Sharing email? (1 Viewer)

[CRyan]

Is there a way to share email over all networked computers? I would like to be able to share all email messages over a three computer home network. I cannot currently figure out how to look at email downloaded to one computer on another computer. So right now I have email on all three PC's depending which one I was on at the time I looked at my email. Any thoughts?

I currently use Outlook, but would be opent to another if it gave me this option.


Thanks,

C. Ryan

 

[Mike LS]

If you're running XP on your computers, just load the email on one machine and use Remote Desktop on the other 2 to connect to the host machine and view or send email.

If it's another OS, there is plenty of remote connection software that will do the same thing. I have used WinVNC and it's just as fast as Remote Desktop when used over a network......and free. You just have to give your host machine a static IP.

The only other way I can think of is setting Outlook to leave a copy of all messages on the server after downloading. That way it's available to any other computer that checks the same account. You'd have to go in and manually clean your inbox though, so that's not really a great way of doing it.

 

[Tony Aguila]

If your mail server supports IMAP then you're in luck. IMAP keeps your mail, text and attachments, on the server, so you can access all that information not just from other stations in your LAN but from any place where you can log in and check mail.

If, however, your server only works as POP3, your only recourse is to set your mail client to keep your original messages on the server, usually for a certain number of days, to avoid filling up your mailbox. Another disadvantage to POP3, even if you set it to keep your messages, is you can't retrieve the same message again on the same machine. You have to do it on another terminal. With IMAP you can retrieve messages and attachments as many times as you wish.

 

[CRyan]

Don't you have to accept a remote desktop session each time you do it? Meaning you have to go to both copmuters each time to get it going.

I will have to check to see if Comcast supports IMAP. I was hoping I could do that locally, but that would work. I just remember IMAP being so slow last time I used it at school years ago.


Thanks for the help.

 

[Mike LS]

Don't you have to accept a remote desktop session each time you do it? Meaning you have to go to both copmuters each time to get it going.

No. You just have to enable the host machine to accept the connections one time. That setting is saved and you can log in from your remote machines at any time. I think you'd just have to remember to log off with one remote before logging in with the other. I don't think you can make 2 simultaneous connections to the same machine.

From the ever-useful Windows help.....

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To set up this computer to use Remote Desktop
Open System in Control Panel.
On the Remote tab, select the Allow users to connect remotely to this computer check box.
Ensure that you have the proper permissions to connect to your computer remotely, and click OK. You must be an administrator or a member of the Remote Desktop Users group on your computer. For more information, see To allow other users to connect to your computer.
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group to enable the Remote Desktop feature.
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