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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?"

8 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. The answer! by robably · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was going to tell you how, but then you said "boxen".

  3. Disconnected IMAP... by Mendy · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...is probably what you want - and KMail appears to support it.

    Alternatively Thunderbird certainly supports cache'ing a copy of messages for working offline but I'm not sure if it supports the kind of resyncing that you're looking for.

  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. Pine + SSH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pine + SSH, now you've got your mail synced anywhere on the planet.

  6. Well, here are 3 tools to look at... by emag · · Score: 4, Informative
    Continue pulling from your pop3 server that you mentioned. When the home box is off, pull using the laptop. Make sure your .procmailrc or whatever's in sync between the two. Then, keep your IMAP server on your home box, and investigate one of these 3 tools to propagate changes on both boxes to each other:

    • isync - Synchronize a local maildir with a remote IMAP4 mailbox
    • mailsync - Synchronize IMAP mailboxes
    • offlineimap - IMAP/Maildir synchronization and reader support


    --
    "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
  7. GMail...? by jdray · · Score: 4, Informative

    I use GMail. About any web-based mail should suffice. I suspect that some of the other web mail services have advanced capabilities for sorting and such. Google offers GMail for domains so you can use your own domain name, and you can access it through a POP3 interface. Just a thought...

    --
    The Spoon
    Updated 6/28/2011
    1. Re:GMail...? by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I think the simpler question would be:"Why the hell do you insist on turning your email SERVER off?"

      I mean...by definition by today's standards a server is on 24/7. Just leave your IMAP server on, have it receive all your email, and you can then connect from any computer you'd like, and get your email...

      Another option....install something like squirrelmail....and then your email server at home has a webmail interface to it...and you don't have to worry about a 3rd party keeping/reading/indexing your emails that it is storing for you.

      But, really..this is easy..leave your email server ON.

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      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........