I know this is (and always was) off topic, but since there seems to be
interest, perhaps I should summarize what I have learned in a capstone
note:
Sam Held suggests using IMAP rather than POP mail, which genuinely uses the
mail server as the mail repository, so that there are no synchronization
issues. Potential downsides:
* possibly limited availability (although it turns out my server supports
both, if that's any indication of the norm)
* uncertain security (according to I forget who)
* since messages are downloaded as you read them, connectivity must be
maintained throughout the session. This could be an annoyance if you want
to limit the time a modem is tying up a phone line.
(IMAP is totally unrelated to MAPI, which is another thing related to
email.)
For POP mail accessed from several sites, synchronization is a problem.
Many folks seem to like Eudora's capability to delete messages on the
server a specified number of days after you first access them, allowing
each message to be downloaded to several access sites. Thus messages
downloaded but not read at site A can later be downloaded to site B.
Potential downsides:
* If you are less than regular in your email habits, trying to specify an
expiration time seems to invite trouble the next time you fail to check
things that frequently. No messages are lost, but synchronization may be.
* Messages downloaded, read, and deleted at site A will reappear later at
site B, and must be deleted again.
* Messages downloaded but not read at site A, then downloaded, read and
deleted at site B, are still there at A and must be deleted again.
Eudora also has an option to delete messages on the server when they are
removed from the local trash folder. No one mentioned using this, and I
have not yet tried it, but this would seem to solve the first two downsides
in the last paragraph. If Eudora would just add the option "During
download, delete locally any messages which have disappeared from the
server", we could have completely synchronized POP mail!
SOFTWARE AVAILABILITY
Netscape supports IMAP, but Eudora Light does not. Eudora Pro apparently
supports IMAP only for the Windows version.
Both flavors of Eudora support the delayed deletion techniques, but as far
as I can determine Netscape does not support any.
--
--James McLean
jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu
post doc
UC San Diego, Chemistry