Can message folders be located on a Synchronized netw drive?

[ripan]

From the topic viewtopic.php?f=39&t=642089 I learn that a network drive can be used to store both my profile, my inbox(es) and my local folders on a network drive. This in order to access it from several computers connected on my home network. Okay!?

Now to my follow up issue: From time to time I am off my network but I still want to access my profile and all my e-mails and have the possibility to download messages from my e-mail account at my ISP(s) and also of-course write some using my account via my ISP. Later on when connected back on my network, I want of course my work to be synchronized to my network drive. Is this possible? And how do I go about it?

One thought I had was to use the OS function found in XP Pro, Win 2k Pro and Win 7 Ultimate "Make available off-line". Is that possible?
In this case whenever connected back on my network the e-mails would be synchronized with the primary storage on the network drive!?

Hope to hear from anyone interested in this matter since I anticipate it to be of interest to many.

Best regards and sincerely /ripan

[tanstaafl]

I have no idea what Windows 7 "Make available off-line" does. Normally what you would do is use an IMAP account and configure offline folders. That way you could work offline using file -> offline -> work offline and when you switch back to working online have the local and remote folder copies of the folders sync.

You could compose messages while working offline and use "send later" to queue them. When you work online again you could use "file -> send unsent messages" to send all of them.

Does your email provider support IMAP? Both Gmail and Gmx.com provide free IMAP accounts with large mailboxs if yours doesn't and you're willing to change email addresses.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Offline_folders and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Outbox once the knowledge base is up again.

[tanstaafl]

I found http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... re-offline . That would not work with a POP server, the POP protocol has no way to upload messages. It sounds like a feature that you would use with a file share that might not always be available.

[ripan]

Thanks tanstaafl for your replies. However "send later" is not an alternative since I will be on-line with the possibility to send e-mail via mobile connectivity, even though I will be off-line when it comes to my network drive. So what I really would like to have is explained above.

The microsoft article You refer to is exactly the function I am talking about. I use it frequently to always have synchronized copies of network files. The positive thing with my network files is that they are automatically backed up! So I really would like to have all my files on the network with synchronized copies of them on my local computer for speed together with the safety.

I am not familiar with the POP protocol but I think that You won't need any "upload" functionality from POP. The synchronization (upload/download in synch with the network drive) is taken care of by the OS. Actually I am a bit surprised that this particular OS functionality is so little known. If used and adhered to, and possibly evolved, it would solve many problems instead of everyone building proprietary synchronization protocols .

Finally: Do You think that this OS functionality right out of the box would solve my problem?
Thunderbird accesses the Thunderbird profile(s) which now are synchronized (by the OS) copies of network attached files. Will there be any conflicts between Thunderbird and the OS function?

Of course one way is to try but I would like to be a little bit more certain before I do that.

regards /ripan

[tanstaafl]

The fundamental problem is that a POP mail server is not a network drive so you can't expect the windows 7 "Make available off-line" functionality to support it. A POP mail server uses the POP3 protocol while a network drive normally uses the SMB/CIFS protocol. i.e. "Make available off-line" literally doesn't know how to talk to a mail server.

[ripan]

Ok, You are on a much higher level regarding protocol standards than I. However there is one thing You say that still makes me beleive that we are talking about different things and I want to pursue my thoughts: "Make available off-line", I beleive, does not have to talk to the mail server! Thunderbird does that and downloads/uploads the e-mails to/from local files on the computer via POP whatever. "Make available off-line" synchronizes these local files as copies with the files on my network drive.

In my previous use of this functionality it has been MS Word, Excel etc. which has accessed these synchronized copies of the network stored files.

Is there a compromizing difference between how MS Word, Excel accesses a file and the way Thunderbird accesses a file which makes the "Make available off-line" functionality not usable in the latter usage?

[tanstaafl]

Thats just synching multiple copies of your profile. You shouldn't have a problem using "Make available off-line" to do that. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Synchronizing ... _computers for other solutions if you need to do more than just replicate when syncing.

[ripan]

Thankyou! That was positive news and I will try it as soon as possible.