Subject: Setting up a captive mailbox

From: "James Wilde" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 14:00:11 +0100

Hope someone can help with this.  Have not been able to find the right search parameters in my searching of the archives.

We want to change our customers from one modempool number to another.  To achieve this, we want to send them to a captive server if they use the old modem number, from which they can only escape by changing the modem number they ring - or rather having our little program on the captive server do it for them.

For webmail customers this is already fixed.  It is our pop and imap customers with which I have a problem.  My question is how do I configure a uw-imap server to direct all attempted logins, whether by pop or imap, to the same mailbox which delivers one message to the person, a message which he/she cannot erase in the mailbox (so that others can receive it).  If the accepted solution requires one mailbox for pop and one for imap, that's okay.

If there is an easier solution using something other than uw-imap, feel free to suggest it.

TIA

mvh/regards

James
 
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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 08:18:36 -0800 (PST)

On Mon, 3 Nov 2003, James Wilde wrote:
> We want to change our customers from one modempool number to another.
> To achieve this, we want to send them to a captive server if they use
> the old modem number, from which they can only escape by changing the
> modem number they ring - or rather having our little program on the
> captive server do it for them.

How do you determine this?  Presumably, each modem pool uses a different
block of IP addresses on the terminal server?

> For webmail customers this is already fixed.  It is our pop and imap
> customers with which I have a problem.  My question is how do I
> configure a uw-imap server to direct all attempted logins, whether by
> pop or imap, to the same mailbox which delivers one message to the
> person, a message which he/she cannot erase in the mailbox (so that
> others can receive it).

Probably the easiest thing is to hack log_???.c to do the test for the
modem pool, and if it is then log the user in under a different user that
has the readonly mailbox.

-- Mark --

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

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From: Michael Cashwell <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 11:49:26 -0500

On Nov 3, 2003, at 8:00 AM, James Wilde wrote:

> Hope someone can help with this.  Have not been able to find the right 
> search parameters in my searching of the archives.
>
> others can receive it).  If the accepted solution requires one mailbox 
> for pop and one for imap, that's okay.
>

You should consider that this is likely to irritate many IMAP users. 
IMAP clients often cache the content of mailboxes. If the view of the 
users' account suddenly removes all their messages (both in the inbox 
and all folders) these clients are going to slavishly toss all of the 
cached email. That will then mean a lengthy resync once they change 
their settings and dial back in. It wouldn't impact POP users since an 
empty inbox (save for you single notice message) does not remove or 
invalidate email a user already has locally.

At the very least, this approach should be arranged to be a final 
catch-all method of notifying users. Then, only IMAP users who ignore 
the earlier notices would be impacted. I would consider this as an 
initial or primary means by which I learn of the dial-in changes to be 
highly annoying and heavy-handed due to the side effects. A brief, 
administrative email sent a few weeks before throwing the switch would 
suffice, at least for me.

Best regards,
-Mike