I would like to migrate from POP to IMAP and was hoping that I could find
some advice here.
1. Are there any tools available that can convert archives
(such as MS Outlook files) to an IMAP hierarchy?
POP email usually resided on the computer that checks it (there isn't a
server copy that can be converted.)
The easiest way I found...
- Setup a new IMAP account on the client
- make all of the users folders on the IMAP account
- drag-n-drop the email messages in to the new IMAP account.
At least on Outlook and Express the will be moved in to the new IMAP system,
take about 5-10 minutes to do it at every workstation.
2. How do you generally deal with archives? When your folders
become too large, what do you do? How do you access items
in your archives if you need them later?
My users have a normal inbox and an archive folder, messages over 30 days
are
automatically moved to the archive folder for that month and year using a
simple Perl script.
So the only messages in the users Inbox are just current ones.
3. Is there anything else "cool" that can be done with IMAP, other than
web browsing?
Well you can webmail with a pop account, just not as easy. IMAP is the best
email system for
companies as it centralizes all the email on to the mail server, needing
only one backup system
and is great for when disaster strikes. -- As a local ISP in Florida we are
moving all our users
to IMAP just because of the Hurricanes. When their computer is destroyed all
POP info is gone.
With IMAP they can still login for webmail, and when their new computer
arrives all their
messages repopulate just as they were before (thus built-in backup).
Companies don't have to
worry about 'hard-drive' crashes killing all their stored email on the
scattered workstations.
POP mail is still popular with ISP's as it's cheap, it doesn't cost much in
storage for ISP's to
issue a million POP accounts. With IMAP, and the ISP storing all the data,
we have to invest in
Terabytes of storage capacity every month or so. We are still working on a
system to try and
reduce our storage costs by looking at compressed filesystems and other
types of mailbox storage.
Here is an analogy. (online vs. offline)
POP mail is like a magazine subscription, it is always available to look at,
updates are by getting a new one in the mail, don't burn down your house
tough as its your only form of archiving. Its very hard to get a new set of
magazines starting with #1.
IMAP, being webbased, is always online and centrally available just like
'time.com'. You can check
you messages from anywhere with WWW and install a viewer(outlook/express) on
any computer to use it.
Nothing physical to loose but you have to be connected to use it. So dial-up
users may not like it as much.
Ken Lyons
