email between two home computers, networking?

Hi,

Not sure what this question should fall under...

My family recently got a laptop (running Vista) and we have our home computer (running XP). The problem is we have our email client on both computers but lets say we receive email on the laptop, those email messages can no longer be received/downloaded/viewed on the home computer.

I don't know if I have to setup a network between the computers and if I do how I would do it or whether it is something I have to take up with bigpond (our email client).

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

I'm trying to figure out the same thing. I think the easiest way might be if your ISP has an option to not delete messages from the server after you've downloaded them. I know Yahoo! mail has such a feature.

 

You need to leave a copy of those messages on your ISPs server so both PCs can get them. Open your mail program under Tools, Accounts select Properites and on the Advanced Tab under Delivery Options, check the box to leave copies on the Server and then one of the options of when to delete them (you should select one option or you may eventually miss new incomming mail).

 

One disadvantage to leaving your e-mail on the ISP server is that there may be limited space to hold all your e-mails. Secondly the ISP may only keep e-mails for a certain time period.

What e-mail client are you using? Is it the same on both machines?

If so, you can network the downloaded mail on one or the other machine and get both machines to download mail to there. The disadvantage here is that the machine that you designate the master where the downloaded mail files are stored needs to be on-line and networked accessible for the other machine to download e-mails to it.

I have done this for Outlook Express and modified the store directory for the e-mails to be on one networked machine. Provided the networked machine with the e-mails on it is on-line and accessible then any other machine can download e-mails to there and moreover all the e-mails are readable on any machine thereafter.

 

Maxwell, could you please give a few more details on setting this up with Outlook Express? I have the same problem with emails. I already have the network setup so it's just a matter of configuring the location of the OE folders.

I can't seem to find where to change the folder location.

 

I'm not entirely convinced that having a single downloaded e-mail share is a particularly good thing. Outlook Express is not designed to have its files and folders shared: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/240659 The issue is that if the networked machine with the Store Location of all your OutLook e-mail is not on-line then, Outlook Express on the other networked machine will have problems and would usually default the Store Location if it is not accessible (meaning you will have to reset the Store Location).

A similar thing can be done for the IncrediMail store location.

However, you don't necessarily need the networked machines to download e-mail, only to access the network share. The master machine can always perform the download.

The set-up I have is mix of Win 98SE, Win XP, Win Vista using a mix of Outlook Express and IncrediMail. One of the Win XP machines is always on, acting as network master.

What I'm tending towards now is for each person to use the web based e-mail interface on the networked machines and downloading e-mail to the master for a more permanent storage. An advantage of doing this is that the spam filter managed by the ISP does not need to be installed on each machine that has a local e-mail client. As noted before, the ISP may limit the e-mail storage on their e-mail server and may time-out old e-mails, hence a need for downloading old precious e-mails. A disadvantage is that people are so used to their particular e-mail client and are reluctant to change, especially if the web based e-mail system has a poor user interface.

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However, if you want to proceed then the steps for Outlook Express are:

On the master machine:
1. Backup all your current Outlook Express e-mails and folders (i.e., use the information about the Store Location in steps 2 to 4 and copy all the contents .dbx files).

The basic steps for changing the Outlook Express store location are:
2. Select from the menu Tools/Options...
3. Select the Maintenance tab from the Options dialog.
4. Press the Store Folder... button from the Options dialog.
5. Press the Change... button from the Store Location dialog.
6. Choose a folder that you wish to store all your Outlook e-mail.

Finally:
7. Copy the backed up files into the shared folder.
8. Ensure that the Store Location folder and all its contents are shared so that they can be read across the network. You may need to enable File and Print sharing and allow your Firewall to let access from networked machines in.


Next is the tricky part on the other networked machines, since Outlook Express is not designed to have its files and folders shared: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/240659 You won't be able to select a network location using the above steps on the networked machines.


However, if you wish to continue then this requires registry editing on each of the networked machines to work around the limitation. The steps for this procedure are:

a. MAKE A RESTORE POINT AND BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE.

b. Take note of the Store Location of Outlook Express on the other networked machine, using the steps 2 to 4 above. Make sure Outlook Express is not open when you are registry editing.

c. Use regedit and replace that string obtained in step b. in the registry by the equivalent network location. This will be of the form: \\Master machine name\SharedDocs\Shared e-mail. Each of the registry changes that you make can be saved to a registry file (.reg) so that you can simply re-import the settings on each networked computer (especially if you lose the settings).

d. Once all the registry changes have been made you will need to reboot for the settings to take effect. MAKE SURE THAT THE MASTER IS ON-LINE.

 

Maxwell, thank you for taking the time to detail out the OE setup. Your instructions seem clear and concise and it seems, in theory should work.

This probably isn't the best way to go for me (my wife and her business figure into the equation). I can't risk anything going wrong.

Thanks again for your time.

Doug

 

Thank you all so much for your quick reply! Going to try and muck around with it tonight after work

Thanks again