I seem to find quite a bit of information about IMAP to be inconsistent. It also seems that most of the e-mail clients that I have tried, implement IMAP rather crudely (ranging from a few quirks to LOTS of problems).
What I am wondering is: do I need IMAP? My ISP offers both POP3 and IMAP services. For a long time I only used POP3 - that was all I knew outside of using Outlook with an Exchange Server. When I started asking about IMAP and its usefullness, the answers I got varied. I had heard that I *should* access my mail with one or the other - that is, if I am accessing a mailbox from more than one machine, they should all be accessing via POP or all using IMAP - not mixed access. I had also heard that as long as I used POP3 on my main computer, and used IMAP for remote access (laptop, etc.) I would be OK. IIRC, I did some testing with using POP on one computer and IMAP on another, and had some problems with duplicate messages and read flags getting set correctly. Whether these problems were due to the particular mail client (and its implementation of IMAP) or due to the issue of accessing mail via two different protocols, I don't know. What I do know is what I want: 1. I want to have my desktop as my main computer. I want to download, organize and store mail there. 2. I want to be able to access all of my mail from anywhere, and 3. have the ability to reply from my business account even if I'm using dial-up. 4. I would like to be able to occasionally download mail on my laptop for offline reading/processing, while still leaving a copy on the server so when I return to my desk it will can be downloaded there. 5. I would like for this to be simple Obviously #1 shouldn't be a problem. #2 is fine using a web-based mail interface. (Actually, web-based mail seems to be the best handler of IMAP I've seen so far - I use Horde's IMP and it works pretty well.) The problem with web-based access is that I must stay online to go through multiple messages, which can be a big deal sometimes. The positive of using web-based mail for remote access is that I can accomplish #2 and #3 with ease. The negative is not being able to do #4, and also not having a very good address book. I realize that #3 is mostly an ISP issue. I have tried using Mail Dispatcher in The Bat, and this seems like it would work - set to always use Dispatcher on my laptop, downloading/saving mail when needed, leave a copy on the server. I like using Message Dispatcher when travelling. I think I ended up missing some messages when I tried downloading mail at my desk using IMAP - the read flags were causing The Bat to *not* download messages I wanted to download - I realize that's the way IMAP is supposed to work ;) But is there a better way? I tried out Becky e-mail, and that product has an excellent IMAP interface that allows me to read/process messages on the server as well as download mail when needed. (I tried out PocoMail, too, and will post my review of that later.) Becky may be a solution for mobile use, but it lacks some features I want in my main e-mail client - and really, I just want to use one e-mail client. So, back to my first questions... Is it *bad* to access a mailbox using different protocols from different access points? What are the issues that should concern me? Should I use POP3 at my desk/main computer and IMAP everywhere else? What are the pros/cons of that? Oh yeah - one more thing... Because I use a filter on one account that re-directs messages to my cell phone, I keep TB on my desk computer running while I'm gone during the day. So I need the ability to have the desk computer regularly hitting the server, and still be able to access mail away from the desk. Looks like 4 scenarios: POP3 at my desk and IMAP remotely POP3 at my desk and POP3/IMAP remotely (POP3 on laptop, IMAP if without laptop and using web interface) IMAP at my desk and IMAP remotely IMAP at my desk and POP3/IMAP remotely I'm sure I've over-thought this issue to death. Despite IMAP's supposed advantages, I'm completely willing to use POP3 exclusively if it simplifies things and I can do what I want. I realize that this post isn't too Bat-centric, but I finally downloaded and installed the Christmas Edition on my laptop. So far, it looks pretty cool, but posts here indicate IMAP is still very problematic. However, to me (and from what I understand about the IMAP protocol), it seems like TB is on the right track with IMAP. The way IMAP accounts are set up now makes more sense. It *shouldn't* be something as simple as a dropdown selecting POP or IMAP. Anyway, long post, I know. I would really appreciate anyone's comments, help, advice, etc. Thanks. -- Ken Green Using The Bat! v1.62r on Windows 2000 5.0 Build 2195 Service Pack 4 ________________________________________________ Current version is 2.02.3 CE | "Using TBUDL" information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
