OS X Mail Server for home use

[SlugBlanket]

At present I use several PC's at home and send/receive mail from each. My wife and children do like wise. A major headache is our inability to sync our ISP mail accounts across these machines. We don't/won't use mobile me, just our ISP mail accounts and hotmail. Bearing in mind OS X server is due to ship with Lion, is it possible to use mail server, and set up one of our (future) macs as a home mail server which would get and send the mail for us, allowing us to have mail synced across all the macs that we are due to buy ?

Any insight would be appreciated

Don't you just hate it when you search for a thread that might answer your question, you don't find one so you post your question, and then after you post you search again and find a relevant thread

Just found this discussion IMAP Server is the answer But I'm still a little confused. I'm currently using Outlook and I understand leaving messages on the server until I delete them but what I would like is to see mail that I send on PC-A to be seen in the sent box on PC-B. From the thread above it seems that this can be done so I'll wait until I purchase the macs in the next month and then post again once I have explored the issue a little more.

 

[miles01110]

Unless you know what you are doing in terms of security, running your own mail server is a bad idea. Using IMAP accounts will do exactly what you want... running your own server really has nothing to do with it.

 

[Flynnstone]

Want you want are IMAP accounts.
I use MobleMe (.Mac). I'm sure others are out there.
All my email is "in sync" across my iPhone, my computer or any other computer via web access.
IMAP - the emails are on a server "somewhere" with a local cached copy on your local computer. On my account, I have folders on the IMAP account & some folders local on my main machine. The folders on the IMAP account I can access anywhere. The folders on my local, its much more difficult to access them from anywhere.
POP accounts emails are meant to be read & deleted off the server. There is the option to leave on server for "x amount of time" , but that just buys you some time.

 

[LegendKillerUK]

Bearing in mind OS X server is due to ship with Lion

I believe with Developer beta 2 they were split into Lion and Lion Server again.

 

[jsgreen]

+1 for the IMAP account suggestion (as opposed to a POP3 account type).

I use FastMail as my IMAP email provider - have since 2004 and I've been very happy with them. Here's a referral link (full disclosure, if you click through and end up signing up for an account, I get some sort of small credit).

FastMail has some great features, you can set up different personalities, aliases, custom domains, lots of archiving, spam protection, solid webmail interface. I'm a big fan.

 

[mstrze]

Yes, I vote for an IMAP account. We actually do not use ANY ISP email accounts...haven't for several years.

My main account is gmail as is my wife's and I also have a hotmail account that I use less frequently. The gmail account is what my iPhone reads withint Mail and I also access it via the web at home and at work. I have never had any issues, plus the account is always synced...if I delete a message on the iPhone or at work, it's deleted on the gmail system.

Any reason why free online accounts like a gmail wouldn't work in your situation?