Mail merging?

Will_Richo

Green & Growing
I am looking at the best way to do the following. I have 3 machines i use, my G4 Powerbook, a p4 base station, and a Samsung x10. I would like to come up with the best way to use e-mail on all 3 and keep them synconized. I use Entourage and Outlook. I need to have access to all (recent) e-mails sent and recieved. Right now i use the G4 only and have to take it everywhere! I would just rather use this at home and the P4 at the office. I have considered making the P4 a NT server and running Outlook exchange? but i do not know if entourage will work with it? and also if it will syncronise all mail folders in the stems. I use lots of different folders/sub folders to store e-mail. As suggested, i could live with only using 2 of the machines. I also do not want to use Web based e-mail such as gmail. I have my own domain and e-mail address already.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am prepared to purchase an additional Mac for the office if required, but need to keep one p4 for the windoze only apps we use as a Company.

Thanks
 
Will_Richo said:
I would like to come up with the best way to use e-mail on all 3 and keep them synconized. I use Entourage and Outlook. I need to have access to all (recent) e-mails sent and recieved.
The easiest way is to get yourself an IMAP instead of a POP account. That way all the files are saved on the IMAP server, not on your local computer. Then no matter what computer you access the machine from, you will have access to all the email and no "synchronization" is required. One caution, you can use up a lot of disk space on the server with an IMAP account and that is seldom, if ever, a bottomless pit.

If you are looking for a service that supports IMAP, take a look at Apple's .MAC. Their recent increase in disk space and the ability to allocate the use of that space goes a long way toward resolving issues with IMAP disk storage.
 
Or... first check to see if you ISP support IMAP. Mine (speakeasy.net) supports either, just depends on how I use it. I'm a person that rarely even deletes my "deleted" mail so I don't use IMAP even though there are times that I would like to.
 
Or get a Gmail account. I'm not sure whether your mobile phone supports SSL/POP3, but Gmail actually keeps track for you when you're using its POP3 feature. 'bit like IMAP, but through its webmail service. It's nice.
 
perfessor101 said:
The easiest way is to get yourself an IMAP instead of a POP account. That way all the files are saved on the IMAP server, not on your local computer. Then no matter what computer you access the machine from, you will have access to all the email and no "synchronization" is required. One caution, you can use up a lot of disk space on the server with an IMAP account and that is seldom, if ever, a bottomless pit.

If you are looking for a service that supports IMAP, take a look at Apple's .MAC. Their recent increase in disk space and the ability to allocate the use of that space goes a long way toward resolving issues with IMAP disk storage.
Hi, I have sent an e-mail to my ISP to ask that question, i am sure he said the last ime i asked that is was a linux thing? odd? As for the .mac can i use my isp e-mail address, i have had this ofr 5 years and do not wish to change it, it is also part of my Company identity.
 
bobw said:
Take a look at the services here for POP/IMAP;

http://www.macosx.com/services/

Hi Bob. Can i set it up to use my present Company e-mail address? with no-one knowing? i.e an alias or somthing?

Also would it copy my mail folder stem from Entourage the 1st time i use it? or would i have to set up a new stem on the macosx service? Ie is it full imap that updates from any machine i use? I have a quite a big mail set up, so i would probably have to use the unlimited service.
 
btoth said:
Or... first check to see if you ISP support IMAP. Mine (speakeasy.net) supports either, just depends on how I use it. I'm a person that rarely even deletes my "deleted" mail so I don't use IMAP even though there are times that I would like to.

Hi. As per my other replies, i have posed the question to my ISP. We will see. Thanks for the reply
 
fryke said:
Or get a Gmail account. I'm not sure whether your mobile phone supports SSL/POP3, but Gmail actually keeps track for you when you're using its POP3 feature. 'bit like IMAP, but through its webmail service. It's nice.

Hi. As per my thread i do not want to use web based mail. I have a gmail account already i use for personal mail and site registrations etc, in an attempt to keep my business e-mail address spam free.
Also i do not want to change my business E-mail address.
I will continue my search, Thanks for the reply.
 
Hi Bob. Can i set it up to use my present Company e-mail address? with no-one knowing? i.e an alias or somthing?

Also would it copy my mail folder stem from Entourage the 1st time i use it? or would i have to set up a new stem on the macosx service? Ie is it full imap that updates from any machine i use? I have a quite a big mail set up, so i would probably have to use the unlimited service.
You could still use your company email address if you have forwarding on your current email, if your ISP has that feature.

What ISP do you have?

You can use an email client on the machines that would be capable of importing. Entourage is.

Setup the macosx.com account in Entourage on each machine and use IMAP for macosx.com, and if you can forward emails to that account, you're all set. All machines would hae access to the mail.
 
bobw said:
You could still use your company email address if you have forwarding on your current email, if your ISP has that feature.

What ISP do you have?

You can use an email client on the machines that would be capable of importing. Entourage is.

Setup the macosx.com account in Entourage on each machine and use IMAP for macosx.com, and if you can forward emails to that account, you're all set. All machines would hae access to the mail.

Hi. Yes i do know that they can do forwarding.

The ISP i use is an Independant Nottingham one here in the UK. They are fiarly big (on a local scale of things)

I have my Business e-mail set up on all machines at the moment using POP mail in Entourage and Outlook 2004. But alas they are not syncornized. Niether is my address book.

So let me see if i have this right then:

1st i would set up an account with macosx and choose a primary e-mail address.
Then i would ask my(present) ISP to forward all my mail to that new address.
I then log into my macosx with my main machine (g4) and this will copy my e-mail folder stem with all the mail in them? to the imap macosx server
I then set up all machines to log onto the macosx isp to send and receive and set my reply to address as my normal business e-mail address.

When i use another machine (that is set up) to point at the macosx imap server this will syncronize all mail and folders? And each time i do this on any machine that is what will happen?

Have i got it right Bob? :)
 
The first thing I would do is ask your ISP if you can use IMAP. If you can, that would eliminate sync problems. All your machines would have the same mail synced.

If not, you can use a macosx.com account, and have your business mail forwarded to that account. For the macosx.com account, use IMAP. Then setup the email client on each machine with the macosx.com account info, IMAP, and you'll be able to check mail on any machine, and they'll all be in sync, all have the same mail.

Post the name of your ISP, maybe we can see if the support IMAP, which would eliminate your sync problem.
 
bobw said:
The first thing I would do is ask your ISP if you can use IMAP. If you can, that would eliminate sync problems. All your machines would have the same mail synced.

If not, you can use a macosx.com account, and have your business mail forwarded to that account. For the macosx.com account, use IMAP. Then setup the email client on each machine with the macosx.com account info, IMAP, and you'll be able to check mail on any machine, and they'll all be in sync, all have the same mail.

Post the name of your ISP, maybe we can see if the support IMAP, which would eliminate your sync problem.

Hi Bob. http://www.visav.net is the addy of my ISP, (ISP) Mmmm? maybe i have got confused, my E-mail provider is as above. My ISP are two Companies. BT www.bt.com (Broadband) and NTL www.ntl.com (Cable) these are home and office. I use the ISP to get onto the net, then i check may mail from the visavi pop server. Hope this clarifies the situation.

Thanks.
 
I looked at visav.net and can't really see any information about email.

Log into your account and check you email settings. From the page I'm looking at, it would be My email

See if there's any choice for POP or IMAP, or Forwarding.
 
Will_Richo said:
When i use another machine (that is set up) to point at the macosx imap server this will syncronize all mail and folders? And each time i do this on any machine that is what will happen?
Not quite. There is no synchronization involved anywhere when you are using an IMAP email server. All the messages remain permanently on the IMAP server until they are deleted. They are never stored on any of the computers you are using to access the account. When you check your email, using any machine, all that is initially downloaded are the message headers, and those are not permanently stored on your computer either. When you read one of those emails only then, and only then, is the message text temporarily downloaded into a cache file on your computer. When you go on to the next message the cache file that held the first message is deleted from your computer and a new temporary cache created for the new message.

When you are on another computer and access the same account the same series of events takes place. You do not need two accounts. You do not need to forward the messages to another account You do not need to synchronize all the computers you use. However, you will be able to view your email only when you have an active internet connection.
 
perfessor101 said:
Not quite. There is no synchronization involved anywhere when you are using an IMAP email server. All the messages remain permanently on the IMAP server until they are deleted. They are never stored on any of the computers you are using to access the account. When you check your email, using any machine, all that is initially downloaded are the message headers, and those are not permanently stored on your computer either. When you read one of those emails only then, and only then, is the message text temporarily downloaded into a cache file on your computer. When you go on to the next message the cache file that held the first message is deleted from your computer and a new temporary cache created for the new message.

When you are on another computer and access the same account the same series of events takes place. You do not need two accounts. You do not need to forward the messages to another account You do not need to synchronize all the computers you use. However, you will be able to view your email only when you have an active internet connection.

Hi Thanks for the reply. If there is NO sync then how do i get my already collated mail stem and e-mails onto the imap server? Is that possible the 1st time?
 
bobw said:
I looked at visav.net and can't really see any information about email.

Log into your account and check you email settings. From the page I'm looking at, it would be My email

See if there's any choice for POP or IMAP, or Forwarding.

Hi. I have contacted my e-mail provider this AM. Theyt have said they CAN do IMAP but i will have to speak to the MD ref the amount of space i need? (I know the MD personally) so i will speak to him when i see him on Wednesday, But this is something they have not set up before?
Also they have said forwarding is NO problem.

I am concerned about the issue perfessor101 has raised ref Syncing my mail stem. Do you know anymore about this.
 
Update, i have been using Imap for a few weeks now and all is well. I need to somehow get my address book, Calender and tasks on all the machines i use. May have to set up a server of some sort?

Thanks for all the replies!
 
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