Access imap sever from gmail through a proxy

Question

In gmail one can read email from different sources as long as the source provide a pop3 access. My university only allow imap access to email.

I'm thinking about having a proxy that act as an imap client on one side and provide a pop3 access on the other.

Another solution might be to use a third party web mail which can access imap and provide pop3 access.

Anybody knows an existing proxy I could run myself or a third party email service I could use as a proxy ?

+-------------------+
| University mail   |
|     server        |
+-------------------+
    provide imap
         ||
         \/
         ??  <----- Proxy, third party webmail, other idea ?
         /\
         ||
    connect to pop
+---------------------+
| Gmail web interface |
+---------------------+

Any other idea on how that could be done ?

Answer 1

I used to have one on my debian box, but I can't find what it was called (now my imap server also has a pop server). If you want to build one from scratch in 20 minutes for three bananas start with:

apt-get install fetchmail pop-server
man fetchmail

then configure a mail server (probably exim which just got installed as a default), and which ever pop-server just got installed (I didn't check) and setup fetchmail, and there you go. as easy as a moon shot.

Answer 2

You don't actually need to convert between the two standards, GMail supports both POP3 and IMAP:

To Enable IMAP in your Gmail settings

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click the gear in the top right.
3. Select Settings.
4. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
5. Select Enable IMAP.
6. Click Save Changes.

Answer 3

You can't use the gmail.com web interface to connect to your universities IMAP mail server. Gmail permits INCOMMING IMAP and POP connections, your university perhaps only allows incoming IMAP connections only, however this does not mean you can repurpose the gmail.com website to connect to anything other than gmail.com's web/mail servers. Your best bet is to use a gmail android app and attempt a MITM method which may be possible since the gmail app interface most likely operates primarily on your mobile device. With the HTTP version of the gmail web interface, a lot of that code is server side which makes it not possible to accomplish what you are talking about. The truth is even the gmail app certainly has proprietary routines which will only work with a gmail mail server and the usefulness of doing this at all is slim to none unless you have some very specific reason. Besides, you can just forward all your university mail to a gmail account or explore a google apps option offered by your university if they already have or could be convinced of that.