Switching soon!, Have networking question(s)

[welders4mac]

Hello all:

Is this possible and how?

2 imacs networked together so that one is acting like a file server (and still able to do all that an imac can do) to another imac.

-can they share the same file at the same time?

also having both imacs sharing the same mail folders, sending and receiving so that the other computer also has said sent and received email?. If not in real time pretty close to it???

thank you for any help/pointers you can give me

From: the great white north
I'm gonna love my new

 

[Nugget]

The answer to your questions is basically a qualified "yes".

Yes, a machine running OS X can happily act as a file server while still doing all the other tasks you'd expect from a Macintosh.

Whether or not two machines can reliably use the same file at the same time is largely a matter of the application that's using the file. For most cases I'd guess "probably not", but not due to any limitation at the file-serving level. If the application is clever enough to handle the potential contention then it will work. Most won't, though. What application or file type did you have in mind?

If you're just trying to share a bunch of MP3s or something then that will work just fine since you're just reading the files, not writing, and there's no chance for a conflict. If you're thinking you might share the same documents and read/write the files then you may have problems.

It doesn't make sense to try to share the same, literal, Mail files. The more appropriate solution is to use a mail provider who offers IMAP storage and keep your mail on the server. In that mode you can have an unlimited number of mail clients all using the IMAP server mail store (with local caching) without any problems at all and in real time.

 

[welders4mac]

It doesn't make sense to try to share the same, literal, Mail files. The more appropriate solution is to use a mail provider who offers IMAP storage and keep your mail on the server. In that mode you can have an unlimited number of mail clients all using the IMAP server mail store (with local caching) without any problems at all and in real time.

I was thinking it did not make too much sense. Just wanted confirmation,

However my email is attached with my ISP and they use POP3. Ive searched a bit and have not found out if you can run a email server on one of the Machines thus enabling you too take advantage of IMAP storage?

thank you for your response. I have been phoning around for since the 7th for he new imacs, most places where I live just have waiting lists, or if they have them they seem too disappear before I can get to the store, All I can do now if think how best to set them up for our purposes.

 

[welders4mac]

Clarification

I am wondering if I can run a mail server: from POP3 and then dish it out using IMAP functionality

 

[Nugget]

Technically, yes. That's possible. I sure wouldn't recommend it. Perhaps a better solution would be to use gmail, which I understand can be configured to fetch your ISP mail via POP and dump it into your gmail inbox which you could then access via IMAP.

But you're definitely right -- you could run an IMAP server on a machine and use fetchmail to grab your ISP-hosted mail via POP3 and place it in the IMAP server mail spool. Then you could run mail clients which accessed it all via IMAP.

Trying to get that going on OS X would be an uphill battle, though, and I sure wouldn't recommend it. It's totally feasible, though.

 

[TEG]

While you can do what you are talking about, it is difficult to do in OS X (Client), however investing the $200+ for OS X (Server) would make it much easier.

That being said, I suggest you go down the Gmail path. Once you do, you'll never look back....
I just thought about it, I don't believe Gmail uses IMAP, I believe they use POP3, but the web interface is awesome.

TEG

 

[welders4mac]

Thank you!

Thanks so much I'm going to go check it out.