IMAP account used for multiple users

[Jason Voorhees]

Hi all:

A simple question:
Is there any kind of problem if a unique IMAP account is used by more
than one client at the same time?
I'm thinking to give access to all my users (up to 90 users) trough MS
Outlook to a unique IMAP account.

I don't plan to use suscribed folders instead for simplicity reasons.

Thanks, bytes!

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Re: IMAP account used for multiple users

[Joseph Brennan]

--On Monday, October 13, 2008 12:58 -0500 Jason Voorhees 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Hi all:

 A simple question:
 Is there any kind of problem if a unique IMAP account is used by more
 than one client at the same time?
 I'm thinking to give access to all my users (up to 90 users) trough MS
 Outlook to a unique IMAP account.



I hope you mean that they would each log in with their own account,
and share the same folder.  That should work.

If not, various problems might arise.  Off the top of my head:

-- Anybody could delete and expunge, or, nobody can.

-- They can't keep track of what messages each person has seen.

-- Somebody might POP the mailbox and remove everything.



Joseph Brennan
Columbia University Information Technology




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Re: IMAP account used for multiple users

[Jorey Bump]

Jason Voorhees wrote, at 10/13/2008 01:58 PM:

 A simple question:
 Is there any kind of problem if a unique IMAP account is used by more
 than one client at the same time?

It can be done...

 I'm thinking to give access to all my users (up to 90 users) trough MS
 Outlook to a unique IMAP account.

...but not with Outlook.

I should be fair, and state that any special features of any client can
cause problems, along with the issues that simply come from everyone
playing in the same sandbox. For example, all it takes is one user to
set aggressive (or use poorly trained) junk filtering to wreak a bit of
havoc for everyone. Nonetheless, Cyrus does allow concurrent read/write
access, which is handy for users that access webmail while leaving
desktop clients running.

The extra burden with Outlook comes from its monolothic approach that
allows email to trigger a variety of events. When I evaluated sharing an
account with Outlook 2007, it didn't seem wise due to the ease with
which another user can affect your todo list, calendar, and god knows
what else. Outlook is really a personal organizer, and should be kept
personal, IMHO.

 I don't plan to use suscribed folders instead for simplicity reasons.

A broadcast alias or mailing list is often better. Or go with a
full-blown issue tracker, if that's what you're really trying to do.



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