Email on home network

[Timbo]

Hi, a question from a home networking newbie.

I've just set up home networking after moving from one PC at home to two
(the second is a notebook). Both PCs use XP Home. We have four usernames in
XP for the members of the family.

I've managed to get the PCs talking to each other and also sharing
documents.

So far so good. Now: email...

Currently we all use OE6 on the original PC. I also have Outlook 2003
available on both PCs, as I bought Office 2003 S&T recently, but don't use
it at the moment. Now - it would obviously be nice to be able to work in
email irrespective of which PC the person is sitting at. But obviously we
don't want to have totally separate email folders etc on the two PCs, with
the messages split between the two PCs.

What is the normal, obvious way to do this on a simple home network? Can OE6
be set up on the new PC to act as a remote workstation for a user on the
other PC, so all email and contact/address book folders are stored there?
(Is this the same as one PC being a "mail server"?)

Alternatively, would switching to Outlook 2003 allow this in some way?

This seems like it must be an everyday problem with so many people setting
up wireless networks at home, but I can't seem to find anything about it.

Any help appreciated!

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[Mark L. Ferguson]

OE cannot share mail profiles. The minute the network was not available, starting up OE would trash the mail folder settings.

Outlook 2003 has the ability to use a shared network Profile folder (usually named outlook.PST)

Remote Desktop is an option (start/run. type: HH "%windir%\Help\rdesktop.chm::/rdesktop_overview.htm) (XP Pro edition only) but it
takes the host machine out of use for anyone else.

 

[none]

On my home network I have OE set up on my 'slave' computers to leave email
on the server. Emails are only removed from the server when the main
computer checks for email.

I realise its not the ideal solution but it works for me.

OE cannot share mail profiles. The minute the network was not available,
starting up OE would trash the mail folder settings.

Outlook 2003 has the ability to use a shared network Profile folder
(usually named outlook.PST)

Remote Desktop is an option (start/run. type: HH
"%windir%\Help\rdesktop.chm::/rdesktop_overview.htm) (XP Pro edition only)
but it takes the host machine out of use for anyone else.

--

Mark L. Ferguson
FAQ for MS Antispyware version 1.0.509
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm
marfers notes for windows xp
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/chatNotes.htm
.

 

[Timbo]

Thanks for both suggestions. I'll try them out.

--
Change red to blue in email address.

On my home network I have OE set up on my 'slave' computers to leave email
on the server. Emails are only removed from the server when the main
computer checks for email.

I realise its not the ideal solution but it works for me.

 

[Timbo]

Report back:

The solution to this was Outlook 2003.

I shared the folder containing "outlook.pst" on the original PC; then on the
new PC I installed Outlook 2003; then in the Mail part of Control Ppanel I
linked my Profile across to it. So now the new PC looks across to the
original PC for the email data and stores new emails there too. I did this
for 4 family users separately.

Note: If you can't afford to buy Outlook 2003, you can achieve the same
thing with Mozilla Thunderbird, which is available free.

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