> Jim Cheetham wrote: > >> Roger Searle wrote: >> >>> [plucking up sufficient courage to post...] Is it possible to set >>> something like that up with a standard pop.paradise account on a >>> machine that needs to be able to dual boot? Similar in a way (but >>> more versatile) to what I can currently do with Mozilla. I would >>> love to be able to get my email in Mozilla when I need to be running >>> XP, but also be able to use Evolution in Linux. (I'm still only able >>> to run Lunux about 50% of the time at the moment.) >> >> >> POP isn't very good at "leaving email on the server" scenarios - you >> can easily get confused between "new mail" and "mail previously seen >> but not deleted". >> >> In general, I don't use an ISP-provided mailbox for anything except >> talking to the ISP itself ... >> >> If you want to experiment with IMAP mail (which is the "correct" way >> to do what you want) take a look a http://imap.cc - FastMail, a >> freebie service that will at the very least let you play, and at the >> best will be your "hotmail" replacement. >> >> > Guest >> > 10 MB storage space >> > 40 MB bw/month >> > IMAP/Web access >> > 45 day no activity period >> > Taglines on emails >> > FREE >> >> (I have no connection with them, just found the service to be "exactly >> as advertised") >> >> -jim >> >> > POP3 is fine at this leave email on the server concept. However, it is > really cr*p when there are a lot of emails waiting for you to read... > because historically all of your mails are waiting in a single file for > you to read. This is great for the os ( well, *nix especially, which > becomes really slow when there are loads of files in a directory ), but > not for your email reader application.
That paragraph is total crap. The pop3 protocol has nothing to do with how mail is stored, either at the server end, or on the client once it is downloaded. Different pop3 servers store mail in different ways. Its true that traditional unix mailstores (mbox) are single files and can become difficult with large mailboxes. However many pop servers (including two open source ones, cyrus and courier) use a one message per file. courier use the maildir format, cyrus its own format. Once the mail is downloaded, it is stored depending on the downloading program. The real problem here IMHO is that different client programs use different mail storage formats, ie you cannot just point evolution at a folder of mail downloaded and stored by mozilla or vice versa. > > So, if you manage the emails sensibly, it is perfectly ok to use a pop3 > server to manage them. *especially when your isp does it for you!* At > the moment, this is what I'm doing with ihug, 'cept the gf keeps > downloading everything and clearing it down ): > > Because if your ISP offers an IMAP service, then it's up to him to look > after all of your emails, whereas with a pop3 service, the default is to > download it all. Passing the onus on an isp to look after your email is > a massive task if you are of any size. I built one platform for > freeserve uk, and looked after a part of their client base. But that > part was larger than the number of Kiwis on this planet, and took 3 > dedicated servers and 8 DLT drives ( with a silo of 400 tapes at > $100 > each! ) just to keep it backed up! > > I'm in the process of building up an IMAP mailer for myself so I can get > my email ( and, even more important, separate it from my girlfriends > email! ) wherever I am, courtesy of ADSL, dedicated software, and ihug > getting their act together at last. I'm looking seriously at the courier > package. Has anyone used it? We use sendmail/procmail/squirrelmail at > work, but I would like to get away from pop3 if poss. I enjoy the > challenge, sad git that I am. courier is great, does pop3 and imap, altho pop is turned off on my server. isp->fetchmail over pop3->postfix->procmail->maildir->courier->client via imap > > As I intimated earlier, I reckon this is one question where you > seriously look at what your isp offers, before you go through the > learning curve of building up your own replacement. It's handy knowing > how to build all this when you're in dispute with your ISP and they stop > your email feed, thinking it'll bring you to your knees, but then > British Telecom knew about as much as Xtra do (: > > $0.02 > > Steve >
