I use Thunderbird, all my email accounts in one place with great filtering and sorting options and an instant update when new mail is received. Way more convenient than having to go on multiple websites to check my email accounts.
Google Mail?
- Thread starter Murray
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Thunderbird/IMAP plays nicely with Gmail (more so than Outlook, even 2010 in my experience), but there's still some inconsistency over the handling of the "Sent Mail" folder/label - if you move an item out of "Sent Mail" using Thunderbird, the "Sent Mail" label is removed, whereas it's always retained if you use the Gmail (webmail) interface.
I honestly think if you're going to get the best out of a Gmail account, you're best off sticking to the webmail interface and the Gmail method of "doing things" - the label (keyword) approach is fundamentally at odds with the "folder" paradigm used by Outlook and other IMAP clients, and although they can be made to work together after a fashion, at best it's a marriage of convenience rather than mutual attraction.
I honestly think if you're going to get the best out of a Gmail account, you're best off sticking to the webmail interface and the Gmail method of "doing things" - the label (keyword) approach is fundamentally at odds with the "folder" paradigm used by Outlook and other IMAP clients, and although they can be made to work together after a fashion, at best it's a marriage of convenience rather than mutual attraction.
It sounds like you guys haven't used Gmail before...?
- I have 3 hotmail accounts, 1 previous university account, and 1 from my ISP all added into Gmail via POP etc. Not had any problems with it. Why install a program like bloaty outlook/thunderbird I don't need? Gmail's intereface is much better I think - I used outlook and thunderbird for years previously.
- Gmail > Settings > Filters ... not as comprehensive as outlook "rules", but easily good enough.
Caporegime
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When your workplace uses MS Exchange...Outlook + MS Exchange = nice and easy.
That completely defeats the security advantages, now anyone who gains access to your gmail account has access to all your other emails which your paypal and other accounts go to. You also lose all access to emails in the event of connectivity problems.
Soldato
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I use this with Firefox - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/webmail-notifier/
Simple and unobtrusive.
Got 2 gmails accounts, 2 hotmail, 1 Yahoo and 1 GMX.
Simple and unobtrusive.
Got 2 gmails accounts, 2 hotmail, 1 Yahoo and 1 GMX.
Sorry but I don't know how you refer to that as an "advantage". Logging in to all my emails separately? Massive step backwards...
Besides, you make it sound like it's easy to "gain access" to my gmail account. How would one do that? Easiest way I can think is someone could steal my phone - but that is pin protected. Or install a keylogger on my PC? Still not that easy.
It would also alert me if someone logged in with another IP.
You don't need to manually do that.
Pin protection is useless btw, only encryption protects the data. The user database could also be compromised. An ISP account is far less likely to be targeted or compromised due to a much smaller user base and higher levels of security.
You still have the issue of not being able to access emails offline.
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Associate
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Why is Gmail less secure than ISP email just because more people use it? Gmail has SSL which a lot of ISP emails dont support.
I didn't say that, I said it was more likely to be targeted.
You won't find any decent ISP that doesn't use SSL or the superior TLS.
Which is essentially the same as using a client because loads of messages are downloaded to your pc.
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There is also a vista/7 gadget that offers more customisation:
http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=41af0803-c761-465a-8a93-5c1da020e487&bt=1&pl=1
Care to elaborate on the first point? How would I not manually have to do that? If I want a consistent web interface from any PC in the world, with all my emails in one place that is...?
I see your point about encryption... but would someone actually be able to retrieve my google password if they stole my phone? The data I don't care about...
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Well you would have to do it manually if you wanted to access them from other peoples trojan and keylogger infested pc's.
Some browsers like firefox save password data in plaintext. If you're logged in then they'll also be able to access accounts. If you have physical access to a device then it's possible to obtain passwords for any websites though.
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Well, more specifically; my home PC, Work PC, Laptop and android phone. So you'd recommend I install outlook/thunderbird on all of them (K-9 for my phone I guess) and configure all my emails accounts for all of them. Then I download all my emails as opposed to having them backed up on the web? Not to mention have to back up/sync calendar files, docs and tasks? All of which I use daily on google...? Not sounding very attractive so far. Especially since I've had hardware failures in the past which would make this all very tedious.
Well for a start I don't use Firefox, I always log out, never save important passwords (all of which are different for different websites), and less important websites passwords are all stored in Lastpass which is itself passworded and encryted anyway.
Also, all the important websites I use have personal security questions etc, which makes having access to my email for a short time irrelevent, no?
It takes about 5 mins to configure it and it only needs to be done for one pc due to config files, and you still have it backed up on the web. Most people have no use for the other items so it's hardly surprising that many prefer to use an email program.
Well often it's done by someone who knows you thus has access to all that info.
E-mail clients are a great way to manage all your email accounts, maintaining a local archive of all emails that is always accessible, providing instant notification and doesn't require the use of an internet browser, while securely separating all email accounts so someone who has access to one account doesn't have access to all your other emails from paypal, ebay, banks etc. It's easy to see why someone would use it over web-mail.
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Another point/question I forgot to mention/ask... I thought IMAP couldn't handle Gmail properly due to the "labels" - I tried in outlook ages ago so I could back up work emails into my personal Gmail account. I prefer the label system to folders now I have gotten used to it, so that's another benefit of Gmail for me.
If people have no use for the other items, I can only urge them to
Google calendar is good!We're talking about someone who seriously wants to ruin my life if they are keen enough to find out all about my family/pets/education or any other likely security answers... I'm careful with all my paperwork, and my PC. So it still sounds pretty unlikely.
I definitely don't doubt email clients are great way to manage emails, having the advantage of being feature rich compared to web-mail. However, for me, I'd obviously trade that in, along with the debatable security issues for cross-platform consistency and ease of setup.
As a last point, what if someone stole your PC, then booted in a linux live distribution to bypass to windows password... wouldn't they just as easily have access to ALL your emails then?
As far as I know IMAP works fine.
If people have no use for the other items, I can only urge them to
Pretty much every smart phone in the past 5 years has a calendar on it, I haven't needed anything else since.
If you don't use encryption.
Caporegime
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