Managing Mail Between a Desktop and a Laptop? 134
dotancohen asks: "I'll soon be getting a new Dell laptop that'll be running Fedora Core 5 or 6. I need to access the email stored on my home box from the laptop, and also to read new email sent to me while I'm not home (and the home box is shut down). If I run an IMAP server at home, then I can't read the mail when the home box is down. However, if I pull from the POP3 server (and leave the mail on the server) then I won't be able to sort and file the mail while on the go. I currently use Kmail, but I might switch to Eudora in April/March when it becomes available for Linux. Is there anyway to sync the mail accounts between two Linux boxen, assuming that I'm using the same mail client?"
Try unison (Score:5, Interesting)
--dave
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Also it turned
GMail...? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:GMail...? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean...by definition by today's standards a server is on 24/7. Just leave your IMAP server on, have it receive all your email, and you can then connect from any computer you'd like, and get your email...
Another option....install something like squirrelmail....and then your email server at home has a webmail interface to it...and you don't have to worry about a 3rd party keeping/reading/indexing your emails that it is storing for you.
But, really..this is easy..leave your email server ON.
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The simplest solution would probably be just to use a webmail service on both machines, perhaps in concert with a POP interface to back up the messages from time to time, so that he wouldn't be totally at the mercy of the webmail provider for archiving and storage. Alternately, a mail provider that offers IMAP access directly to its servers could be selected -- it's not like these are really that har
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"Why the hell do you insist on turning your email SERVER off?"
So let's assume that the author has the same problem that I have, which is that your workplace IT dept restricts your ability to connect to POP3 or IMAP services within their network.
I setup IMAP at home and use SquirrelMail w/ an SSL plug-in thingie... while I'm at home w/ the desktop or laptop I use a mail client to connect to IMAP... while I'm at work (or anywhere else) I use Squirrel... either way I end up working w/ the same email account/folders/etc...
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Somebody in your school's IT group needs a cluebat.
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The answer! (Score:4, Funny)
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TDz.
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1 box, 2 boxes?
wtf?
(these are honest questions, english is a foreign language to me)
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"Boxen" is a slang term for multiple computers. It isn't proper english, but it is readily understood by most geeks. It's a joke of sorts; an individual computer is known in slang as "a box", and oxen pull a cart, while multiple computers perform processing tasks. Sound-alike jokes like this are common in anime, which many programmers tend to enjoy.
Anyway, that's what's going on. Usually the only
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=yvGtkodKltU [youtube.com]
Moosen! I saw a flock of moosen in the woods! In the woodsen! In the woodsenes!
(OT) Re:The answer! (Score:2)
English is an amalgam of other languages, so grammar doesn't necessarily follow hard-fast rules, as I am sure you are aware. I suspect the reason the words don't pluralize the same way (even though they end with the same sound) is probably due to the respective root words coming from different parent languages.
This link [factmonster.com] gives a quick lowdown on English plurals. It seems that the -en plural for ox originates in Old English. Child -> children is another example. Then you have something
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It's that there's been centuries worth of language snobs who refuse to believe that English is English and try to shoehorn Latin and Greek rules on to it.
There's no reason why we should try to use Greek or Latin pluralisation rules on loanwords from those languages, and ordinary people that don't know those languages (quite justifiably) use the rules they're familiar with to adapt them.
But then
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that being said, using that same kind of application (boxen) went out of geek 'vogue' quite a few years ago. of course there are many who would say that using it in the first place was a badness, but the term originated with actual IT people, and not script kiddies, FWIW.
you're not missing much by not knowing all this nonsense
I use keep two copies (Score:4, Interesting)
My SMTP mail server is running on a VPS. I send incoming mail to an account on that machine, and use a
It's not a perfect solution -- if I send an email from gmail, it doesn't show up in the sent folder on my main machine. But it's very easy to set up, and I can get at gmail from anywhere.
I think it would be better to use an IMAP server, to roll my own webmail solution that talks to the IMAP server, and to make it possible for the laptop to talk to the IMAP server. But the amount of work that would take deters me. My solution was easy to set up, even if its flawed.
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I got a 30 bucks a month DDS with 80 gigs of space. Combined with IMAP and SMTP i can keep all my mail synced with the various, laptops/desktops/smartphones that i have.
also, if you are an avid IM/IRC user you can use it as a bouncer. check out this Killer setup i used as an example for mine.
http://nafai77.livejournal.com/39649.html#cutid1 [livejournal.com]
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Just get an IMAP account on a server (Score:2, Interesting)
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Disconnected IMAP... (Score:5, Informative)
Alternatively Thunderbird certainly supports cache'ing a copy of messages for working offline but I'm not sure if it supports the kind of resyncing that you're looking for.
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Jeez, this is the dumbest "Ask Slashdot" in ages. What next?
"I need a way to send someone a message instantly, rather than having it go into their e-mail inbox, is there some tool that will do it?"
"I need to compare two source code files, is there a program that will highlight the differences?"
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Kind of a Dodge, But... (Score:1)
It's probably not the coolest or most direct solution, but my whole family is enjoying a vanity domain from Domain Direct, which allows for adding IMAP-capable mailboxes to the hosting account for $0.75/month. They are spam filtered by a pretty good little off-site service, as an added bonus.
I'm not particularly promoting their service over that of another company, but my experience with Domain Direct has been generally positive.
USB to the rescue! (Score:5, Interesting)
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However, I know that Flash memory has a limited lifespan and I'm a little worried about how long I can count on it. I keep Outlook open all day every day, so i
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Mostly flash doesnt get damaged really from being under power but idle, disks do.
On the other side, put a page file on a flash device and see how quickly you can destroy it..
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which isn't anywhere near the approx 5 years a decent 'enterprice' disk lasts under very heavy load.
Not to mention that changing a few bytes in a sector still results in rewriting the entire sector (in both cases), so with the given bandwidth, you can end up with a lot more writes then you assume.
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Make that 8GB into the same size as the 'enterprice' disk and you will find that it is better. Currently 146GB FC drives are very common, which is more than 18x 8GB, so 1.3 years * 18 is 23 years. Just to be fair, lets up the sustained write rate to 40MB/s which gets you to 11.5 years. Still way more than 5 years. Now, lets step up to the flash that gets 1M writes instead of 100K writes, now we are at 115
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Not to mention that a 140G flash drive costs quite a bit more then a high-end 140G scsi disk, so it is an extremely expensive route to go even if it would do what you claim.
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Why do you ask an unanswerable question? You tell me all the relevant specs on the specific model and the actual usage, and I'll tell you your answer. Chances are that in telling me the specs on that model, you'll find the answer yourself. You should also include what your definition of "consstantly" is - consistently, constantly? - either way, what e
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You see, it is nice what is theoretically possible, but as long as that is not what is typically available then the argument remains a theoretical one with no value for practical p
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that's 474 days of constant writing it can handle.
which isn't anywhere near the approx 5 years a decent 'enterprice' disk lasts under very heavy load.
I was being generous by producing a lower limit of lifetime by assuming constant write operations. In real life, the step from 474 days of constant writing to 5 years of IRL use is very small, and as my sibling noted, this is just 8GB. Also, due to no moving parts, i would guess the failure of flash devices would be much more predictable than failures with regular drives.
Of course there are other advantages of flash, such as no seek time, and much better parallel access for much higher bandwidth.
If yo
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I have been
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It's all about the actual specs of the parts in use. If you don't buy the right product for the job, you can't expect it to do the job. Maybe you've been buying cheap knock-offs -- stuff without wear-leveling, or with only 10K rewrites or some other deficiency. No way I can diagnose your problems without the actual specs of the actual parts and the
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Well, I am not asking you to diagnose my problem, was more pointing at something that we found, and that if you search goo
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Pine + SSH (Score:5, Insightful)
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Seriously, the solution you propose is a very nice one, but note that the submitter said he can't use IMAP running on his desktop machine, because it will be inaccessible when switched off. Pine + SSH suffers from the same problem.
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That statement is a bit misleading. Sure, when there's no power, the software doesn't work, but it doesn't need to; the submitter asked about being able to synchronize between two computers, which doesn't require both, or even either, computers to be on all the time. It only requires both to be on at the time of synchronization.
Lots of ways (Score:4, Insightful)
Use IMAP server that is online. Like at your ISP if you can't provide aviability yourself.
2. Poor mans IMAP.
Use POP with few accounts and aliases. This also requires the server to be aviable.
Make one account name it - main@account.tld - make it forward all incoming email to other two (or N) accounts like: desktop@account.tld, laptop@account.tld... Make your desktop client use the desktop account and laptop use the laptop account. Make your both (or N clients) do BCC to your main@account.tld for any sent meassage.
Voila - done, you have the same messages (incoming and outgoing) on both (or N) POP accounts. You just need to download them to clients.
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Err... (Score:2)
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The questor could just get an old P2 box for spare change, put Linux on it, and use that as a mail server. Or have both computers sync to it (assuming he has a setup that allows him to access it remotely, or doesn't mind remembering to check his email on his laptop before leaving).
Simple answer is in the question - IMAP. (Score:4, Informative)
You even answered it yourself, except decided it is of no use as it would be unavailable when your home connection goes down.
So.. get a cheap hosting/email account with IMAP capabilities, so that it's accessible over the net. Every mail client setup to use the IMAP account will see the same folders/inbox, and it'll work from anywhere. If you're paranoid about having your data in someone else's hands, download it to an archive locally with fetchmail or similar.
Just use IMAP (Score:2)
I've run a setup like this for years and it works out great.
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Maybe most practical solution? (Score:3, Insightful)
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I certainly wish my ISP or one of my mail services would offer IMAP, but I don't see how that's ever going to happen. Bastards...
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2) As opposed to your ISP(s)?
3) Get anything you want elsewhere and setup forwarding. Also - I heard - GMail now can work with remote POP mailboxes.
4) I use Opera. It's as secure as it can be probably.
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I myself can barely program "hello world" so I don't know exactly what happened, but it atleast is clear to me that the attack of recently was done from the clients end thru the browser (they all reported their browsers going nuts for a while, taking up 100% resources etc).
This could probably be prevented by a good virusscanner and firewall, perhaps by using a rou
Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
How do I manage mail between a laptop and a desktop? I bought my own domain and pay for budget hosting. They provide IMAP mail servers. I used to check everything with Thunderbird using IMAP, and then when I wasn't at my computer with Thunderbird, I could log into the webmail interface and everything would be there.
Now, I actually have everything forwarded to my gmail account. Yes, I went to the dark side, but gmail's web interface and spam control can't be beat. And now I don't have to maintain a local Thunderbird install or anything else. All of my email can be checked and worked with remotely from anywhere. It really isn't that hard!
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gmail spamfiltering (Score:1)
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This wouldn't be particularly odd, except I have rarely given out my gmail.com address, certainly far, far less than other addresses with I have forward to GMail. Perhaps the popularit
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the easiest solution. (Score:1)
I ran into this (Score:1)
OT: Sig (Score:2)
Because you're a child!
4 ideas to consider (Score:3, Informative)
2. I use IMAP for myself. In this case, I host my own on my server, and it does not get turned off. I have IMAP access from any IMAP client as well as a web mail client. My pda phone even uses IMAP to get messages. Any changes I make from my phone, IMAP client at work or home, or web mail all show up on the other clients thanks to the shared IMAP folder. [If you are going to store thousands and thousands of messages, make sure you use a high-performing IMAP server.]
3. Use a mail client that uses a maildir and not an mbox or other db type of storage file. Then, you can use rsync back and forth between your primary and secondary machines. Indexes (for sorting) might need to be updated after each sync however. I would say this would probably be the least efficient and most prone to problems.
4. Send all your mail to gmail, access it from them with POP (see #1), except don't delete anything using the POP clients. Periodically log into your gmail account and either archive or delete everything that is read.
Two Answers (Score:3, Informative)
The second answer that comes to mind is: store your messages in directories, with one file per message (e.g. MH, Maildir, or mailfiles format), then use some sync program (e.g. rsync, or some specialized tool, like isync) to sync between the two machines. I've done this for some time; it works as long as you're careful that filenames assigned to messages are unique (they aren't always for MH) and one message has only one filename (Maildir renames files when certain flags are set on the message).
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Huh? What are you talking about? How can they not be unique? You can't have two files with the same name in the same directory (under Unix, at least), and MH stores one message per file.
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No, that's not a requirement. On reflection, though, I think he means unique across machines, so that you can sync two machines that may have received mail independently without overwriting mail on the destination machine, and on that score, he's right. MH does have that problem (which merely means you need to use a bit of application specific knowledge in your sync utility, rather than just being able to naively use rsync). Does Maildir give you globall
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iirc, they are based on message id; if so, yes.
Well, here are 3 tools to look at... (Score:5, Informative)
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1 IMAP Account, 2 identities (one gets forwarded in and filed with sieve rules).
2 PGP Keys; not using subkeys, home and work.
Ability to access email from my personal server on the internet, or my laptop when disconnected.
Works with OS X contacts so I can use the missing sync to keep my phone's addy book up to date.
ssh -X? (Score:2)
Why not just run the client from work with ssh -X? Shell into your gateway, then shell into your mail machine and run the client you usually do. I use Kontact and it works well, given an adequate network. There is some lag, but it's not much worse than the lag experienced at home.
KMail already has what you want (Score:3, Interesting)
flash drive (Score:2)
However, if you really want to always have a perfect sync, consider putting the mail folders on a flash drive and using that every time you check your email. That adds some security too, since if the data is not present, i
Same Situation (Score:2)
unison (Score:2)
unison is the best thing since sliced bread. keep your mailboxes in Maildir/ format and just unison between the machines periodically. since unison is symmetric, you can pull your mail down from either your laptop or your desktop and it will propegate to the other one on the next sync.
shut down? (Score:2)
In case you're thinking that you have a particularly repressive ISP...
My ISP blocks ports 80 and 25 - particularly irritating, if you ask me. My ISPs TOS, if read to the letter, would mean that multiple browser windows or tabbed browsing are inappropriate because it's more than one session over the broadband pipe.
I ag
One word ... (Score:2)
Not really a sync, but... (Score:2)
1) Everything of 'true' importance stays on the webmail (like school meetings, etc.)
2) All the stuff that is of less importance (LiveJournal, Facebook, and *gasp* even Slashdot) gets sorted with the filters and pulled from the webmail to sit on the client. Yes, it means that mail is now on a specific machine, but because it's of less importance, you're not missing anything (and it's probably also saner).
It's either this or gmail, but it suit
Ultimate home server linux mail setup (Score:2)
But I've wondered for a while about how to set up the ultimate email system and came across the following combination of software running under Debian:
* Exim MTA
* Procmail (for storing mail in Maildir format and sorting mailing lists)
* SpamAssassin
* Courier IMAPd (for allowing IMAP access from multiple email clients)
* fetchmail
* fetchyahoo (pull stuff from my yahoo product/spam account)
This configuration
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That doesn't seem very well thought out to me.
Maybe not
Boring solution (Score:2)
Xen, IMAP-SSL, AUTH+TLS (Score:2)
Get a virtual host that you can run 24x7 and put your IMAP server on that. Add in AUTH and TLS and you can send from it as well. And it won't care if you are on a desktop, notebook, or crackberry.
My solution: bought a Mac Mini (Score:2)
Until recently, I had a Linux server for this specific purpose. However, after years of relatively trouble-free service, the hardware was getting old to the point where keeping it running was becoming more troublesome than buying something else.
So I bought a Mac Mini for several reasons:
1. It is very silent
2. It uses only 20-25W (!
IMAP (Score:2)
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Outlook 2003+ in offline caching mode against an exchagne server - and voila, done. No problem, nothing to set up, nothing to configure. It just works. nd that does not only include email, it includes calendar, heck, even the processing rules or anti spam settings of the clients are copied.
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Gratulations, you managed to insult someone for being a foreigner AND having a problem with written langague all in one sentence.
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what would be nice is if Apple either offered a stand alone version of
I don't want a total backup solution as I have an external firewire drive. All I want is a way to keep my mail, and address book in sync.