Email and Clients

[whitedragon551]

What web based email do you guys use? I have Gmail for my personal account and through my college, but I feel like its not very private. Im looking for something a bit more secure.

While were at it Im looking to integrate my email into my desktop so I dont have to leave my email page open all the time in FF. What clients do you guys use and why?

In the past I used Thunderbird and I think it would compliment FF. However Zimbra seems like a decent tool as does PostBox and Eudora. Id prefer something that has an open source user base so its easily configurable and skinnable.

[tesk]

Gmail is the choice here.

I download 4 pop3 accounts through Gmail too and add different labels to them. A central managed email system - for free, even with backups of all your emails. That is great

[whitedragon551]

Do you use Gmail web based or do you use a client?

[GlobalForce]

Don't ask, find comments by pairing with username Devinco - http://www.cotse.net/pricing.html

[whitedragon551]

Originally Posted by GlobalForce

Don't ask, find comments by pairing with username Devinco - http://www.cotse.net/pricing.html

Your posts are always off topic and spam. Grow up and GTFO of my thread.

[whitedragon551]

Zimba is a no go. It takes up 200+Mbs just for the install and IMHO a email client should never be that heavy.

I use Hotmail. I hardly check my e-mail anyways.

[linuxforall]

Gmail via POP in Opera.

[tobacco]

Thunderbird 3 hosting Hotmail (pop3 only), AOL & Google apps (2 addresses) via IMAP. Yahoo a no-go 4 me as i don't get "free pop"

On top of this, i run Comodo Secure Email with my Hotmail account (all email signed and encrypted with receiver key or Comodo generated single use certificate in conjunction with secure web reader service).

[pbmcmlxxi]

I use Gmail IMAP and access it primarily via Thurnderbird 3.
I find it works well for me, and all the folders etc are kept in sync.

[iravgupta]

I believe I have something genuine to contribute here. I have meddled with a lot of email clients paired with Gmail. This pairing can be done in 2 ways - IMAP and POP3. POP3 IMHO is a very outdated(though still widely used) protocol. In this age, absence of sync is not acceptable, though I do understand there are some devices that benefit by this model -like feature-phones with anemic mail clients and stringent data plans, but for a full blown desktop client, POP3 is not advisable by any means. Then comes IMAP. Well, it solves the sync problem, but only to some extent, as it gives rise to another issue - performance. Folder switching is just not smooth, handling of deleted items is a nightmare(especially when paired with Gmail). Thunderbird is improving the IMAP-Gmail performance but its just not there yet. Ditto for Outlook and Opera.
Then there is Windows Live Mail which supports both POP3 and IMAP, along with something else - DeltaSync. You can pair a Windows Live Hotmail account with this client and reap the benefits provided by DeltaSync. Its like features of IMAP coupled with performance of POP3. The common mail client issues are just not there. Folder switch is seamless, full folder sync along with contacts and calender sync. Its really a pleasure to use.
What I have done is turned off junk mail filtering in Gmail, and have set it to forward my all incoming mail to my Hotmail account. At first I was archiving the forwarded mail in Gmail but later found not much value in it. Now I have just set it to forward and delete. Did the same with my yahoo account.
Now the question is what if you want to send a mail using the accounts that are forwarding mails to Hotmail. Well there is a simple solution to that - just add these accounts to Windows Live Mail client via a POP configuration and set them not to auto-fetch. When composing a new mail, you will be able to choose any of the configured accounts for sending out the mail.
This arrangement started out as an experiment for me, in a bid to simplify my growing number of email accounts, and has served me very well over the last 2+ years. If you require more details, just PM me.

[whitedragon551]

Thanks Ravi. So to narrow things down Im looking for something that specializes in IMAP email protocols over the POP3.

Have you ever trialed Mulberry? Its open source, and supposedly specializes in IMAP. The only other one that comes to mind is Thunderbird.

Could you point me in the direction of DeltaSync? I havent been able to find it. All that comes up for me is the DeltaSync protocol.

[GlobalForce]

Ravi - unique. Would you, for the benefit of the community, keep it out here on the forum and define the essentials of implementing this in preferably laymans terms? I'm sure there's more than a few folk that, sadly, won't interact, but nonetheless, find your approach compelling. Nevermind. Closer inspection shows the bases were covered first time around. Thanks for posting.

[Dundertaker]

Same here with Gmail(IMAP). I often use Thunderbird ver3. But it's not skinnable. But it's good.

I also use Gmail(IMAP) in Opera 10.5.1 's Mail. Sometimes a bit faster than Thunderbird ver3.

Am thinking of using Comodo SecureMail (free) with Thunderbird ver3 and Gmail. But have not yet setup.

[tobacco]

Originally Posted by Dundertaker

I often use Thunderbird ver3. But it's not skinnable.

There are themes and 1000's of personas available.

[mantra]

Originally Posted by tobacco

There are themes and 1000's of personas available.

they are super super ugly

i would like to enlarge the size of the fonts in the left panel or at least the icons
thunderbird is great
i use gmail and thunderbird , but the fonts are bloody small

[iravgupta]

Guys, working on a detailed tutorial to achieve what I outlined earlier. Stay tuned.

[iravgupta]

Originally Posted by whitedragon551

Thanks Ravi. So to narrow things down Im looking for something that specializes in IMAP email protocols over the POP3.

Have you ever trialed Mulberry? Its open source, and supposedly specializes in IMAP. The only other one that comes to mind is Thunderbird.

Could you point me in the direction of DeltaSync? I havent been able to find it. All that comes up for me is the DeltaSync protocol.

Indeed, DeltaSync is just the protocol, an alternative to IMAP and POP3. A much superior alternative. The only client that makes use of this protocol is Windows Live Mail. Outlook can also do this but via a MS supplied connector. The only mail service that works using this protocol is Windows Live Hotmail.

[Johnny123]

Originally Posted by ravi16aug

Guys, working on a detailed tutorial to achieve what I outlined earlier. Stay tuned.

Sounds good. I have my ISP email and Gmail forwarded to my Hotmail account and also use Windows Live Mail. However, I didn't realize you can have Gmail delete what gets forwarded. Thanks for that tip. I'm also guessing that you have no increase in spam or you wouldn't have turned off spam filtering in Gmail. Personally I find the Hotmail spam filtering to be better than Gmail's, but when I posted that once upon a time on another forum the Gmail fanbois got rather livid

[iravgupta]

Originally Posted by Johnny123

Personally I find the Hotmail spam filtering to be better than Gmail's

Yes, there were 2 aspects to this -
1. I was not ready to periodically keep checking the Gmail spam folder for any missed mails. Gmail spam filter is too agressive IMHO.
2. Hotmail is very good at blocking stuff if you take time to send it to Junk rather than deleting it straight away.

Don't really want to turn this into a Gmail vs Hotmail thread at all, but my primary reasons (among a number of others) in setting up this arrangement were
1. The Windows Live Mail client. I am yet to find a more stable and high performance client. This and DeltaSync make an unbeatable combo. Hell knows why MS doesn't advertise it. One good TV spot and this product is IN.
2. I get full email sync along with calender and contacts.
3. I simply cannot use email without reading pane. The new email peek feature in Gmail doesn't cut it for me.
4. The web and client interfaces for Hotmail are consistent, unlike Gmail where you have completely different UI depending on what client you are using.

[Johnny123]

Originally Posted by ravi16aug

Yes, there were 2 aspects to this -
1. I was not ready to periodically keep checking the Gmail spam folder for any missed mails. Gmail spam filter is too agressive IMHO.
2. Hotmail is very good at blocking stuff if you take time to send it to Junk rather than deleting it straight away.

I found the setting to have it delete mails that are forwarded, but I can't find anything to turn off the spam filtering. How did you do it? I must be blind this evening

[whitedragon551]

Is Windows Live Mail only available for Hotmail emails or can I forward my Gmail there as well and have the same functionality as I would with Thunderbird or Seamonkey?

Also out of curiosity is there some sort of web based spam filtering besides the email clients built in spam filtering? Id like to turn of Gmails spam filtering and supplement with something a bit more accurate.

[Johnny123]

Originally Posted by whitedragon551

Is Windows Live Mail only available for Hotmail emails or can I forward my Gmail there as well and have the same functionality as I would with Thunderbird or Seamonkey?

Windows Live Mail does pop and imap too. You don't have to use a Live/Hotmail account if you prefer not to.

Also out of curiosity is there some sort of web based spam filtering besides the email clients built in spam filtering? Id like to turn of Gmails spam filtering and supplement with something a bit more accurate.

I've found Hotmail's spam filtering to be very good, more accurate than Gmail. In Gmail I get a good mail in spam once in while (not often) but quite a few obvious spam mails land in the inbox. Most of these get weeded out by Hotmail (I forward Gmail to Hotmail), but every once in a while I have to log in to Gmail to move this stuff to spam and check spam for good mails.

This is the nice part of Ravi's approach of deleting the mail after it's forwarded, then you don't have to log in there and see what went wrong.

I can also recommend Windows Live Mail (the desktop client) either with or without a Live Mail account. Nice thing about using it with Live/Hotmail is (as Ravi already pointed out) the good synchronization of email, contacts and calendar.

[whitedragon551]

Is DeltaSync only compatible with hotmail account?

[Johnny123]

Originally Posted by whitedragon551

Is DeltaSync only compatible with hotmail account?

As far as I know Hotmail is the only one that uses it. Quite a shame actually, because it works very well.