[JoshK]

Got a question for you techies.  I have small home network setup and now have a total of 4 PC's if you include my laptop.  One very annoying thing I found is using email on one PC and then going to the other and not having that email on the other or not remembering which pc it was on. 

If I want to setup my file server so that it downloads the email off my ISP's server and then makes it available to all the other PC's on the network is that a mail server? If not, could you tell me what I need to look into? 

Bonus question....  if there is a way to share web bookmarks across PC's that would be killer.

P.S. all PCs run XP except the newest which runs Vista.

[bpape]

You can simply use an email client that can be configured not to download the email at all but always read from the server - then it's always available.  Even Outlook can be configured to do this I'm 99.9% sure.  You can also use a webmail client that has no choice but to read from the server - which has the benefit of getting email from any web browser anywhere.

Sharing of bookmarks.

Your favorites are in:

Documents and Settings\Owner (or whatever account you use)\Favorites.  If you would have a folder in that directory on each PC that was a shortcut to a folder on a server which had the bookmarks, that would be available from everywhere.  You just have to remember that when you create a new favorite, you have to put it in that folder so it goes to the server.

Bryan

[JohnR]

You may want to look into getting an IMAP email account. All the mail is on the server, and you set up the client on as many computers as you like. Typically a webmail interface is also provided (handy on occasion, for access from work, etc). I like tuffmail.com, excellent spam protection.

Only problem with IMAP is that your own filters live on the client, not the server. I leave my home PC on all the time, so it is usually first to get the mail and sort it into the right boxes. Maybe there's a solution to this now, haven't looked into it lately.

[JohnR]

Only problem with IMAP is that your own filters live on the client, not the server. I leave my home PC on all the time, so it is usually first to get the mail and sort it into the right boxes. Maybe there's a solution to this now, haven't looked into it lately.

Answering my own question... tuffmail seems to have an answer to this, I should try it out

Server Side SIEVE Filters
Sieve is a powerful filtering language that runs on the IMAP server just prior to delivering a message to an IMAP mailbox. The IMP and Squirrelmail clients have a push-button interface for creating Sieve scripts and the Manager has an editor that can be used to edit existing scripts or create new scripts if you are familiar with the Sieve language.

http://www.tuffmail.com/features.php

[JEaton]

You can do what bpape talks about if your ISP's email services offer the IMAP protocol.  Then, instead of using POP, where you download messages to your computer, you keep them on the server.  Make sure your ISP gives you sufficient storage to do this properly or they'll soon be bouncing your email due to a lack of space.

http://www.imap.org/

An alternative (what I've been doing for years) is to configure your POP email client to not immediately delete messages on the server after they've been downloaded, which is the norm.  Then you have a chance to download them onto as many computers as you like.  I use Outlook Express (Outlook is very similar) and under Acccounts > Propertis > Advanced there are options to 'Leave a copy of messages on server'.  Check this.  Then choose one of the two options below.  I generally use something like 15 or 30 days, which makes it certain that I'll have the opportunity to download all email onto both my home PC and my work PC.  If you have more than one email account, you'll need to set up each account like this.

[Red Dragon Audio]

BONUS QUESTION:

http://www.mybookmarks.com/


If you use Firefox there is a cool plug called foxmarks so you can manage your favorites/bookmarks from multiple computers.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2410

[Crimson]

Another way to do it, if you're using Outlook, is to have all computers load their 'Outlook.pst' and 'Contacts.pst' files from a shared folder. You can tell Outlook where to look/store this file in Options. This way, all machines are reading the same file. The only drawback is that only one machine at a time can access these files.

[mgalusha]

I second the recommendation for FoxMarks. The nice thing about this is you don't have to do anything once it's set up, all the PC's keep the same bookmarks, it syncs with the server automatically. Also at www.foxmarks.com

[Spidey9534]

You can simply use an email client that can be configured not to download the email at all but always read from the server - then it's always available.  Even Outlook can be configured to do this I'm 99.9% sure.  You can also use a webmail client that has no choice but to read from the server - which has the benefit of getting email from any web browser anywhere.

+1 on this method; it's the only one I use going on 10 yrs. Depending on what type of operating system you use (Windows being the worst for this) an amazing amount of viruses are sent via emails. Most of them depend on the fact that a person downloads them to their local computer and then opens them running some sort of hidden executable file, trojan horses, etc. I would always recommend using a web client that keeps all emails on the host server, pick your poison here, Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo, Thunderbird etc, etc. An additional benefit is that you can access you emails from anywhere in the world that you can get Internet access, I do it all the time for work and personal use.

The bonus is that you'll never have to try and remember which PC your email is on again.

Cheers,

[JoshK]

Thanks guys.  I should add a couple things though.

1) webmail at work is strictly forbidden and blocked.  So no advantage there.

2) I really don't like the idea of keeping all my email on the ISP for lack of sufficient storage given by my ISP.  I could however use a webmail based solution, that is what my wife does for most of her email.

I do like outlook, because I've gotten used to it and I use a ton of filters for sorting regular mail (email forum type stuff).  However, I am not married to outlook if it can be done otherwise.

I'll look into your suggestions.

[Rasta]

Here's what I do: I have a designated "master" email client/machine that pulls emails off the server.  Any other clients/machines can get the emails, but leaves a copy on the server.  Outlook has a checkbox for this feature in the account configuration.

The only drawback to this is scenario is if your master machine gets the email first, the other clients won't get a chance to see it.  However, this can be fairly easy to work around.

Hope this helps.

[JEaton]

The only drawback to this is scenario is if your master machine gets the email first, the other clients won't get a chance to see it.  However, this can be fairly easy to work around.

There needn't be a "master".  Don't let any of the systems immediately delete the email.  Set it to be deleted X days after downloading.

[JoshK]

I prefer to save emails unless I manually delete them.  I quite often refer back to old emails.

I really want the "master" to d/l the emails off the ISP and serve them to the other PCs. 

[Rasta]

In that case, install an email server on your primary machine.  Take a look at SmarterMail.  It is fairly inexpensive, might be free in some cases, and is easy to configure.

[JEaton]

I prefer to save emails unless I manually delete them.  I quite often refer back to old emails.

I really want the "master" to d/l the emails off the ISP and serve them to the other PCs. 

No,  I mean delete them from the _server_.  There's no reason that all of the PCs can't just download the email for themselves from your ISP's server.  As long as none of them delete the messages after doing so.

[JoshK]

Ah....I get it now.     Kinda slow on the uptake with that one.

[JohnR]

Josh - what did you end up doing?

[Levi]

I hope this is not too late. 

Goto account settings in Outlook or Outlook express.  Select the account and goto more settings.  Select advanced tab. 
Under Delivery, Make sure you check leave a copy of messages on the server. 

See my example below.