I need some help figuring out a solution to an email issue for a client who's not very computer savvy. She uses her office desktop and home laptop about 50 - 50, and also travels quite a bit. So she's accessing mail via outlook express on two different computers, and also using the webmail facility to check email on the road.

What she can't figure out is how come, when she gets a message at home, she can't also read the same message later at the office. Or why, if she sends an email from the webmail faclility, she can't look at that email in the sent folder of outlook express at home. I've tried explaining the situation to her, but it barely seeps in. She doesn't care about why; she wants a way getting what she wants, which is access to all of her email all the time on any computer.

I work on one computer mostly and don't travel too much, so I don't have experience with these issue. I've been thinking about advising her to forget outlook express completely and only use the webmail facility. I could tell her to carry a disk around and export and import her emails as she goes from machine to machine, but she'll never do it. I've also wondered if she should set up a seperate email address for each computer and have a main email address that forwards to both, but I can't figure out how to handle the outgoing issue in that case.

Any suggestions?

Thanks....

Perhaps setting the option in both email applications to leave read messages on the server, so that they can later be accessible at either location?

HTH,
Bryant

Bryant, i've never set my mail to do that - it won't keep downloading the same messages over and over?

Here's a Microsoft article: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011507931033.aspx

Click on the link 2/3 down the page labeled POP3 e-mail accounts for more specific info. Although this applies to specific versions of Outlook, the general principle applies to all versions of Outlook and Outlook Express.

And ... a KB article for ya, specifically for Outlook Express: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q179414/.

HTH,
Bryant

thanks

If she never removes them from the mail server then they will eventually fill up her account and she won't get anymore emails at all. No matter what she does, if she continues with any POP Email client she'll never be able to see messages she wrote on one pc while on the other PC unless you teach her to sync them....yea right...

I wonder if she expects to be able to go to her office P.O. Box and get her home mail

#1) Tell her to get a clue
#2) Suggest web based email to her instead of outlook - that way she can get it anywhere and she can also store written messages on the server as well. She prolly won't like that because she won't have access to all the "neato-keeno" bells and whistles that MS has littered Outlook with. But she'll still need to dump her email every now and then or it'll fill up.
#3) Welcome her to reality

Very good point on the server becoming full of mail at some point. That was in the back of my mind, but when I read about the end user not being technically savvy, I thought that bit of info might just be overload to her

What about if her email system permits IMAP access ... wouldn't that allow connection via Outlook and webmail, giving her access to info wherever and whenever? Available inbox space would, of course, still apply.

Bryant

Well even if it's a standard old POP with a web interface - Outlook can get it as well as the web. Doesn't have to be Imap.
I use web based at work, and actually retrieve my mail at home. But if she can't understand how that works and too lazy to learn, it's a lost cause anyway you slice it. It's just not going to work the way she wants it to.

If she thinks by pushing on the brake pedal, the car should move...it's not going to no matter how hard she pushes...

Is she blonde by any chance?

It's not well advertised, but we DO offer IMAP support on our Premium Email accounts, which are only another $10 per month. Using that, she could use Outlook and webmail interchangably....

Would that solve her problem of wanting 2 locations with all the same files on them without havung to sync them?

IE. Writing a letter at work also would appear in the drafts/sent mail folder at home?

As long as she used an IMAP client (read: Outlook, etc) in both locations, then all emails (including the sent folder) would be accessibly from both locations.

All of that information is stored on the server correct?
Whould she have to purge the server when it got full?

Yes, she'd need to purge the server when it's full, but you can set the server to auto-clean some folders when they hit a certain size (junk mail, sent, deleted items) and the Premium Servers can be increased in space on an as-needed basis. We don't have an official top limit on this, but I've run it out to 500 megs per user before for a small number of users.

Sounds like that's the way she needs to go then...sounds dummyproof...