IMAP, large emails and slow connection

[Paul M]

Longman wrote:
> Is using IMAP over a 2 MBit circuit a viable option if some of the
> emails are 20MB in size (due to ridiculous Excel attachments) or will
> there be some client side caching which means the email only need be
> downloaded the first time it's opened?

can't you set client to download headers only, and/or not download
attachments, and/or limit the size downloaded for each message?