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Managing Mail Between a Desktop and a Laptop?

Posted by Cliff on from the having-more-than-one-inbox-is-a-pain dept.

dotancohen asks: "I'll soon be getting a new Dell laptop that'll be running Fedora Core 5 or 6. I need to access the email stored on my home box from the laptop, and also to read new email sent to me while I'm not home (and the home box is shut down). If I run an IMAP server at home, then I can't read the mail when the home box is down. However, if I pull from the POP3 server (and leave the mail on the server) then I won't be able to sort and file the mail while on the go. I currently use Kmail, but I might switch to Eudora in April/March when it becomes available for Linux. Is there anyway to sync the mail accounts between two Linux boxen, assuming that I'm using the same mail client?"

5 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Try unison by davecb · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I use a laptop most of the time, with a larger machine at home serving as a fileserver and fallback. To keep my mail and projects directories in sync I use unison, reviewed here

    --dave

    --
    davecb@spamcop.net
  2. I use keep two copies by astrashe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I keep two copies of my mail. One goes into a pop account, and gets pulled into my main machine, and the other goes to gmail. But you could send one to an IMAP account, one to a POP account, etc.

    My SMTP mail server is running on a VPS. I send incoming mail to an account on that machine, and use a .forward file to send it to a pop account provided by my cable modem company, and to my gmail account. I've configured the gmail account to send mail from my vanity domain.

    It's not a perfect solution -- if I send an email from gmail, it doesn't show up in the sent folder on my main machine. But it's very easy to set up, and I can get at gmail from anywhere.

    I think it would be better to use an IMAP server, to roll my own webmail solution that talks to the IMAP server, and to make it possible for the laptop to talk to the IMAP server. But the amount of work that would take deters me. My solution was easy to set up, even if its flawed.

  3. Just get an IMAP account on a server by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You can even use something AOL's AIM Mail which allows you to access it via IMAP. Forward your mail there, but otherwise don't use the address.

  4. USB to the rescue! by maeka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Simply use any mail client you can run entirely off of a USB flash drive. There is no need to sync when you only have one client!

  5. KMail already has what you want by DarkDust · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's called "disconnected IMAP" and is like cached IMAP: KMail pulls the stuff on your box so you can view it even when you have no network connection, like with POP3. But since this is IMAP and everything is on the server, you can do that with several clients. I've got my own IMAP server and use KMail's disconnected IMAP at home and at work. It works just fine...