Trying to download emails onto 2 laptops

bartsimpson

Could someone please tell me if this is possible:

I have 2 laptops, one with Outlook Express, one with Windows Mail.

I have about 3 email addresses that I need to view daily on both laptops.

My problem is, if I press the send/receive button on one laptop, that will download the messages from the server to that laptop, meaning that these emails will not be on the other laptop too, which is what i need to happen.

I'm currently set up with POP3 accounts on both laptops.

Will simply changing the advanced settings on both laptops to 'leave a copy of messages on server' solve this problem and allow the emails to be downloaded to both laptops, or...

do I have to change the accounts to IMAP rather than POP?

Many thanks in advance for any help,

isofa

Yes, changing to "Leave a copy of messages on server" will solve the problem, you could leave them on for 7 days, so as long as you check mail on both systems within a week, they'll both have the same set of messages.

You could change to IMAP (if the accounts support this), and then you can view all the mail live from the ISP server.

My personal preference is the first method, then you have a copy/backup of the mails on two machines.

bartsimpson

Thanks for your helpful reply.

Can I just leave them on the server indefinitely or will this cause problems in the long term?

fwor

I would avoid leaving them on the server. All (sensible) ISPs allocate a maximum amount of disk space that an email account can use. At some stage you will hit that max and any further incoming mail will be non-delivered.

As Isofa suggests, pick a period such as a week or two unless you have good reason to make it longer.

Incidentally, some ISPs let you see how much space each of your email accounts currently use on their servers - it might be worth keeping a check on that initially.

isofa

You could easily set to leave them on for a month without problems too, but I agree with fwor, I wouldn't leave them on indefinitely.

What you could also do is have one machine you always check the mail on second, delete the mail after checking, and the other machine, which you check mail on first, to leave it on the server. However if you check your mail in the wrong order (the other machine won't receive any mail!)

I have a desktop which checks it and always leaves it on the server, then a couple of others, which delete it after a week. That way, if my Outlook goes pear-shaped I can still access at least a weeks worth of e-mail quickly from the servers. I also like to have a backup of my mail on a totally different machine (in this case a different platform via Mac OS X)

Most ISPs have a decent allocation think mine is at least 1Gb of mail, but it can soon get eaten away when you have lots of attachments.

nickbeee

You can do what you require with a free Google email account. :cool:

• Set Gmail up to collect mail via POP3 from your existing mailboxes.
• Set up your two computers to collect mail using IMAP/POP3 from Gmail.

Advantages: You can store up to 6GB on your Gmail account. You can set up Gmail's POP3 so that mesages remain archived on the server. If you move ISP then you still have al your mail, same if your hard drive crashes.

Disadvantages: You get some non-intrusive advertising down the right -hand side of the webmail page. :rolleyes:

HTH ?

Hungerdunger

Another solution, if you don't mind spending some time learning a new program is to use Pegasus. It's freeware and although different from OE is very versatile.

You can do a "Selective download" where the headers for each message are displayed. You can then choose to 1) download the message but leave on the server ready for the second machine; 2) download and delete from the server, if you know this is not a message you need on the second one; 3) delete from the server without downloading - ideal if you recognise that the message is spam. AFAIAW there is no limit for the time you can leave the message on the server.

I believe that Mozilla's Thunderbird program may do something similar, but I haven't really got to grips with it.