New home network / E-mail server?

James_p

James_p

James_p

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Joined
7 Mar 2007
Posts
123
Hi,

I need to advise on setting up a home network and ways we could access our e-mails/music/videos etc after we move house.

At the moment we have a wireless Netgear DG834GT connecting all the computers (3 desktops + a laptop) in the house at 54Mbps and the broadband. With two computers running Outlook 2007 and all of our music stored on one of the machines on the network.

The new house will be fully wired, with wireless for the laptop, so speeds will be a lot quicker hence me wanting to include the videos, some HD, with the music. (Sometimes the play back can be a bit jerky over the wireless)

The main problem I have is that my dad’s office is going to be outside the house, above the new garage so for him to just check his e-mails it’s a bit of a hassle. Ideally he‘d like to access them through his laptop in the house as well but this means having two copies of incoming e-mails and not having all of his sent items in the same place.

I had thought about some sort of e-mail/network server but I wouldn’t know where to start with that or if it's what I need.

All suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks
 
Just in case it matters.

We currently use NTL freedom for our e-mail accounts but this is probably going to have to be changed to dial-up with new e-mail address from either our new broadband provider or an external service.
 
You can easily check emails from two machines by just puting the .pst in a network share, and then point both outlooks to the file.

T'was what I used to do.
 
I was thinking that when we bought the laptop but wouldn’t there be a problem if he's running outlook on both machines at the same time? Wouldn’t Outlook lock the .pst file from being opened twice?

lokkers, How did you have it running? Did you not have problems with the above?

Also, if ever goes out with the laptop he wouldn't be able to check any old mail as it's stored on the network, not the hard drive. Having said that, I could set up a quick rule to copy any new mail into a local folder.
 
James_p said:
I was thinking that when we bought the laptop but wouldn’t there be a problem if he's running outlook on both machines at the same time? Wouldn’t Outlook lock the .pst file from being opened twice?
Click to expand...

that is correct. outlook pst files are indeed locked so you can only access them from one pc a time. :)
 
Ok, I don't think the sharing pst file is going to work due to the risk and performance issues.

I have found programs that could sync the two computers but there's still the risk that we could loose data if it updates the wrong file.

Is this as difficult as I'm starting to think it is?
 
How about using IMAP if your ISP offers it? Unlike POP3 all the email remains on the ISPs server and when you send/receive you download headers then full items & it's designed for roaming users.
 
Ozymandias said:
MS say that network PST storage can lead to corruption - knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019/
Click to expand...

Storing any flat file database across a network has the same risk.

I never experienced any problems, and didn't need to access email from both machines at the same time (to be honest, why would i - I can only be in one place at a time).

The other option I could suggest would be to enable remote desktop on his desktop machine (provided its running XP Pro or a suitable flavour of Vista), and then RDP onto it to work, check email etc. With port forwarding or VPN, he would have access to the machine when not at home (provided he has internet access) and the best thing is he can access his emails/work even without his laptop.
 
Thanks,

I think I'll have a look into both of your suggestions although having looked around I can't see many ISPs offering IMAP as a service.

Cheers
 
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