Gustav Brock
gustav at cactus.dk
Sat Feb 6 13:10:05 CST 2010
Hi Max
Many things are possible. It all depends on the purpose and features to fulfil or which limitations you wish to eliminate:
1. Be independent of a single mail host
2. Insist on local copy of mail
3. Mail stored in proprietary format or standard format
4. Need additional features like calendar, scheduling, address books, shared folders, mobile access, etc.
5. Web based or client (desktop) access to mail
6. Mail not vanishing if some account is not paid for.
7. Access to mail dependant on your domestic internet access
8. Budget (zero, low, some, business, don't ask)
For example, if you run your own in-house Exchange server, it will:
- cost you a license, hardware, and maintenance cost
- have one web access
- store mail in a proprietary format
- require a dual+ system level backup/restore system and/or a cluster setup
- be non-accessible from the outside if your internet line is down
- be accessible in-house even if your internet line is down
- provide many features not obtainable otherwise
- be able to pull your mail via IMAP or POP3 to another system or mail storage format
- store your mail "eternally" at zero cost if you power the system down
If you expand this setup and regularly and systematically forward all mail to a Goggle Apps account (which holds individual user mail boxes) you will:
- add zero cost to your budget if mail storage per account is less than 7 GB
- use a little bandwidth to upload your mail to Google
- have two different web access options
- be fine with one system level backup/restore system
- have access to your mail from the outside even if your internet line is down
- have search capabilities superior to those offered by Exchange
- store your mail at two locations "eternally" at zero cost if mail storage per account is less than 7 GB
And so on. If you have access to two geographically different locations, your options change dramatically. This if what we have. My home is a secondary location with a full setup of internet access, multiple IP addresses, servers, etc.
/gustav
>>> max.wanadoo at gmail.com 05-02-2010 18:59 >>>
But the 2nd client accessing the 2nd Gmail account could sit on a separate
PC, no?
1. Email arrives in 1st Gmail A/c
2. 1st Gmail A/c forward to 2nd Gmail A/c and leaves copy in Inbox.
3. 1st PC Client On PC1 accesses 1st Gmail A/c and downloads the emails.
4. 2nd PC Client on PC2 accesses 2nd Gmail A/c and downloads the emails.
Possible?
Max
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: 05 February 2010 16:44
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Survey - Preferred Email and NewsGroups client
Hi Max
Not a single pc - that could be replaced quite easily - but a single
harddisk without backup would. Except if you mail are archived somewhere
else, of course, like Live Mail.
/gustav
>>> max.wanadoo at gmail.com 05-02-2010 17:32 >>>
As would a single PC, no?
Max
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: 05 February 2010 16:22
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Survey - Preferred Email and NewsGroups client
Hi Max
Yes, but that would introduce a "Single Point of Failure" if GMail goes down.
Many variations are possible. One determine factor is how paranoid you are.
/gustav
>>> max.wanadoo at gmail.com 05-02-2010 16:08 >>>
Gustav,
Or you could have an amalgamation of your ideas.
1. have gmail send copies to another gmail server.
2. set up another client on the pc.
3. set the other client to download from the second gmail account.
Max
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: 05 February 2010 14:51
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Survey - Preferred Email and NewsGroups client
Hi A.D.
Yes. Two or more remote storages aren't of much use if your line is down. If
that situation is unacceptable, on-site storage must be established.
You can either run your own mail server - it's not that difficult and
several free options are offered:
- hMailServer: http://www.hmailserver.com
- SmarterMail: http://www.smartertools.com/SmarterMail
- Mercury: http://www.pmail.com/overviews/ovw_mercury.htm
all of which can by themselves pull mail via POP and/or IMAP from a remote
server - or you could use a tool like ImapSize to pull all e-mails via IMAP
to a local directory/file structure:
http://www.broobles.com/imapsize/index.php
Further, clients exist that have features for this purpose, some at a (fair)
cost like The Bat:
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/index.php
/gustav
>>> adtp at airtelmail.in 05-02-2010 13:55 >>>
Gustav,
Would it meet the requirement that all back up is physically stored on
my hard disk, retrievable as needed, even if Google were to shut down all
their servers ?
Underlying objective:
==============
Archived messages should be in my absolute physical possession. For
accessing these, there must be no scope for being held hostage to any third
party's resources / performance / status / fate. (Confining our dependence
in this respect to one entity i.e. Microsoft)
Best wishes,
A.D. Tejpal
------------
----- Original Message -----
From: Gustav Brock
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 14:24
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Survey - Preferred Email and NewsGroups client
Hi A.D.
At most mail hosts - at least at GMail - you can set up the account to
forward each and every mail to another e-mail address to suite your demand
for backup. This could be one at a competing provider.
At GMail you can create accounts as you go - every time your archived mail
volume exceeds 7 GB, open another account and redirect the forwarded mail to
this.
For the free web accessed mail services, don't expect everything; there is
a reason why they are free.
/gustav
>>> adtp at airtelmail.in 05-02-2010 09:39 >>>
William,
Thanks for the kind confirmation. One factor that militates against
adoption of third party mail client is that if the owning company happens to
discontinue the product or fails to bring out matching upgrade suiting
future versions of Windows, it can pose a problem in retrieving archived
messages stored under the said application.
Apparently WLM is missing one of the nice features of OE, namely -
hot key navigation. For example, in case of OE, pressing any key in the Copy
or Move dialog box (or directly in the folders pane) takes you to the next
folder where the name starts with the given character.
Best wishes,
A.D. Tejpal