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Adoptiv

IMAP & SMTP

The one connection with no consent screen behind it: you type hosts, ports and a password, and the server proves they work before it agrees to keep them. Everything after that is polling, because there is nothing to push.

Wiring a mailbox up by hand

saved
What you type
Emailpriya@northgate.example
Password••••••••••••
IMAP hostimap.fastmail.com
IMAP port993
993 with TLS
SMTP hostsmtp.fastmail.com
SMTP port587
465 reads as implicit TLS
What the server proves before it agrees to keep them
1. Resolve both addressespass
imap.fastmail.com resolves to 103.168.172.45
a routable address, outside every reserved range
2. Sign in, then sign outpass
connect, then logout
signed in and signed out again. The credentials are worth keeping
connection stored, first pull queued
five mailboxes polled
Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Trash and Spam, every five minutes
no push at all
the one connection with nothing to subscribe to
no thread identifier
a message arrives here without a conversation of any kind
two flags out, three in
read and starred are pushed outward; read, starred and draft are read
sent is a place
a message is outbound because of the mailbox it was found in
your copy is filed
the raw message is appended to Sent and marked read, as a desktop client does
A real sign-in and sign-out runs against your incoming server first, and only then is the connection stored. After that it is polling, because there is nothing to push.
0
mailboxes polled on every pass
0
messages per mailbox at the cap
0
server flags read onto the record

Product figures from the platform’s own defaults - not customer averages

The mechanism

How it works.

01

The host is resolved before a socket opens

Both addresses you typed are looked up and refused if they land on loopback, a private range, the link-local block or anything reserved. A settings form is not a port scanner for the network we run in.

02

It signs in before it saves anything

A real login and logout runs against your incoming server first. A rejection comes back naming which thing is wrong, whether that is the password, the address, the port or the encryption setting, instead of a bare failure.

03

Sent is a place here, not a property

There is no marker on a message saying it was sent, so a message is treated as outbound because of which mailbox it was found in. That is why the sent mailbox is polled rather than inferred.

04

Submitting a message does not file your copy

Handing a message to an outgoing server leaves the sender's own sent mailbox empty, so the raw message is appended there afterwards and marked as read, the way any desktop client does it.

Where it sits

Two moments in every message.

Every message passes through the same seven. IMAP & SMTP is the lit ones, and everything either side of it is a different page in this category.

  1. 01
    Connect

    the account it syncs with

  2. 02
    Compose

    writing it, and from what

  3. 03
    Send

    leaving now, or on a schedule

  4. 04
    Arrive

    landing, and what it lands as

  5. 05
    Attach

    pinning it to the right record

  6. 06
    Book

    the meeting that comes of it

  7. 07
    Govern

    who may use what, and see what

The specifics.

8 facts
Setup
A form rather than a consent screen: address, password, both hosts and both ports, seven fields in all. Encryption is not one of them
Defaults
993 with TLS inbound and 587 outbound, both fixed by the form. Port 465 is read as implicit TLS where a server asks for it
Host guard
Loopback, private, link-local, carrier-grade and reserved addresses are all turned away
Cadence
Polled every five minutes. This is the one connection with no push at all
Window
Since the previous run, or ninety days on the first, keeping the newest two thousand per mailbox, and two thousand is a floor on that cap rather than a ceiling. Five mailboxes are walked, so one pass can take a good deal more than two thousand in total
Threading
None. A message arrives here without a conversation identifier of any kind
Write-back
Read and starred are pushed outward, probing the message's own mailbox first and a list of common names after
Bad password
The connection is switched off rather than retried, so nothing keeps hammering your mail server

More in Email & Calendar

12 capabilities

Webmail, four sync providers, tracking, calendar and meetings.

Calendar Sync

Google Calendar writes out the moment you save and mails the invitations, and reads back on demand, so a meeting booked on a call is there before it ends.

Outlook & Microsoft 365

Outlook and Microsoft 365 sync through Graph with delta queries and subscriptions, so large mailboxes stay current without re-reading themselves.

Exchange Sync

A Microsoft mailbox brings its calendar and address book over Graph, on subscriptions that renew themselves, with a ten-minute pass running underneath.

Email Templates

Templates with merge variables, organised into groups and permissioned per team, so the answer your best rep writes becomes the answer everybody sends.

Template Permissions

Grant a whole template folder to particular roles and teams, so regulated copy stays with the people allowed to send it. Filing is the act of sharing here.

Open & Click Tracking

Opens and clicks recorded against the record, with signed link identifiers so the tracking endpoint never trusts a parameter it was handed.

Snooze & Send Later

Put a thread out of sight until it matters and schedule a send for the morning, with the parked thread coming back unread so you cannot walk past it.

Meeting Scheduling

Book from the conversation, with the invitation, the joining link and the record all created together instead of in three separate tabs afterwards.

Zoom

Connect Zoom and a booking creates, moves and cancels the meeting for you, with the joining link and passcode riding inside the calendar invitation.

Google Meet

Pick Google Meet on a booking and the calendar write mints the link with the invitation, so everyone on the account gets it rather than finding it in a note.

Microsoft Teams

Connect Teams and a booking makes the meeting through Microsoft's own interface, carrying its joining address into the invitation the guests receive.

Email-to-Record Matching

Inbound mail attaches to the lead holding any address on it, sender or recipient, matched exactly once lowercased. Two columns, one query, no resemblance.

Email & Calendar

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