accounts on DA don't really work at all now in regards to Blackberry and this is a total Poo...

How can we tweak the default DA mailer to work with the new Blackberry settings?

Thanks for your input Jeff.

I forgot to mention that I am using the latest/greatest version of DA.. So whatever mailer comes with it is what I am using.

New DirectAdmin installs still use the old system, but at some point in the future DirectAdmin will eventually move to Dovecot as the default install.

You can follow instructions found in these forums to switch to Dovecot, and you'll find a lot of advantages. Including greater speed in mail browsing using IMAP, and also the ability to switch to using multiple connections.

We switched some time ago.

Jeff

Hello,

As Jeff mentioned, the default pop/imapd clients that come with DA at the moment will eventually be phased out, being replaced with dovecot.

As for the latest and greatest, dovecot would be it, but is not yet included by default. Updating DA will not install it.
Guide: http://www.directadmin.com/features.php?id=590

As for changing the current imapd compile settings, that likely wont happen because having an imap server that disconnects after each email check is contradictory to the whole point of imap. Persistant connections are faster as there is no overhead to connect each time, plus the server can instantly notify the client process of a new email... which the Blackberry's don't seem to be doing.. (which is odd).. either the protocols are not syncing, or something isn't right. In any case, dovecot would probably be your solution.

John

Thanks guys, can you tell me how risky it is to upgrade a production system to Dovecoat?

I guess it's just against my nature to tear out and replace the mailer on a production system.

If the method is pretty fool proof and folks haven't run into a lot of trouble then I may give it a go.

OK, well I upgraded and Dovecoat is running.

Question, should Exim still be running also?

I still show:

exim exim (pid 23719 10065 10276 10277 10571 10573 )

Thanks..

I just sent a message to Gmail from my DA system, looking at the headers it looks like Exim is still handling the mail..

Hmmm, I guess I should shut it down?

Wait, I think I get it..

Dovecoat does not replace Exim, just the older POP and IMAP servers right?

So, Dovecoat and Exim live happily together I am guessing.

Sorry, I really have no clue what Dovecoat was and I thought it was an entire replacement of the mailer.

Right Dovecot isn't a replacement of Exim, it's a replacement of old da_vm-pop3d package