sharing mail over airport network??

[ckpg99]

I am thinking about getting either a new iBook or powerbook to add to my iMac G4. I would like to keep my Mail accounts on both computers so that I can read and write from either one (I will also get an airport extreme so that I can share my printer connection and internet connection). Is there a way to keep the mail accounts synced without using .mac?
I would love it if i can send emails from one or read from one and have the changes reflected on the other computer
Thanks for the help
Chris

 

[awulf]

Yes you can, if your e-mail provider supports IMAP, everything is saved to the server.
Under preferences in Mail.app you can set it so that sent messages are stored on the server.

 

[ckpg99]

only one of my email addresses supports IMAP, with the others I have to use POP. Is there any other way to share the Mail data between two computers on a local network?
thanks

 

[CanadaRAM]

If you mean sharing incoming mail only (as opposed to syncing your Sent Items and personal folders) you don't have to do anything special on your network; on the POP account set the "Leave Mail on Server" setting to a sufficient number of days that you will always have checked mail on both machines before it gets dropped off the ISP's server.

Preferences: Accounts: Edit: Advanced: Remove Mail from server after: one week

Then just make sure you check mail on both machines before the week is up (or however many days). Note: The longer you set it to the more chance you have of overflowing your mailbox quota on yor ISP.

This also works well if you are travelling. Set your machine at home to check mail automatically but set the remove from server date to a long interval. Then you can check mail from a Powerbook or an internet cafe.
In the meantime, you can set autoresponder rules to forward messages to yourself and others depending on the origin or contents.

I DON'T recommend setting an autoresponder that replies to the sender: Those can cause untold grief on listservs and with senders who likewise have an auto reply to your auto reply. And if you say "I'll be on vacation for the next three weeks" you are inviting everything from home burglary to identity theft.

Hacker's trick: find out you're on vacation, then impersonate you or reference you as an authority when calling your company; and convince someone to disclose a password or company information.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

 

[awulf]

Another idea is to enable File sharing on one computer, and make the other computer automatically connect to the shared computer.

Then you create an Alias or link from one computer's mail folder to the shared computer's mail folder.

To create a link:
1) Make sure Mail.app is not running (closed).

2) Open Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal

3) Delete the mail folder on the computer, so any mail saved on that computer under that user account will be deleted. Type into the terminal:
"rm -r ~/Library/Mail"

4) Mount/connect to the shared computer.

5) Navigate to the Mail folder of that computer & account.

6) In the terminal type:
"link " [drag the Mail folder into the terminal] "~/Library/Mail"
(notice the space character after 'link').

Now every time you want to read your mail on the non-shared computer, you need to connect to the shared folder and then open Mail.app.