Outlook - Account/PST sharing on network

PaulC2K

PaulC2K

PaulC2K

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Im trying to figure out what the solution is for being able to access my email accounts on multiple machines on the same network.

Apparently MS doesnt recommend simply locating the .PST file on the network with each machine accessing it. I strongly suspect the solution involves Exchange, however im well aware its not a piece of cake, but im wondering if there are alternatives which offer the same thing without needing a business enterprise solution.

I just want all my mail gathered into 1 file, with multiple instances of outlook able to access the files, send an email out and it be registered in that 1 file, so theres a record of it in every version of outlook, rather than different machines having different records etc.
I'd need maybe 5-10 different mailboxes to be accessed, coming into 1 'PST' type file, and i want to be using outlook, not a browser based solution or any other email client.

Does anyone know whether what i want is achievable, and whether thats possible without MS Exchange or a paid Office or Exchange hosting service.
It might just be easier and cheaper to switch to a version of Windows Small Business Server seeing as it has exchange and 2008 is only £50-60
 
Nah, they're all on hosted servers, SMTP.

I can obviously pull the emails from the server on each device, providing each client is set to leave emails on the server but anything i send from 1 device only exists in that devices PST file.

What i need is a master PST file on a server which updates a client PST-type file, and when you send an email its the server which does so and then it exists in that file which can update the clients.
Or at least something that ends up achieving the same thing, im not fussed how it happens :D I'd prefer each machine had a PST type file though, simply so theres offline access to everything.

I need to buy a PSU to build a server to replace my HP Microserver so it can be used elsewhere, and i'll download SBS 2008 Premium trial (they dont offer standard) and see if i can figure it out in the term of the trial. I'd need a new license as WHS2011 will be tied to the HP microserver hardware and £55 seems reasonable, theres even a free upgrade to SBS 2011 but that doesnt include Exchange unfortunately.
 
Yeah, im sure theres better, im just using what im familiar with to explain what i want. I dont want a hollow client which simply reads from a server, i want to have a physical copy on each client, but mainly on the server.

A good 10 years ago i worked for an NHS hospital IT dept and that really is the extent of my experience with Exchange, using it to access my emails, as well as setting up accounts for staff among a dozen other stuff, but i've never installed it and i certainly dont fancy buying a license from what ive seen. Yet SBS2008 has a version of Exchange (probably limited mailboxes, as opposed to unlimited or w/e) and i can pick that up with an OS which i'd need for £55 + P&P.

Im basically posting hoping that someone understands what im trying to achieve and can point me in the right direction, because i dont even know the correct terms to be able to search for them.
I dont even know if exchange is what i want. I have multiple mailboxes from different domains, and outlook fetches emails from them regularly and stores the contents in a PST file. I want to have 1 PST file (or something that acts in a similar manner) which is stored on a network, and multiple devices can access it at the same time.
I suspect Exchange is just managing mailboxes, rather than PST's, but ive absolutely no idea and havent a clue where to begin looking to ask for this sort of information.
 
Didnt realise there was multiple replies yesterday :/

I've just had a look at my settings and i never realised that it was connecting using POP3, so i've had a look at the settings for IMAP and its identical, so thats easy enough right? apparently not. When i tell it to test the settings it greys over and outlook has crashed.

It doesnt seem to be a problem if i dont try and test the settings, it seems to do a fetch fine. I'll have to try it on the other machines but its quite possible this is what i needed all along, i just didnt realise the difference between connections.

One thing its doing which i'd rather it didnt do is using 1 PST file for each account, i cant merge them into 1 single account or 1 per domain, so a domain i have 3 accounts on, and may utilise more later, requires 3 pst files when i'd happily have them together and use some email rules to arrange them as i'd do anyway, but we'd rather have multiple email accounts for different tasks than 1 just to make outlook a bit cleaner.

I'll have a bit more of a play, and report back later, but it certainly looks promising aside from it crashing if you test the settings (never seen it do that for POP/SMTP before).
 
The multiple mailboxes for the emails really makes IMAP rather annoying, and im not sure whether or not to continue with it. I think i can create some basic rules to apply to anything from this account gets moved to the original PST file, I already have a couple dozen set up but they dont seem to be moving anything from these new PSTs yet if i create a 'move all from [email protected] to folder xyz', it moves them across, so maybe i can modify the existing rules to look in multiple mailboxes, otherwise i'll just re-do them as i know whats coming from specific accounts.

Hopefully i'll be able to get it set up how i want, and then transfer the rules to the other machines, not sure whether thats stored in the PST or not, but im sure i'll figure a way, if not i'll rebuild them all on each machine :(

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.
 
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