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<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Early this year, there were several reports of email being
lost when attempting to move large numbers (e.g., 1000) of messages in
AppleMail from one folder to another. Since that time, Information
Services and Technology (IS&T) has worked closely with Apple and others to
make sure the issue was identified and fixed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>It was determined that all email clients had problems --
subtle transient problems, difficult to reproduce or understand -- because of
the encryption protocol (SSL) for IMAP connections on servers. AppleMail
however was shown to repeatedly lose mail. The lost email appears to have
been caused by an unexpected interaction between AppleMail and IS&T’s
servers when handling the encryption protocol (SSL) for IMAP connections which
resulted in tickling/exercising an IMAP protocol handling bug in the AppleMail
client. While waiting for the server to respond when moving messages from
one folder to another, the AppleMail client would time out. The AppleMail
client incorrectly assumed that the transfer was successful and would then
delete the original messages instead of checking (which is what it should have
done, and is what other IMAP clients do) whether the last operation had
succeeded or not. To avoid future issues of this nature, IS&T changed
the security encryption protocol on the servers from sslwrap to stunnel.
IS&T has replaced sslwrap with stunnel on the IMAP servers. Problems
previously observed on all supported email clients are no longer reproducible
and it is expected all new users of Apple Mail will have trouble free
operation. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>However, existing AppleMail users with very large
folders (more than 3500 messages) and complex email archives (more than 100
folders and 2 or 3 deep nested sub-folders) should consider performing a
rebuild (use the "Rebuild" command under the "Mailbox"
menu) on the large folders before moving more than 3500 messages in a single
command.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>IS&T is also testing the Leopard version of AppleMail to
verify that IMAP was used with this version.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>We continue to monitor all our email clients regularly and
hope that if you encounter any other issues or have further questions, you will
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>contact the helpdesk @ 3-1101</span></b> or
by email at <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>computing-help@mit.edu.</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Don<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>-- <br>
</span></font><strong><b><font size=1 face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Don Montabana</span></font></b></strong><font size=1
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
Director, Client Support Services<br>
Information Services and Technology<br>
Office: (617) 253-5654<br>
</span></font><a href="mailto:donm@mit.edu"><font size=1 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial'>donm@mit.edu</span></font></a><font
size=1 face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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