Using T'bird BUT keeping emails on the web

[MailSquirrel]

Is it possible to keep all my emails on server space somewhere AND access them using T'bird? The problem is that I need access to sent and received emails from different computers and the only answer I can see is to use Yahoo Mail or something like that. BUT I like T'bird and I don't want to use another mail client.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Daifne]

Moving to Thunderbird Support.

Does your email provider have webmail access?
Do they offer IMAP?

With POP, you can only do this for your inbox. IMAP is much more.

[barkmanjost]

I use a gmail account and set Thunderbird to leave the message in the google box. You can do that with other email servers.

Jerry

[MailSquirrel]

Hey, Daifne! NO, my email provider (who is my Internet Service Provider) offers only POP3 servers... and they told me just now that they don't plan to change that in the near future either. ':eyeroll2:'

IMAP lets me use a local client and save received messages and copies of sent messages on the server, doesn't it, and that's exactly what I need. So my question is, (perhaps to barkmanjost) does gmail let you do that?

And if you can't do that on gmail, are there any other email services on the web that will let you keep your messages on the server?

Thanks for your replies. It's a huge relief to be able to ask someone instead of floundering through everything on your own! ':)'

[Daifne]

No. GMail is also POP, but it is an odd POP server. Some of your sent messages may appear there. I haven't really seen a pattern yet.

How about http://www.fastmail.fm/ They have free IMAP accounts.

You're very welcome. Happy to see you kept your hat.

[Kab]

Err, I have email access of even my sent/draft mails in Yahoo through webmail.

I've just tried it to be sure. Don't know if anyone else also gets this.

[MailSquirrel]

You mean Yahoo Mail, Kab? Using T'bird on your own computer to compose and send your emails':?:'

The hat? Yeah, I remember this story I heard when I was young and idealistic and searching for the meaning of life. It was about the Dalai Lama's palace in Lhasa. When Westerners first started going there, they would be surprised at the odd variety of furnishings and ornaments in the palace, and applying Western values, liked to criticise the Tibetans' 'lack of taste'. Only later did they come to understand that the Dalai Lama so valued the gifts that he received, regardless of how well they went with the 'decor' or how expensive they were, that he kept them all. I was always touched by that story.
':x-mas:'

Oh, and I checked out your link to fastmail.fm and it looks good, and I may go with it, but it's not free. The 'free' gives you a 'massive' 10MB of storage space (total)... which I can use in one email without too much trouble. The usable deal is the the full membership at US $20 a year.

[Daifne]

I don't use my fastmail account very much, so the size limit of the free account doesn't bother me. That's still not a bad price. I could also tell you about AOL's AIM mail, but then I would have to shoot myself.

Wonderful story. Thank you. You can take it off after Christmas if you wish.

[SkyeChild]

A bit OT, but I love the name, MailSquirrel. It's clever, and one of the best I've ever seen!

[Kab]

You mean Yahoo Mail, Kab? Using T'bird on your own computer to compose and send your emails':?:'

Precisely.

[MailSquirrel]

OK Kab, I see what you mean. And that's news to me too! You CAN use T'bird to log in to a Yahoo Mail account (using server settings that you can find in Yahoo Mail > Options > POP Access & Forwarding > View POP Settings). You can do this because Yahoo Mail uses the POP3 protocol, but you can't save your mail on the server. When T'bird 'gets' your Yahoo mail, it downloads it to your computer (that's POP3 procedure) and you have to save it there. Even 'sent' mail won't be saved on the server unless you happened to send it with the Yahoo webmail client. (Least, that's my understanding so far.) ':-k'

The only way. apparently, to save mail on the server is to use an IMAP account. And the only way to get reasonable IMAP storage space at present (unless your ISP happens to provide it) is to pay for it. (T'bird handles IMAP no problem, by the way.)

Bit OT too, SkyeChild, but what do you think is most 'boink' about scientific progress? ':turn-l:' I won't even talk about Daiphne's signature. There is NO HOPE AT ALL for people who quote Terry Pratchett!!! ':biggrin:'

[Kab]

Yes, science fiction

I'm aware of whats involved in the mailing protocol. It doesn't make sense, but I'm stating what I'm experiencing. I find my sent/draft mail on the web and have been since the last time TB packed in. It seems things are not as hard coded as you may expect them to be.

[MailSquirrel]

OK, to try out Kab's thing, I'm trying to get T'bird to log in to my Yahoo account... but NO WAY! The pop.mail.yahoo.ca server won't recognize my username. I've tried with and without the domain name (the bit after the @) and it doesn't make any difference. Anyone got any ideas? ':omg:'

[dmccunney]

IMAP lets me use a local client and save received messages and copies of sent messages on the server, doesn't it, and that's exactly what I need. So my question is, (perhaps to barkmanjost) does gmail let you do that?

And if you can't do that on gmail, are there any other email services on the web that will let you keep your messages on the server?

You can do it with GMail. The default action is to read mail and reply using their web based interface, but you can also have mail forwarded to your POP account. Mail forwarded via POP remains on GMail's mail store on the server. See https://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1555 for details.

Personally, I looked at POP forwarding and passed. It worked, but I actually prefer the web interface. I can check my mail from wherever I have a browser and an internet connection. Mail forwarded via POP also loses one of GMail's more powerful features. Unlike other email setups, GMail does not have "folders". Instead, it has Labels and Filters. You use a Filter to classify mail and apply a Label to it. The Filter can also tell GMail to Archive the mail. Archived mail does not appear in your Inbox -- only under the Label. The key to the whole thing is that you can apply more than one Label to a message, and thus have it appear in more than one "folder". A Label is an index key into your mail database, and you can define as many labels as you like.
______
Dennis

[Freee!!]

I won't even talk about Daiphne's signature. There is NO HOPE AT ALL for people who quote Terry Pratchett!!! ':biggrin:'

Terry Pratchett is small fry I used to quote Murphy on another forum.
My favourite is still Murphy's Golden Rule