I've supported networks wiyh shares with SMB support

Would not touch the Mac's though

Talk of me being provided with an iPhone at work led to me saying I wouldn't even switch it on and I would only use an Android phone

I wonder if DropBox would work?

it wont if both machines access the data at the same (or similar) time, it would just keep making files ' (so-and-sos conflicted copy and date)'.

edit: a combination of imap for send/receive and dropbox for archive could work

Edited by ggremlin (Thu 21-Jul-11 21:02:41)

I think you make a mistake to not even consider Macs. It's an interesting OS (as is Linux).

They're all just computers.

Have no issue with Linux (most flavours at least)

Just Macs - not challenging enough for me and far too expensive for something that is as you say just a computer.

I have used them and years ago was offered a job with ICL's Apple support team when I'd never used a Mac in my life and had a surprise technical test at interview for which I had the highest score amongst all candidates

@RobertoS - apologies for hijacking the thread a little

Edited by nredwood (Thu 21-Jul-11 21:16:53)

I use Exchange. It does that, works with Mac too, and iPhones.

I used to use VPOP3 to support several users on multiple machines.
It isn't free, but it will collect/send mail from/to multiple servers, and offer POP3 servers to it's users - this I teamed with Pegasus (Windows only), with all the emails held on a server.
I also toyed with Mercury32 (free, from the same place as Pegasus, but found it's model description didn't immediately coincide with my mental model, so took a while to get working.

Now I and my wife use Pegasus to collect our emails without trying to use a server, as we found she suffered from unexplained delays (probably antivirus programs) when trying to use a server holding all the mail.
HTH

@RobertoS - apologies for hijacking the thread a little

No problem, the whole thread has been most informative.

@ (in order of first contribution) ggremlin; AEP; XRaySpex; nredwood. I read up about IMAP again, and it has developed a fair bit since I looked at it quite a while ago - I hadn't realised that might happen as I thought it was just as old as POP3 and just as fixed.

Allied to the facts that I don't remember which email client I was using when I investigated it, and maybe Purple Cloud server not Tsohost, and if it was Tsohost their implementation may have been upgraded, I was well out of date as to what could be achieved with it. Whatever the reason, maybe even I got hold of the wrong end of a stick, it wasn't suitable when I originally checked it out. I think it was to do with synchronisation, in particular the "Sent" folder.

Anyway I have set up a single IMAP account in Thunderbird on the W7 machine and added one on this machine, and so far things look hunky-dory. In particular the "Sent" folder seems to be reflecting onto both machines as well as the obvious Inbox.

So I shall make sure I don't lose anything and set about re-arranging the accounts and filters I have here, on the Tsohost server. They could do with a bit of rationalisation anyway. Probably start afresh on the server and stick all the existing email in an umbrella folder (say Local Folders) with the existing structure under it, on both machines, for searching purposes, as we use that a lot.

I must admit at the moment to be slightly confused as to whether I am looking at the server Inbox or the local Inbox when online. I'm pretty sure it is the local. The setup I have is downloading the full server contents, folders and messages, which is fine, as I have a network security disk so can periodically delete from the server as I don't have a huge amount of space there. Next experiment, delete something here and see what happens, and delete something on the server and see what happens. Don't tell me .

Thanks again, all the above.

@normcall - I hadn't really considered the network drive I have, which is basically for Acronis backup, but I suppose I could have used that. Possible complications as have been mentioned, and also the fact it's onsite so at risk of disappearing if we have a burglary. It has several times proved very useful in recovering data though. I need to rethink backups!

@BatBoy - nothing against Exchange but so far as I'm aware it's very expensive, and doesn't it require MS email clients, at least on Windows machines? Live Mail doesn't cut the mustard for me and Outlook again costs. I asked about clients a fair while ago and was talked into the excellent Thunderbird after I'd initially rejected it due to complication and a couple of minor niggles.

@dandnsmith - interesting re VPOP3, but I think the IMAP solution suits me, and VPOP3 does cost. Pegasus was one of the clients I considered before choosing Thunderbird. It nearly fitted my wants but TB is closer. Thanks for the suggestions though.

I must admit at the moment to be slightly confused as to whether I am looking at the server Inbox or the local Inbox when online. I

The folders are synced. Changes to one will get echoed in the other. I think you can archive local copies if you want to remove from the server only. Thunderbird has retention policies in that case.

In reply to a post by 12eason:

The folders are synced. Changes to one will get echoed in the other.

Exactly. That's why I'm confused. For example I have just established that when I send from one of my addresses to another, and I let that send a Read Receipt, the Read Receipt shows up almost immediately - but TB is set check for mail every 10 minutes.

So it looks as though I am seeing the server.

I think you can archive local copies if you want to remove from the server only.

Yes, so I gather.

Thunderbird has retention policies in that case.

I will be looking into that and archiving, as I definitely want long-term retention here but to manage the space limitation on the server.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

but TB is set check for mail every 10 minutes.

That's for pop. With imap, the server informs your client of a server side change and it forces an update.