Mailbox limitations

Before I commit my mail-based app to DH I wonder if other users could tell me their experiences of the following DH mail limitations which could apparently cause loss of service or incoming messages.

Thanks.

a) "The maximum inbox size is 3000 messages." (says the Panel on after trying to set 'Expire read messages...' to 99999)

Is this true?

b) "you will NOT be able to log in even to just delete mail if you reach your quota!" (says the Panel).

Again, is this true?

c) "Expire read messages when inbox reaches [] messages" (on the Panel) has no checkbox to disable.

Is there really no way to disable expiry?

> a) "The maximum inbox size is 3000 messages."

Probably true for The Inbox, but not true for other boxes you can creat, and to which messages can be moved for storage. One of mine has over 6,600 messages in it, and I can still use email.

On a practical note, that box took a couple/few minutes to display in webmail, so it's not a good practice...

BobS

In reply to:
a) "The maximum inbox size is 3000 messages." (says the Panel on after trying to set 'Expire read messages...' to 99999)

Is this true?

Yeah. It's because (basically) every time you log in to check your mail, the POP/IMAP daemon's gotta look at every message in your inbox. When you get a couple thousand, that's asking a lot of the server, especially if you're checking for new mail every few minutes.

Archiving messages to a folder isn't a big inconvenience and keeps the mail servers chugging along much better.

In reply to:
b) "you will NOT be able to log in even to just delete mail if you reach your quota!" (says the Panel).

Yeah, although we give away a ton of disk space, email you when you're running out, and will help you if you do exceed your quota. You won't be stuck forever or anything.

In reply to:
c) "Expire read messages when inbox reaches [] messages" (on the Panel) has no checkbox to

Yeah, for the reasons I gave in the answer to #1!

nate.

>> In reply to:a) "The maximum inbox size is 3000 messages."
>> Is this true?
> Yeah.

That's a serious limitation. I've seen nothing like it on other hosts.

> every time you log in to check your mail, the POP/IMAP
> daemon's gotta look at every message in your inbox.

Not at all. The the POP protocol (RFC1939) specifically provides otherwise.

> Archiving messages to a folder isn't a big inconvenience

But not at all guaranteed to avoid this limit! ;)

>> b) "you will NOT be able to log in even to just delete mail if
>> you reach your quota!" (says the Panel).
>
> Yeah, although we ... email you when you're running out,

No good for an automatic process such as my app, sadly.

>> c) "Expire read messages when inbox reaches [] messages"
>> (on the Panel) has no checkbox to
> Yeah

I'm finding this really hard to believe. No disrespect and thanks for the info, but is there anyone here from Support who can confirm this?

Well, Nate is DH's Development Team Leader...
- marsbar

The UIDL POP3 command is used to tell one message apart from the other, and if that command is used, each message file has to be read and the Message-Id extracted.

Quoted from the RFC 1939:

Consequently, it is recommended that operators of large-scale multi-
   user servers, especially ones in which the user's only access to the
   maildrop is via POP3, consider such options as:

   *  Imposing a per-user maildrop storage quota or the like.

   *  Enforce a site policy regarding mail retention on the server.

In the section 8, "Scaling and Operational Considerations"

cool Perl / MySQL / HTML+CSS

> each message file has to be read and the Message-Id
> extracted.

Not if cached. ;)

> Consequently, it is recommended that operators
> * Imposing a per-user maildrop storage quota or the like.

No problem there.

> * Enforce a site policy regarding mail retention on the server.

Nor there, provided it goes with

"Server operators enforcing message deletion policies should
take care to make all users aware of the policies in force."

Any idea where the DH policy statement might be found? (Not one creating a mailbox, or on searcing the kbase here.)

> Any idea where the DH policy statement might be found? (Not one creating a mailbox, or on searcing the kbase here.)

I have also never heard of this 3000-message limitation and I maintain a web page about "IMAP Service Providers," which includes tons of info about Dreamhost. Please update the DH KB so it includes this info so I can link to it on my web page.

Thank you,

Nancy
Infinite Ink ~ http://www.ii.com
Deflexion & Reflexion ~ http://deflexion.com

Aha! I saw "Regular User" and didn;t check his details.