How to deal with email on a home network

I've just bought a laptop and created a home network and am now facing
a few problems working out how to run things in the most convenient
way. I've a fair bit of knowledge of how things work at an enterprise
level but not of how to do it on a small scale with limited hardware.

At the moment i have:
- a desktop pc running windows XP
- a laptop running XP (with 802.11)
- a netgear ADSL modem/router
- a netgear 802.11 wireless access point (well, it's in the post but
will arrive in the next day or so) that will be connected to the
router

I've set up file and printer sharing and it's all working OK but email
is defeating me. My wife and i have about 5 different email addresses
- a joint one, a personal for my wife, one for online shopping and i
have a couple a personal and home business one. We have our own
domains which redirect email to seperate POP email boxes at our ISP
(currently Pipex though i'm still using virgin PoP boxes).

The desktop machine uses mailwasher to clear spam and i then pick up
all our mail using a single Outlook XP user account. This sorts the
mail into different folders based on the POP account it's come from.
It's all set up so that I can send from any of our accounts when
creating a new message in Outlook and replying to a message
automatically sends it from the account it was sent to. It's worked
really well for the last couple of years.

Now I have a laptop and want to be able to work with email on it. I
am happy to leave the Desktop machine on continually but cant work out
how to set up mail on the laptop. I cant justify more hardware to the
wife in the short term.

My thoughts were:
1) point Outlook at the same pst file on both the desktop and the
laptop. Disadvantages? It doenst seem to work - i've not yet been
able to find the pst file on the desktop over the network from the
laptop despite fully opening up the desktop c: drive as a share.

2) run Exchange server on the desktop with Outlook clients on both
the laptop and desktop. I think this would give me the same effect i
have at work where i can log onto two PCs simultaneously and use
Outlook on either. They both stay in synch.
Disadvantages? Exchange is very expensive. Administration? I'm not
sure if it will work with a client on the same machine.

3) a cheaper mail server with the same functionality as Exchange
(preferably freeware). Suggestions welcomed!

4) Use XP's remote desktop connection.
Disadvantages? This works to an extent but it's kind of crippling the
laptop, it locks up the desktop while it's in use (so my wife cant use
it) and of course it's not integrated with other apps on the laptop so
that when i hit a link in Mozilla it opens a local outlook email
rather than one from the accounts set up on the desktop.

5) leave all mail on the pop servers.
Disadvantages - not very convenient, slow as i'm effectively
downloading them all each time (am i?) storage space. Cant access all
my old emails when i need to refer to them.

6) Some other way i havent thought of yet!

Help please

In article <(E-Mail Removed) >, "anthony
james" (E-Mail Removed) says...
<snip>
>
> 3) a cheaper mail server with the same functionality as Exchange
> (preferably freeware). Suggestions welcomed!

I don't know anything about Exchange, but have a look at these free
servers:
Mercury Mail Transport System http://www.pmail.com/
Washington Uni IMAP project http://www.washington.edu/imap/
Macallan Mail Solution http://tinyurl.com/38uxn (this one does IMAP
and webmail - I've only just found it so I know nothing about it)

<snip>
> 5) leave all mail on the pop servers.
> Disadvantages - not very convenient, slow as i'm effectively
> downloading them all each time (am i?)

I don't know how Outlook does it, but many clients store a local copy
and simply don't delete the server copy until you tell them to, so it's
still there to download from another client.

> storage space.

Probably not much compared to modern disk sizes.

> Cant access all my old emails when i need to refer to them.

Received mail will be accessible as long as it's still on the server -
some ISP servers delete mail after a while. Sent mail will be
accessible if you BCC yourself and leave that on the server (with the
previous proviso).

On 20 Dec 2003 04:37:59 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) (anthony james)
wrote:

>I've just bought a laptop and created a home network and am now facing
>a few problems working out how to run things in the most convenient
>way. I've a fair bit of knowledge of how things work at an enterprise
>level but not of how to do it on a small scale with limited hardware.
....
>
>6) Some other way i havent thought of yet!

If you want to be really enterprising, get an old machine and run a
unix-lookalike on it. I run FreeBSD on a headless PII/266 (runs 24/7,
at least in theory) and have mail delivered straight to sendmail
running on it (inbound and outbound). The arrangement means you get
central filtering for mail nasties in both directions plus centralized
firewalling, plus other goodies.

We use Pegasus as mail client (it avoids some of the security problems
in that Other Emailer), and all the Pegasus mailboxes are stored on
the gateway (which runs samba windows file services), so there's no
problem about which w*ws box has the email. I used to do the same
with news until winXP screwed up the networking arrangements.

But there's a fairly steep learning curve, I'm afraid.

Btw, the software's all free, so the outlay is minimal. You might
like to look at itdealers if you want to buy a cheap box; they seem to
be getting a good press currently.

--
Please use the corrected version of the address below for replies.
Replies to the header address will be junked, as will mail from
various domains listed at www.scottsonline.org.uk
regards. Mike Scott Harlow Essex England.(unet -a-t- scottsonline.org.uk)

"Mike Scott" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 20 Dec 2003 04:37:59 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) (anthony james)
> wrote:
>
> >I've just bought a laptop and created a home network and am now facing
> >a few problems working out how to run things in the most convenient
> >way. I've a fair bit of knowledge of how things work at an enterprise
> >level but not of how to do it on a small scale with limited hardware.
> ...
> >
> >6) Some other way i havent thought of yet!
>
> If you want to be really enterprising, get an old machine and run a
> unix-lookalike on it. I run FreeBSD on a headless PII/266 (runs 24/7,
> at least in theory) and have mail delivered straight to sendmail
> running on it (inbound and outbound). The arrangement means you get
> central filtering for mail nasties in both directions plus centralized
> firewalling, plus other goodies.
>
> We use Pegasus as mail client (it avoids some of the security problems
> in that Other Emailer), and all the Pegasus mailboxes are stored on
> the gateway (which runs samba windows file services), so there's no
> problem about which w*ws box has the email. I used to do the same
> with news until winXP screwed up the networking arrangements.
>
> But there's a fairly steep learning curve, I'm afraid.
>
> Btw, the software's all free, so the outlay is minimal. You might
> like to look at itdealers if you want to buy a cheap box; they seem to
> be getting a good press currently.
>
> --
> Please use the corrected version of the address below for replies.
> Replies to the header address will be junked, as will mail from
> various domains listed at www.scottsonline.org.uk
> regards. Mike Scott Harlow Essex England.(unet -a-t- scottsonline.org.uk)

"Mike Scott" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

whoops
>> If you want to be really enterprising, get an old machine and run a
> unix-lookalike on it.

I've been thinking of an x-box for the purpose but it's a bit soon after the
laptop to be slipping any more hardware into the house (i want to use an
x-box as a media client in the kitchen)


> We use Pegasus as mail client (it avoids some of the security problems
> in that Other Emailer),
Although we both have PalmPilots that synch with Outlook (i didnt add that
little complication did i?) so a mail server that handles calendar etc would
be even better. However - that stuff can still be syched with just one
machine.

> But there's a fairly steep learning curve, I'm afraid.
i'm sure, but that's what Usenet's for :-)

Rob Morley wrote:
> In article <(E-Mail Removed) >, "anthony
> james" (E-Mail Removed) says...
> <snip>
>
>>3) a cheaper mail server with the same functionality as Exchange
>>(preferably freeware). Suggestions welcomed!
>


Haven't go the start of this thread so I am jumping in but for home use
(5 users or less) Lan Suite 602 is free -- the much improved latest
version is easy to set up as a mail server - and works even when port 25
is blocked by the isp. The security set up is good allowing access to be
restricted local mail clients with non-routable IP addresses, in
addition it has its own web server with a built in Webmail facility.
http://support.software602.com/

On my own set up I run Lansuite on a 500 mhz box with 330mb memory as a
NT4 service connected through Kerio personal firewall to an ADSL router.
In addition the clients are either Outlook Express or the much superior
Mozilla Thunderbird (Win and Linux) with Spampal as a filter on all
Windows clients and in addition K9 on the Outlook Express clients

Anthony James wrote:
> bonzo wrote:
>
>> Rob Morley wrote:
>
snip
> Do i need to run lansuite on it's own machine? can it sit on my desktop
> pc along with a client?
>
> Thunderbird i installed on the laptop this morning (being used to post
> this). Seems excellent so far.
>
> aj


Yes Lansuite isn't that reasource hungry it will run quite happily in
the background even on a 586 class pc on Win98 or NT4, and now memory
very cheap makes sure it has at least 256mb more if you want to run
several MS Office apps at the same time.

Likewise Kerio personal firewall and AV-Guard don't intrude on the
general running of a desktop PC. SpamPal can be a bit intrusive but if
all the PCs run a copy to do thier own filtering it isn't a proble.

I run NT4 on my server because it is more stable and much better at
multi tasking than 98se or ME, and is less problematic than XP, also
licensed unused copies can be bought for under an tenner on eBay ---
the only problem is it hasn't USB support but very limmited USB can be
added.

For back I use a tape drive bought off ebay for a tenner and also
archive to CD-R using Nero Express software (tip only load Nero express
as the the Nero software for CD-RW runs constantly in thre background
and can slow PCs to a crawl)

bonzo wrote:
> Rob Morley wrote:

> http://support.software602.com/
>
> On my own set up I run Lansuite on a 500 mhz box with 330mb memory as a
> NT4 service connected through Kerio personal firewall to an ADSL router.
> In addition the clients are either Outlook Express or the much superior
> Mozilla Thunderbird (Win and Linux) with Spampal as a filter on all
> Windows clients and in addition K9 on the Outlook Express clients

Again that's more hardware which is a bit of a barrier - having just
bought a laptop and WAP i need to keep purchases to a minimum. I've set
up mail to 'leave on server for 7 days'. that way i should end up
with everything on both machines though of couse i'll have two sent mail
folders. hmm

Do i need to run lansuite on it's own machine? can it sit on my desktop
pc along with a client?

Thunderbird i installed on the laptop this morning (being used to post
this). Seems excellent so far.

aj