Henes, thanks for the clarification. It's also possible that it's a simpler configuration issue with a port or something. I will install all of them and experiment more when I get to it again.

Without perfect IMAP support (SimpleMail claims to have "basic IMAP" supported, need to discover what that actually means) I think in my case (MobileMe server, many clients that need to connect and share everything on one account), the safest bet is to use OWB and the web client now when Fab fixed it.