Email On Both the Desktop and the Laptop? 69
RapterOfParadox asks: "I recently purchased a new laptop and have everything configured except for my e-mail. I've always liked having a single location where I know my e-mail is safe, secure and gets backed up automatically. If I've needed access to new messages then I use webmail, since I close down the email client when I leave the house. I'm currently using Outlook XP for my desktop and was thinking about using the same for my laptop. My only issue is that I'm a little weary about using only my laptop for storing e-mail, since it's a lot more likely to fail. I've been thinking about just synchronizing my Outlook data directories at login, or even using IMAP. Has anyone seen/bought/built an e-mail client that will allow me to have my main e-mail client on my desktop and then update my laptop e-mail client when ever I'm in range, or through a personal IMAP Server?"
Just use IMAP (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2)
Agreed. Just run IMAP on the server, leave all your mail on the server, and make sure the server gets backed up.
That's what I do with my personal e-mail, but what if the poster doesn't have control of the mail server? If your e-mail comes through an ISP and they don't offer IMAP, or you don't trust them to keep your e-mail (and for whatever reason can't change ISPs), then there might a reason to want to do this.
One nice solution would be to run an IMAP server on the desktop machine, and use fetchmail [catb.org]
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2)
> poster doesn't have control of the mail server?
Roll your own. My pentium 233 is waaay overpowered as a mailserver/fileserver.
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2)
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2)
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2)
Please tell me about that fetchnotes thingamajig, that might int
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2)
Please tell me about that fetchnotes thingamajig, that might interest me.
It's just like fetchmail, except that it pulls mail from a Notes server via the Notes protocol. Then, of course, it delivers the mail to an SMTP server. I have a cron job that runs every minute and tests to see if I currently have access to the IBM network (by pinging an internal IP address) and if so runs fetchnotes, which delivers the e-mail to a postfix instance running on my laptop, which drops them in a Maildir in my home dir
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2, Interesting)
All the other hackish suggestions offer
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:2)
I'm sorry but I have to disagree with that comment that most webmail servers use IMAP as a backend.
Only a few of them do. It's much more difficult to create an IMAP based webmail application than it is to create a file based one. One of the biggest difficulties that I've run into so far is managing performance to it stays sane. There are a lot of things that IMAP servers do that filesystems don't and similarly a lot things that you have to account for in IMAP that you just don't have to worry about with
Re:Just use IMAP (Score:3, Informative)
I have the reverse problem! (Score:3, Interesting)
With every new laptop purchase I transfer my mailboxes and data from Eudora to the new one. No problem there. My problem comes when I want to check e-mail across these two machines- Eudora obviously supports it, but I do not have IMAP available for my e-mail serve
Re: (Score:2)
Gmail and pop (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Gmail and pop (Score:2)
I pop my mail to my desktop (download it there and back it up).
I use a web based client on my laptop or while out of the office.
I used to also pop but leave messages on the server from desktop at home and laptop. That works ok, but web clients are now pretty good.
If you want all your mail with you, rsync your nsmail directory to your laptop.
Re:Gmail and pop (Score:2, Insightful)
Simple but effective solution (Score:2)
Here's a trivial way to do it -
Create a script that you call to open OE. The script first makes a directory that includes a time/datestamp, then copies the contents of your mail identity directory to that folder. Then it opens OE just like usual.
Simple and effe
Wow, how over complicated. (Score:1, Insightful)
What's next on ask slashdot? "I want to transfer web pages over an encrypted connection!"
Replies: Setup a cgi wrapper script to encrypt all traffic over `openssl`. Setup another daemon to manage public key exchange, and then w
Well, what do you expect (Score:1, Insightful)
Outlook not so good (Score:2)
Not simple, just uninformed. A lot of things can corrupt those *.dbx files, enven something as simple as letting one of them grow above 2GB - and then someone with a clue has to spend a lot of time recovering your mail.
Almost every other email program in existance uses a portable mail format - use one of those and not just the free add-on that came with MS Windows or the more complicated free add-on that came with MS Office.
IMAP Webmail (Score:5, Informative)
I use it from my latop / desktop / web browser / Nokia 6600
etc. etc.
Re:IMAP Webmail (Score:2)
I then have all my e-mail delivered to this computer. It may sound like more work than it's worth but I have all
Re:IMAP Webmail (Score:1)
I don't see the point of 10 years of email, personally.
A quota means I have to clear out.
Web browser is no less rich, all you need is a tree control and a text area.
Re:IMAP Webmail (Score:2)
OTOH, don't trust FM too much. Two weeks ago their main server (the big expensive one that housed most of their 'enhanced' clients) and it took them TH
one of the many solutions (Score:3, Informative)
Ditto. (Score:2)
Leave messages on server? (Score:1)
Leave SENT on server too (Score:2)
Gmail/POP/IMAP (Score:2, Interesting)
Ummm (Score:1)
Imap is the way to go (Score:5, Informative)
Here's the recipe:
use fetchmail to get your mail from all the mail accounts you might have,
use spamassassin to check your mail for spam,
use clamav to check for virusses (if you are on Windows, like you are),
use procmail to filter the mail to seperate folders,
set up imap so you can read the mail from any mailclient without removing it from the server,
install some kind of webmail so you can reach your mail from internet-kiosks and other places with browser-only access.
Finally, BACK IT UP! Bacula is quite good.
Re:Imap is the way to go (Score:1)
Now if only I could convince the higher-ups at work that IMAP is the way to go. I think with the viruses floating around this week I might have some leverage.
Re:Imap is the way to go (Score:2)
Fetchmail for the dozens of remote/old accounts I have
Spamassassin as the milter
No clamav, since I don't have any windoze machines that look at email
Procmail to sort all the mailing lists, client email from personal, etc.
Dovecot as the IMAP server. The alpha code was quite broken until recently, but they've started to fix the worst bugs and SSL support works again. External access is only IMAPS with preshared keys on my laptop and a couple of work machines. Internally
Re:Imap is the way to go (Score:1)
fecthmail -> cyrus IMAP, backed up by bacula.
I used Sieve for filtering though, and my email had already passed through spamassassin before the fetchmail stage.
Now I've changed the setup a bit, since I've moved my mail server to my dedicated hosting machine, and run the MTA myself -
I use postfix + spamassassin + amavis, which deliver to Cyrus IMAPd, filtering is done via Sieve again, and I use Squirrelmail for web access, which has an excellen
Laptop and Home Computer (Score:1)
Cached Exchange mode & Google (Score:2)
My desktop is the "home base" for all of my email, but I connect my laptop daily to sync my exchange mailbox. Then when I'm on the road my mailbox is cached on the laptop.
I have a 500MB email quota, and backup older stuff to PST files on my desktop. Google Desktop makes that easy by storing a cache of the emails in its index.
Remote Desktop (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Remote Desktop (Score:1)
Re:Remote Desktop (Score:1)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb
even using IMAP? (Score:2)
Simplisity (Score:1)
USB thumb drive (Score:1)
Maybe I'm still stuck in the 56K mindset (avoid using bandwidth at all costs) though.
Re:USB thumb drive (Score:3, Insightful)
Now that's a clever idea.
Better encrypt it, though, since those things get lost easy.
Server options (Score:2)
Delete after [ x ] days.
IMAP (Score:2)
I prefer to just use IMAP and access it on the server. But if you really want to have it on the laptop without a net connection, look up the "cp" command under Unix. Yep, just copy the mail files to the laptop. Assumes you have control of the server, but that is a given in the question, so go to it!
Rocket Science! (Score:2)
Re:Rocket Science! (Score:2)
Ever hear of IMAP? (Score:2)
I configured my laptop to check the mail but ... (Score:1)
The only problem I could see with this scheme is organizing sent mail. I rarely use the home machine for anything other than file server and backup tasks so this isnt a problem for me.
Re:I configured my laptop to check the mail but .. (Score:2)
Tell both machines to leave copies, and delete after two days. That way, both get everything, but the mailbox doesn't clog up.
You stated your own solution (Score:1)
IMAP (Score:2)
I've been running IMAP for years and just finished writing my own variant of a webmail server in Perl. Just couldn't find what I wanted in PHP and this runs really fast.
But IMAP works great. This isn't new. It's overdue.
Configure Outlook to leave messages on the server. (Score:1)
Obligatory off-topic spelling flame ;-) (Score:3, Funny)
Note that, in accordance with a long tradition of posts pointing out spelling errors, this post has not been previewed in the hope that it will then contain at least one spelling error.
--
I know what you're thinking, but I am not a nut-bag. -- Millroy the Magician
buy an SBS box (Score:2)
outlook web access, remote desktop, outlook over http.. leave it at home, get it anywhere!
(remote desktop alone works wonders as well-- no purchase beyond XP pro on home machine necassary)
Imap + Vpn (Score:2)
If you use windows, Mercury32 works great. If you use *nix, there are TONS of options.
Laptops don't have to be more likely to fail (Score:1, Offtopic)
Assuming it survives the infant mortality period (first 30 days or so) there is going to be a single point of failure : hard drive. Granted the CPU fan could fail and smoke your CPU, but that is about as likely on a laptop as on a desktop - but I'm concentrating on the 'more likely' aspects.
So your laptop is going to last until the hard drive fails. Want the laptop to last longer, figure out why
gmail?? (Score:1)
Options (Score:2)
POP3 clients that can "leave mail on server".
Something like gmail (if you trust them to keep your mail safe and never disappear)
A service like GoToMyPC.
There's about a million ways to do what you're looking to do. It's almost too easy.
Courier-IMAP, offlineimap, squirrelmail (Score:1)