imap mail storage

By now I am quite sure I do not get the point of imap.
Ok, having the same synchron mailboxes at several computers is really nice
and the reason I think about switching from pop3 to imap in the first
place. But I still have questions:

My mail provider claims the right to delete mails if older than a certain
age. With a imap-accout that would mean to loose them, wouldn't it?
So I'd like to have a setup like having the mails of the last month or so in
an imap-account and saving them my local computer after that period. That
way I could use have last month's mails available from my laptop and still
store older ones at home. That should be sufficient. Is such a setup
possible (using kmail on both systems) and how is this meant to work?
Or do I misunderstand some things of imap?

Thanks
Lewin

Re: imap mail storage

On Fri, 9 Nov 2007, Lewin Boehnke wrote:
> My mail provider claims the right to delete mails if older than a certain
> age. With a imap-accout that would mean to loose them, wouldn't it?

Yes it does. If your mail provider has such a policy, then they probably
should not offer an IMAP server. Such a policy directly conflicts with
the entire point of offering IMAP.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Re: imap mail storage

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Lewin Boehnke writes:

> My mail provider claims the right to delete mails if older than a certain
> age. With a imap-accout that would mean to loose them, wouldn't it?

Sure.

> So I'd like to have a setup like having the mails of the last month or so in
> an imap-account and saving them my local computer after that period. That
> way I could use have last month's mails available from my laptop and still
> store older ones at home. That should be sufficient. Is such a setup
> possible

I don't see any reasons why not.

> (using kmail on both systems) and how is this meant to work?

Not with Kmail, though. I don't believe Kmail has this ability. This is more
of a function of your mail software, not IMAP. Your mail software must have
the ability to automatically transfer messages from one mailbox to another,
based on your specified criteria.

> Or do I misunderstand some things of imap?

Well, just a bit. IMAP provides certain means and certains capabilities to
mail software by which it may answer messages in a central mail repository.
That's all it does. Any kind of system-specific policies regarding mail
retention is really outside the scope of IMAP.

Having said that, you might want to consider the possibility of dumping your
current mail provider and move to Gmail, which offers IMAP access now.



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Re: imap mail storage

Sam wrote:

> Lewin Boehnke writes:
>
>> My mail provider claims the right to delete mails if older than a certain
>> age. With a imap-accout that would mean to loose them, wouldn't it?
>
> Sure.
>
>> So I'd like to have a setup like having the mails of the last month or so
>> in an imap-account and saving them my local computer after that period.
>> That way I could use have last month's mails available from my laptop and
>> still store older ones at home. That should be sufficient. Is such a
>> setup possible
>
> I don't see any reasons why not.
>
>> (using kmail on both systems) and how is this meant to work?
>
> Not with Kmail, though. I don't believe Kmail has this ability. This is
> more of a function of your mail software, not IMAP. Your mail software
> must have the ability to automatically transfer messages from one mailbox
> to another, based on your specified criteria.
>
>> Or do I misunderstand some things of imap?
>
> Well, just a bit. IMAP provides certain means and certains capabilities to
> mail software by which it may answer messages in a central mail
> repository. That's all it does. Any kind of system-specific policies
> regarding mail retention is really outside the scope of IMAP.
>
> Having said that, you might want to consider the possibility of dumping
> your current mail provider and move to Gmail, which offers IMAP access
> now.

My provider claims the right to remove mails older than 60 days. I don't
think they would.
It is just like with gmail: "8.3 Google reserves the right (but shall have
no obligation) to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, modify, refuse or
remove any or all Content from any Service.".
You can 'nearly' be sure that they will not just delete your mail, but my
mail is too important to me for only store it on a server and not have
local copy.

Is kmails "Disconnected imap" an alternative in this case?

Thanks very much
Lewin

Re: imap mail storage

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Lewin Boehnke writes:

> Sam wrote:
>
>> Having said that, you might want to consider the possibility of dumping
>> your current mail provider and move to Gmail, which offers IMAP access
>> now.
>
> My provider claims the right to remove mails older than 60 days. I don't
> think they would.

It's their servers. They are free to do whatever they wish to them.

> It is just like with gmail: "8.3 Google reserves the right (but shall have
> no obligation) to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, modify, refuse or
> remove any or all Content from any Service.".
> You can 'nearly' be sure that they will not just delete your mail, but my
> mail is too important to me for only store it on a server and not have
> local copy.

In that case, you should purchase some hardware and run your own mail
server, have a diligent backup schedule, and make arrangement for offsite
storage of your backup tapes. After all, your mail is very important.

> Is kmails "Disconnected imap" an alternative in this case?

Don't know, but probably not. "Disconnected IMAP" usually means something
else.


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