Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Optimizations for low-bandwidth IMAP?

[Stroller]

On 7 Jul 2009, at 11:05, Grant wrote:

>> I need to optimize web browsing for a slow cell phone data
>> connection.
>> I'd like to browse faster and use less data ($).  I've installed
>> ImgLikeOpera for Firefox which is great at selectively blocking
>> images, and I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do?
>>
>> - Grant
>
> Can anyone offer advice for IMAP?  I'm using Thunderbird and it's slow
> and data-heavy.

I believe that the nature of IMAP is to be fairly network intensive.

When I use my laptop for mail, it usually takes some time to sync  
messages that have appeared in the last couple of days since I last  
did so (on my laptop). Typically contents of the inbox appear within a  
minute or two, but I would guess that clicking on any of my mailing  
list folders may cause a delay of several minutes.

It's not the raw number of minutes that's the problem, but how the  
mail client just tends to feel sluggish unless you leave it alone for  
a few minutes to sync up with the IMAP server. One _knows_ there are  
new messages there, one knows that there should be messages in the  
gentoo-users folder newer than 4 days old, but they don't appear when  
you click on it.

In my case I'm always on broadband when I use my laptop away from  
home, my mailserver is at my house, and the bandwidth bottleneck is  
the upstream of my home ADSL line at 288k. I would dread to think what  
it would be like at dial-up speeds (i.e. slow cell phone data  
connection), although to be fair my mobile does ok syncing inboxes  
only. The solution with that, too, is to leave the phone alone,  
downloading for some minutes, and then come back to it when it's  
finished.

I use Mail.app on a Mac as my mail client, but I can't imagine  
Thunderbird to be much worse.

Stroller.