freeztar Posted March 10, 2009 Report Posted March 10, 2009 I am trying to do the following. Three computers are running Outlook and I'd like for them to all have access to one email address. It needs to be such that if a message is read and deleted on one Outlook, it is deleted on the server and updated on the other Outlooks. This needs to happen even if all 3 users are accessing the email account at the same time. The email address is one that came with the hosting package. There's no MS Exchange. All computers are running XP with Outlook 2007. I've considered sharing the PST file with all computers via windows networking, but I've read that it is not a good idea and can cause serious issues (corruption). Any ideas on how to do this? I'm not opposed to paying a little bit for some software that will enable this, but I'd prefer a free, built-in method. Quote
Jimoin Posted March 10, 2009 Report Posted March 10, 2009 What you need is IMAP (since it's not an exchange hosted service). IMAP retains the read/item information on the server, clients just "look" at it. If your hosted service does not run IMAP you are probably going to struggle doing what you want with Outlook. You can't have 1 PST open by more than 1 Outlook. If your host won't do IMAP you could run your own mail server (as in download mail from your host to a mail server on your network that does). I dunno what to recommend tho - maybe ArgoSoft. Gmail does IMAP btw - so do a lot of hosting companies. Quote
Buffy Posted March 11, 2009 Report Posted March 11, 2009 IMAP is the best way to do what you're asking for, but there's an alternative: In outlook you can set the account to "Leave messages on the server" and specify a length of time that they're left there. I use this in a couple of scenarios: At work we have some shared accounts like "support" which many people read and send/reply from. Everyone is set up with the account, and the account is set up to leave the messages for 2 weeks, which for all practical purposes means everyone gets every message, and anyone can respond. This works well, but it doesn't satisfy your requirement for "delete in one place and all others delete" if that's what you want. The second thing I do is that I usually run my email on my large, unmoveable main system, but frequently travel with my laptop. In this case, since I'm always running one or the other, I'm running a sync between the two systems. This turns out to be great for backup (always a mail installation that has everything on it), but it presents some interesting synchronization problems. I use a program called SynchPst, which is not bad for this, but there are others out there. In the case of that support account though, it means every time I switch, I need to delete 2 weeks worth of support e-mails! Sending them to their own folder with rules makes this relatively painless though... I am at two with nature, :)Buffy Quote
alexander Posted March 11, 2009 Report Posted March 11, 2009 Yes, IMAP's the way to go, also most of the time when you are turning on IMAP, the setting that Buffy is talking about can often be on the server, in your account (that way it is the only way everyone can operate). ofcourse i still advise an actual email solution (does not have to be exchange), where you can have individual accounts, where you can completely back it up, and you can simply create a distribution list for the people you want to get this email, that way no one person can accidentally delete anything and it deletes it for everyone... Quote
freeztar Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Posted March 11, 2009 Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll look into IMAP some more. An important note is that 3-4 computers running local Outlooks must be able to concurrently process emails from one email address. Outgoing email is not an issue, only incoming. The 3-4 computer users do not need to be privy to every email. It's only important that every user have up to date access to the one email account at all times. When one user deletes an email, it will be shown deleted on all other Outlooks accessing that account. I found exchange hosting for pretty cheap: https://www.dnamail.com/Services/Exchange/Packages.aspx Still looking... Quote
alexander Posted March 12, 2009 Report Posted March 12, 2009 you could use gmail corporate email service... its like 25 gigs/mail box, with postini filtering (best in the world), full management, you know, comes with top of the line backing up service, and great tech support. ( Google Apps for business ) Also since its gmail, you can use any mobile device to check email, and you always have web access at home (something to consider) Honestly if we didn't have email public folders (the most utterly stupid concept in email, and even microsoft in their next version will NOT support them anymore), we would have gone with google mail hosting probably :) (btw we use postini for filtering here) As i said, with the tools you get, you can setup that email address as a distribution list, and then forward those emails to however many internal addresses, and you stand a LOT less risk of "accidentally" loosing all the emails, if someone gets pissed off deletes them and then deletes the recovery versions ;) ... Quote
freeztar Posted March 12, 2009 Author Report Posted March 12, 2009 The gmail corporate email service looks good, but its important that the main email address remain the same. I'm doing this for a client and all his business comes through one email address at [email protected]. I don't have access to his server at hisbusiness.com but I'm sure that it has email forwarding in which case the emails could be forwarded to a gmail account. That way all the emails will be stored permanently at hisbusiness.com as backups and the gmail account could be accessible to all through individual outlooks. One problem with this though. At least on my outlook (linked to regular gmail account), if I delete something in Outlook, it does not delete it in gmail. I've made sure that the box "Leave a copy of the message on the server" is unchecked. This may just be a limitation of the free gmail account, or it could be something stupid I'm missing in Outlook? Quote
alexander Posted March 12, 2009 Report Posted March 12, 2009 they take care of all of that, you set your mx record to point to postini servers, which will forward to google, to the user, your email sends and receives from whateverurlyouwant.com, but it's actually not hitting your network :) Quote
alexander Posted March 12, 2009 Report Posted March 12, 2009 mx record for your domain that is... example: lsi.com MX preference = 40, mail exchanger = lsil.com.mail12.psmtp.comlsi.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = lsil.com.mail9.psmtp.comlsi.com MX preference = 20, mail exchanger = lsil.com.mail10.psmtp.comlsi.com MX preference = 30, mail exchanger = lsil.com.mail11.psmtp.com you can see that the mx record points emails going to @lsi.com to mail servers at postini (psmtp.com) in postini it is set to forward to the internal lsi mail servers (and you cant reach them directly most of the time, so nobody can bypass the filtering) Quote
freeztar Posted March 12, 2009 Author Report Posted March 12, 2009 Nice! That's definitely an added bonus. I am going to look into it some more. Edit: Alex, do you know off the top of your head if outlook will delete files on the gmail server? As I said, it doesn't with my free account and Outlook. Quote
alexander Posted March 12, 2009 Report Posted March 12, 2009 yes it does, you HAVE to set it up with IMAP, and you have to allow it in your settings Quote
alexander Posted March 12, 2009 Report Posted March 12, 2009 go into gmail settings and under pop/imap setting enable imap (disable pop, very insecure). On your computer then, follow Outlook 2007 - Gmail Help when you read or delete email in outlook, it will be reflected in gmail (granted everything works right) Quote
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