General E-mail setup Forum?

[Geoff.D]

Hi Moderators especially.

I have had a reason for the first time in years to have to seriously have a look at how one uses an email setup and review what I certainly have taken for granted as being relatively simple but is indeed not that simple after all.

This was all triggered by Telkom making me an offer I no longer could refuse and that was to migrate from Cu to Fibre, but also entailed some rather unexpected aspects.

For example, Telkom stated that I need to "back up my email". But gave me no time to in fact do that "backup". Fortunately, I at least once a day check mails and move critical mails into my own folders so, nothing of real importance was at risk. However, I still "lost" quite a few emails which was more than a bit unexpected. As many would find these days, email clients will"default" to IMAP instead of POP3, which meant that my mail client had folders setup. Now, ALL that simply vanished as soon as I logged on, about 60 minutes after the migration was settled, --- and ALL those folders and mails are just gone.

This makes me question, the logic of making use of IMAP ----- which is supposed to ensure that mails are kept "in the cloud" accessible from many devices, and which tracks changes made via one device .


However, I see that there no real section of myBB that fits where one can post, to have a discussion about email, email clients, webmail POP3 and IMAP, etc.

In the good old days, it was POP3 or nothing. Now there are many options.

So, my question is:

What is really the best to make use of? Simple old POP3, which ensures that your mails once accessed on one device are at least downloaded on to that device and now under your own protection, or go the IMAP route and run the risk of your ISP for whatever reason, simply deleting all your mails?

 

[backstreetboy]

Why is your mail with your ISP? When you leave them you'll be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Move on over to something else like Gmail or if you want privacy and no ads there's Tutanota for a measly 12 Euro p/a and you can use your own domain with them like I am. They have their own apps on all platforms so no need to muck about with IMAP/POP3. There's also Protonmail or even Gsuite where the data is yours and not Google's.

 

[WAslayer]

Using the mailbox provided by your ISP is an archaic concept.. at the very least, if you don't want to use your own domain, you should be using a Gmail, Hotmail/live/Microsoft or if your REALLY don't have any other option for some obscure reason, Yahoo..

In this way, your email is not held ransom by an ISP who could simply shutdown the mail server and that's the end of all your mail.. your mail will always be yours to access from any device you want at anytime and no need to muck about with POP3 and needing to access email from a single device..

 

[bwana]

However, I see that there no real section of myBB that fits where one can post, to have a discussion about email, email clients, webmail POP3 and IMAP, etc.

How about Software or Questions and Answers, Problems and Solutions?

EDIT: Of course one could always argue that there is Off Topic which is a home for any discussions that don't have a clear alternative. But if I was going to move this thread anywhere it would be to Questions and Answers, Problems and Solutions.

 

[Geoff.D]

How about Software or Questions and Answers, Problems and Solutions?

EDIT: Of course one could always argue that there is Off Topic which is a home for any discussions that don't have a clear alternative. But if I was going to move this thread anywhere it would be to Questions and Answers, Problems and Solutions.

Please move it to questions etc if it fits better there. Thank you

 

[Thor]

Either host it yourself (IMAP through domains.co.za)

Or just get a domain forward it to Gmail and send from Gmail with the domain as an alias.

 

[Geoff.D]

What the advantages of IMAP over POP3. I see POP4 standard has never got off the ground.
Why are our local ISPs so reluctant to implement outgoing server authentication, which appears to be essential to the proper running of IMAP. Also, it would make many email clients work far better when moving from one form of connectivity to another. Always the issue being the sending of emails seeing ISPs don't allow relaying.
Without o/g server authentication, IMAP appears to be a pain to set up. POP 3 being easier to set up as send only, but our local ISPs don't support even SSL on POP 3.

 

[SYNERGY]

- Add an auto forwarder to your gmail account.
- Gmail settings, add your account as an alias to send as your isp/domain email address.

Or

- Buy a google hosted solution.

 

[hambone]

+1 for a dedicated section.

A hosted e-mail solution outside of your ISP's garden is preferable, IMAP works for me at replication but it doesn't necessarily work for all.

 

[Adenoid Hynkel]

Host your own domain with a good host.
Or archive your mail every now and then using mailstore.

MailStore Home - Free Email Archiving for Home Users

Free email archiving software for personal use: Download now

www.mailstore.com

 

[dabbler]

I have been keeping this handy... just in case. Could be out of date?

 

[Thor]

What the advantages of IMAP over POP3. I see POP4 standard has never got off the ground.
Why are our local ISPs so reluctant to implement outgoing server authentication, which appears to be essential to the proper running of IMAP. Also, it would make many email clients work far better when moving from one form of connectivity to another. Always the issue being the sending of emails seeing ISPs don't allow relaying.
Without o/g server authentication, IMAP appears to be a pain to set up. POP 3 being easier to set up as send only, but our local ISPs don't support even SSL on POP 3.

IMAP == it's on the server.
POP3 == it's on your machine. No sync no backup nothing.

The only reason POP3 is used by some SA ISPs is because of short cuts they don't want to spend money providing a service.

IMAP == storage on the server.
POP3 == it's your problem not the ISP.

 

[WAslayer]

IMAP == it's on the server.
POP3 == it's on your machine. No sync no backup nothing.

The only reason POP3 is used by some SA ISPs is because of short cuts they don't want to spend money providing a service.

IMAP == storage on the server.
POP3 == it's your problem not the ISP.

You are missing the meet..

 

[Thor]

You are missing the meet..

I wanted to come but me and carly have a it of an emergency on our hands.

 

[Rickster]

/Snip

What you should have done is backup your PST file (assuming you are using outlook) then setup the new email account then you would import your PST to the new inbox. IMAP still uses PST so you can rinse and repeat every time you switch ISP.

Pop3 isnt ideal in modern times and if you have more than one device with the mail account they wont sync well, especially on sent emails.

You should check your PST folder to see if you have a PST file before the migration took place, maybe yours is still there.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Neither POP3 or IMAP.

Access your mail directly on the cloud so that you never need to download it in the first place.

 

[Geoff.D]

Yes

What you should have done is backup your PST file (assuming you are using outlook) then setup the new email account then you would import your PST to the new inbox. IMAP still uses PST so you can rinse and repeat every time you switch ISP.

Pop3 isnt ideal in modern times and if you have more than one device with the mail account they wont sync well, especially on sent emails.

You should check your PST folder to see if you have a PST file before the migration took place, maybe yours is still there.

That is what I was in the process of doing. Only 30 minutes or so after concluding the deal. I unfortunately decided to do one last synch before backing up that portion of the post file. But it was too late, Telkom had already migrated my email to a new server and the synch cleared the local copy!
Gross malpractice as far as I am concerned and I will be challenging them on this. It makes a joke of the concept of having your mail on a server and offers no security actually. Had I still been using pop 3 all those emails would have been on my device and I would have lost nothing.
And absolute disgrace. The operator stated in the call that I needed to do the back up within 24 hours. Yet, < 60 minutes later the server change had been done. Fortunately, all important mails had been moved out of the IMAP folders the night before as is my habit.

Ls

 

[Thor]

Neither POP3 or IMAP.

Access your mail directly on the cloud so that you never need to download it in the first place.

Not practical.

I access email from multiple device using a client (IMAP) the browser based interfaces are horrific for smaller screens.


So IMAP always, POP not even once.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Not practical.

I access email from multiple device using a client (IMAP) the browser based interfaces are horrific for smaller screens.


So IMAP always, POP not even once.

Most of those use non-standard versions of Exchange protocols or their own systems these days so didn’t count them. Never meant should use the browser on mobile, there are apps for that so would be silly to do that.

We were applying forward thinking here, instead of living in the past.

But what I was rather implying is that you do the management of your mailbox directly on the cloud, on other devices you simply view/consume.

Ultimately never POP3 and never remove the mail from the server.

 

[Grouter]

C:/users/username/documents/outlook files or C:users/username/appdata/local/microsoft/outlook. Right click on "outlook files" or "outlook" folder and select "restore previous versions" from the right click menu. It should find various older versions of your pst file. Then select "restore" or rather "copy" to somewhere like the desktop and import into current outlook file from there. I do it all the time when users cock up or get new pc's.