Completely OT: OE6 help

[Andy Hall]

Exactly. Rules are not really sutiable for this application. Separate mail addresses and mailboxes are the correct solution.

[Rod]

What I don't understand is why you are using the Blueyonder email for business (or at all!).

I have very inexpensive hosting which provides email to my own domain name. I would have expected you to be doing something similar on your own domain (even if SWMBO uses the Blueyonder service). They also provide web-type access from anywhere which can be convenient.

Thunderbird is quite happy at handling two (or more) email servers for incoming and outgoing email. So it would be easy enough to keep business and personal apart.

(Yes - I know this post has an NTL email address... :-) )

[Owain]

Alternatively, many ISPs support selective downloading from mailboxes.

Connecting to the mailbox using [e-mail] downloads all the messages. Connecting to the mailbox using [e-mail] will only download messages with a To:thingee header.

BTW, if using the "if - don't" rules, if a message was sent to both David and Geraldine, neither would get it.

Owain

[DaveL]

Aren't these the same mailbox? I have 5 accounts setup as abcd12345 to abcd12345_5 but with no abcd12345_1

[neverwas]

but please bear in mind that ex-Blueyonder accounts with Virgin Media are a bit different in as much as there are 3 *aliases* on any single mailbox; and they - the aliases - are just that. So downloading one alias downloads all three as it is the mailbox which is being downloaded. (But you do get 5 mailboxes so Dave is doing it right by using different mailboxes.)

[neverwas]

Well spotted sir. That might be it if Dave really has used ******_1.

Exits, hanging head in shame (and very possibly pursued by a bear)

[The Medway Handyman]

Ferzackerly. I have 1 mailbox with 3 alias's + SWMBO has a mailbox with 1 alais.

All appears to be working correctly now - except that I'm getting e-mails 3 times :-(

[neverwas]

Purrrfect?

Which suggests to me you *might* have set it up:

a. with the 3 aliases as 3 separate accounts; b. with each account set to "Leave copy of message on server" (as John Rumm suggested) c. with account set to download;

Now each of those 3 steps seems to me fine in and of itself. You need the 3 aliases set up as 3 accounts in order to be able to send mail using each alias. But taken together I think they will lead to 3 copies. ("Think" as I don't use OE6 for mail and haven't done much with it for a long time.)

A simple way to check would be to clear the tick from the "Leave copy of message on server" checkbox. (But I must admit I have rather lost track of whether or not you positively want to leave a copy there for security etc purposes.)

[The Natural Philosopher]

IIRC POP3 has no 'look at headers only' functionality anyway.

You can only filter by inspecting the download once it has occurred.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think mine has about 6 last count.

Plus half a dozen more aliases that end up in those six from unrelated domains. It really amazes me when I say to people 'look I can get you 10 pop boxes on your own domain for a few quid a year' and they say 'but everybody knows my AOL account name and I use them for broadband: I have to stay with them'

Sigh.

So it would be easy enough to keep business

And the rest.

With unlimited aliases, setting up the email address for ' [e-mail]' to get the 'online registration' going and then deleting it is a matter of minutes if you suspect you will be eternally spammed therefter.

[Andy Hall]

It depends on the POP server implementation. RFC1939 permits an optional command in TRANSACTION state of TOP msg n (where msg is the message number and n a number of lines). This can be used to retrieve the headers plus optionally the first few lines of the message.

The point was really that using text scanning of headers for names etc. is not a satisfactory way of handling mail for multiple users. It can't be assumed to work reliably under all circumstances. Having separate mailboxes and addresses is the correct way to do the job. If one is going to do that, then it is far better to use IMAP rather than POP because of the benefits of use across a set of machines rather than one and having backup copies available.

[Rod]

So does mine. I was trying to keep it simple. :-)

I knew someone who used freeserve. They changed ISP but kept using the 'free' freeserve address for email. (I think it kept working so long as you connected by modem every so often.) Then freeserve pulled the rug and cancelled their account, deleted their email archive (not sure of details), etc. ... This way lies madness.

[Andy Hall]

Which is why one should have one's own domain name and control over it. Even complete with mailboxes and forwarding, it isn't exactly expensive.

[The Medway Handyman]

Hmmm. I have 3 alias on the same acount, 'me', my 'magician' persona & 'handyman'. 'Me' is set as default, but 'magician' always downloads first being at the top of the box. If I untick the 'leave a copy' box in 'magician' & handyman' will I still get e-mails addressed to those alais's?

[neverwas]

Yes and no.

When you download "Me" you are actually downloading the mailbox abcd12345. When you download "magician" you download the mailbox again. And ditto for "handyman". So you will get the mail to all 3 aliases when you download just the one.

But if you leave the 'leave a copy' box checked in "Me" I think you will (with plain vanilla settings) download the mail in the account and then probably get it again when you download using the next account. (Some software is clever enough not to do so but I am not sure about OE6). So you can uncheck the box in all 3 accounts and still get all the mail.

That said, you shouldn't trust anything you read here (or rather, not from people like me with no track record). So why not test it by unchecking the boxes, then sending mail to all 3 aliases using the other account, and seeing if it works as intended?

On the other hand, if email is important for your business there is much to be said for having a copy you can access if your PC is down so, as others have said, you might want to think about doing things a bit differently. One option I've not seen mentioned yet is getting/using an email account such as [e-mail] and having that autoforwarded to another account (eg a gmail or hotmail account) so you have an archive and the ability to access it if whoever hosts medwayhandyman.co.uk has problems. (Ummm- that's not terribly clear but I need to get back into the loft so I'll leave John Rumm et al to explain it better if you want to go that route.)

[Roger Mills]

Yes, I did, and still do.

You don't even have to do that. if the account gets suspended, you simply go to the appropriate 'Retrieve account' part of their website, and re-enable it.

Yes, they *did* - but they got so much flack in the press that they saw the error of their ways and re-instated everyone's account.

Based on your false information, perhaps. But, in reality, no - it works perfectly well.

I no longer use Freeserve addresses as my main email address, but they're great for creating disposable addresses when signing up for on-line services.

[Rod]

The information may be out of date (freeserve might have seen the error of their ways), but saying it is false seems to imply that I intentionally posted something untrue. I posted as last I heard from the affected person.

Anyway, as a junk account they possibly do as well as any - I really don't know. But I had earlier posted that I thought it a bad idea for Mr Medway's *business* email to be based on any "free" type of account and I was attempting to point out a possible future problem that might affect anyone who uses an ISP-based or "free" email address (i.e. not their own domain). If the ISP account stops being available *for any reason* the person has a problem. If the ISP (or whoever) decides to impose or increase charges they can be held over a barrel.

[Roger Mills]

No, I didn't intend to imply that - sorry if's how it sounded. I simply meant false in the sense of being based on hearsay, and not taking account of the full story.

I cannot disagree with that!

[Rod]

Understood - it is the nature of the beast that misunderstandings can easily occur. Thanks for seeing what I meant.