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RoadRunner email on two macs using Mail?

B

buffalo

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 5, 2005
1,085
2
Tacoma, WA
My ISP is RoadRunner and I use their email as my primary address (@cinci.rr.com). I have been successfully using RR email with Mail on my iMac, but I would also like to use it with the MacBook I just got. Is it possible to set up the email so each computer recieves a copy of email sent to my address. The ideal situation is for me to be able to read my new mail on whichever mac I'm on.

Any tips? Is this possible? Is it as simple as setting up the email on my Macbook.
 
U se RR in the CFL area of FL.

Go to the RR web mail login and set mail to not delete when dlownloaded.

Then each machine that polls for mail will get the mail just like it is the only one.

Then just go into web mail once in a while to delete the old posts you have already read and no longer want.
 
Yeah, if RR has an IMAP server then use that. Trying to manage POP email on multiple machines simultaneously is always a pain.
 
This'll be my last bump. Am I out of luck using my RR email? Would .Mac help, or is that only for .Mac email addresses?
 
buffalo said:
This'll be my last bump. Am I out of luck using my RR email? Would .Mac help, or is that only for .Mac email addresses?
Click to expand...

Probably what you need can be accomplished entirely in Mail, even without an IMAP account, no matter who you use as your ISP. You should choose one Mac as your primary e-mail reader. This Mac will delete messages from the server. The secondary mail reader will not. Here's how to set this up:

Go to Mail preferences, and select the Accounts tab. Select the e-mail account, and click on the Advanced button. If this is your primary mail reader, check the "Remove copy from server..." box and "right away" from the pop-up menu (or something else, if you prefer). On the secondary mail reader, you don't check this box. Any mail you download on your secondary mail reader remains on the server, where it will be downloaded by your primary Mac when you return.

I use this method for my desktop (primary mail reader) and PowerBook (secondary mail reader) for when I'm on the road. It suits my purposes, and maybe will yours as well. If you need to, you can also quite easily delete mail from the server manually using the secondary mail reader.
 
I just signed up for the free trial of .Mac and it looks as though I've got the emails going to both computers.

IJ Reilly said:
Probably what you need can be accomplished entirely in Mail, even without an IMAP account, no matter who you use as your ISP. You should choose one Mac as your primary e-mail reader. This Mac will delete messages from the server. The secondary mail reader will not. Here's how to set this up:

Go to Mail preferences, and select the Accounts tab. Select the e-mail account, and click on the Advanced button. If this is your primary mail reader, check the "Remove copy from server..." box and "right away" from the pop-up menu (or something else, if you prefer). On the secondary mail reader, you don't check this box. Any mail you download on your secondary mail reader remains on the server, where it will be downloaded by your primary Mac when you return.

I use this method for my desktop (primary mail reader) and PowerBook (secondary mail reader) for when I'm on the road. It suits my purposes, and maybe will yours as well. If you need to, you can also quite easily delete mail from the server manually using the secondary mail reader.
Click to expand...

I signed up for the .Mac trial before I read this post. While it's a nice program, I don't think I will need it enough after the trial to justify cost, so if this method works, that will be great! Now If I want the email to download onto both computers, would I simply keep the "Remove Copy from server" part unchecked?

If I read this correctly this seems like it will work great for times when I'm out of town (next week) and have the iMac shut down. But, when I'm at home, I usually have the iMac on. I would like the email going to both computers, so if I'm working downstairs on the MacBook, it goes to both computers and not just the primary machine...


Sorry if I'm not making any sense.
 
I went into System Preferences of both computers and unchecked the option to sync Mail Accounts.

picture2ia9.png


After updating, I sent a test email and it showed up on both computers. I'm going to run some more tests, but it looks like I might've solved the problem and maybe even without .Mac.
 
buffalo said:
I signed up for the .Mac trial before I read this post. While it's a nice program, I don't think I will need it enough after the trial to justify cost, so if this method works, that will be great! Now If I want the email to download onto both computers, would I simply keep the "Remove Copy from server" part unchecked?

If I read this correctly this seems like it will work great for times when I'm out of town (next week) and have the iMac shut down. But, when I'm at home, I usually have the iMac on. I would like the email going to both computers, so if I'm working downstairs on the MacBook, it goes to both computers and not just the primary machine...

Sorry if I'm not making any sense.
Click to expand...

No, I think I follow you. For the upstairs/downstairs scenario, an IMAP account would probably be the best solution (.Mac is IMAP). My solution works tolerably well if the primary computer is not downloading mail while you're using the secondary computer to read mail. You could also play with the deletion options, which are one day, week or month. If you don't have at least one of the Macs deleting mail from the server, the sever mailbox will fill up over time.
 
IJ Reilly said:
I think this will only work if you've got .Mac, but perhaps this has changed?
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm not sure if it is .Mac working still, but I went further and removed my Account Name and Password from each computer. I sent test emails when one computer was shut down, and one powered on (and then vice-versa). Both times the email went to the computer powered on and it showed up when I turned on the computer that was off.

[EDIT] I guess I will see if it works after the trial is finished. But could it be that all I had .Mac do was transfer the Mail info from the iMac to the MacBook, and now the RR servers are doing the rest?
 
My .Mac trial ended yesterday so I thought I would update this.

When I booted up the MacBook today and opened mail it asked me to enter the password for the .Mac account. The box kept popping up despite my attempts at entering the password. Finally I gave up, went into Preferences and deleted the .Mac account. This just left my RR account, which is POP and is also tied to my iMac. Not sure what to expect, I sent a test email from my MacBook. After a few minutes I checked and saw that the email had received on both computers.

So... It seems as though the .Mac trial was not needed to get the RR mail on both computers.
 
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