5.3.4 Dropping Idle Connections

To reclaim system resources used by connections from unresponsive clients, the IMAP4, POP3, and HTTP protocols permit the server to unilaterally drop connections that have been idle for a certain amount of time.

The respective protocol specifications require the server to keep an idle connection open for a minimum amount of time. The default times are 10 minutes for POP, 30 minutes for IMAP, 3 minutes for HTTP. You can increase the idle times beyond the default values, but you cannot make them less.

If a POP or IMAP connection is dropped, the user must reauthenticate to establish a new connection. In contrast, if an HTTP connection is dropped, the user need not reauthenticate because the HTTP session remains open. For more information about HTTP session security, see 23.2 About HTTP Security.

Idle POP connections are usually caused by some problem (such as a crash or hang) that makes the client unresponsive. Idle IMAP connections, on the other hand, are a normal occurrence. To keep IMAP users from being disconnected unilaterally, IMAP clients typically send a command to the IMAP server at some regular interval that is less than 30 minutes.