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Need Some Advice: Syncing DSL email account with Mac and PC

D

danny_boy

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2005
52
0
Hi,

I got my first MAC this week a Powerbook. My question is I still use my PC a fair bit I was wondering if there is away I can sync my DSL email account with both my MAC and PC? Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated. Ideally I would like to be able to access the same email account on both my PC and MAC. My email account is a POP3 account.

Thanx in advanced

Danny
 
Mac, not MAC... :rolleyes:

As for other, more productive tips: Check out Mac OS X: the Missing Manual and search/browse a bit around here at MacRumors - there's a good chance that every question you might want to ask has already been answered here at the forums more than once... ;)

Congratulations on the choice of a PowerBook. It will probably bring you years of almost entirely trouble-free computing... :)
 
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Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Mac, not MAC... :rolleyes:

As for other, more productive tips: Check out Mac OS X: the Missing Manual and search/browse a bit around here at MacRumors - there's a good chance that every question you might want to ask has already been answered here at the forums more than once... ;)

Congratulations on the choice of a PowerBook. It will probably bring you years of almost entirely trouble-free computing... :)
Click to expand...

Ok, thanx for all your replies. I infact have already bought a Mac book. Its called Mac OS X Tiger (Visual Quickstart Guide) By Maria Langer. Its pretty good book for a new user like me. I don't think I phrased my question correctly. I know I can set up my DSL account on my PowerBook. I just would want to have copies of the email on both my Mac and my PC. Is that possible?

Danny
 
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Peterkro said:
Yes see my reply above you can pull down as many copies as you like from any computer you like.
Click to expand...

Would you be able to explain that more Peterko. It would be really helpful. What options would I set in Outlook Express (PC) and Mail (Mac)?

Danny
 
Hey,

I tried what you said Peterkro. Got my email coming through on my powerbook using the same pop3 email account. Only problem is. I sent and email to my self recieved it on my powerbook then scanned for new mail on my PC and recieved the same email. If I do this process the other way round. I only recieve the mail on my PC and not my powerbook. Has anyone got any outlook express knowledge that could help me? Im searching google now for a soultion.

Cheers

Danny
 
This is based on Outlook, so hopefully it is close. Go back into the account configuration for this account in Outlook Express (I think it's via Tools -> Accounts, and then double-click the account in question). There should be an "Advanced" tab -- go to it, and in the bottom, there should be an option that reads something like "leave a copy of the e-mail on the server," with two more options underneath it (how long to leave mail on the server before deleting, and if mail should be deleted when it is deleted from the deleted items in outlook). Check the first box ("leave a copy....") and check the other two if you desire.

WARNING: If you set all of your computers up to leave the mail on the server, there is a potential problem, in that nothing will ever delete mail from the server. With POP, by default, the copy of the mail on your PC/Mac is not "linked" to the copy on the server -- if you delete the PC copy, it does not delete the server copy. And your account on the server will get full.

To fix this... Where do you want to *keep* mail when it is not on the server? Do you want to keep it on one of the computers, or both, or do you not want to keep mail except on the server?

I know how to do this in Mail.app, so that's the part I will describe: go back into the account (Mail-> Preferences-> Accounts -> your account). Click on the advanced tab in your account. Check the button marked "Remove copy from server...." and then set the option below it to "when moved from inbox."

Now, when you delete an e-mail in your inbox, or move it to a saved messages folder, in Mail.app on your Mac, it will delete it on the server (but merely downloading it into your Mac inbox will *not* delete it, nor will deleting it from the server delete the copy on the Mac).

Either do this and the same thing in Outlook (not exactly sure how without looking at it again) or else don't delete a message from your mail.app mailbox until you're okay with it not appearing on the PC....

PS: I agree...IMAP is much better for this. The only problem with IMAP is that sometimes the "offline" viewing is flaky and will not let you see messages in your inbox even though you've downloaded them, because you are not currently connected. If this is a desktop, then that isn't an issue, cuz you will always be connected.) In IMAP, the inbox stays on the server, and is just displayed on the computers. And when you delete a message from the inbox on any computer, it is therefore deleted on all of them automatically.
 
POP is not ideal for this

danny_boy said:
Hi,

I got my first MAC this week a Powerbook. My question is I still use my PC a fair bit I was wondering if there is away I can sync my DSL email account with both my MAC and PC? Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated. Ideally I would like to be able to access the same email account on both my PC and MAC. My email account is a POP3 account.
Click to expand...

Here's a slightly complicated way:
For POP3, you could configure your mail client application to "Leave messages on server" so that downloading messages would not delete them. In this case, you would have one copy of each message on both computers. Also make sure that the option that says something like "Delete messages from server when I delete them locally" is checked - this would remove the mail from the server whenever you delete it from one of your computers. Beware - this setup assumes that you wouldn't delete a mail before downloading it on both the computers.

The biggest drawback of this approach, apart from storing duplicates on the computers and taking more space, is that the read or unread status of each message, the folders you have etc., would not be in sync between these computers automatically! You may have downloaded and replied to some mails from one machine and then later see all these messages being downloaded on the other one (as new messages).

An easier solution, if you have an external hard disk is:
* setup a FAT32 partition on the hard disk (NTFS is not writeable from the Mac whereas FAT32 would allow access from the PC as well as the Mac)
* download and install a mail client that's available on both platforms - Mozilla Thunderbird is a good app and is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. You can download it from http://www.mozilla.org
* setup Mozilla Thunderbird on the PC and the Mac to store and access all your mails on the external hard disk in the FAT32 partition

The flexibility of the second approach is that you don't have to worry about the "Leave messages on server" and other options I mentioned above. The read or unread status, folders etc., would not be a problem since you have only one copy of each message. You would also not waste disk space on both the computers. The problem with this approach is that you need access to the external hard disk to access mail (this is a fundamental problem with services like POP, as compared to IMAP).
 
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