Help me choose a new email program

[ProDave]

So my old email program let me down big time. Refused to start one day. So I upgraded to a newer version and that then lost half my emails. It's taken a lot of work to recover all the important ones I need so time for a re think and a new email program with some very specific requirements:

Must be free, and be available for windoze and linux.

No 1 rerquirement (which was the major failing with the old one) is that is must store all emails in an open format (e.g .eml?) as individual files so I am not locked into one email program and can easily migrate to a different one in the future.

Must be able to handle multiple email accounts (3 business and 2 private email accounts) all on the same log in. All emails from all sources landing in the inbox, with some way to differentiate them. (old program had an "account" column to say which email account they were from, and could set rules to highlight them in different colours)

Likewise when composing an email you must be able to select which account you are sending the email from.

Must be able to import my address book e.g from a standard format like CSV.

Must be known to be reliable.

Must have an option to just "look" at the server (the old program called that advanced account access) so you can just have a look and see what is there and choose to download them or just leave them on the server for later.

Must have decent user or author support (another major failing with the old one, when you start looking a LOT of people have the same problem but no solutions offered)

 

[Blue Duck]

Gmail?

 

[Murdoch]

try reading this:

http://digitalunite.com/guides/email/how-use-windows-live-mail

 

[ProDave]

I should say, I don't want a web based email service, and I want to use the email addresses I already use, all baed on domain names I own. I don't "do" gmail, hotmail etc.

I prefer to avoid microsoft if I can.

 

[Murdoch]

I should say, I don't want a web based email service, and I want to use the email addresses I already use, all baed on domain names I own. I don't "do" gmail, hotmail etc.

I prefer to avoid microsoft if I can.

so free, not Microsoft, not web based.

Hum..... nice and flexible then!

 

[Blue Duck]

AFAIK Gmail can do all that stuff and more. 

why not give it a try.?

 

[bluetobits]

I used to use Thunderbird, was pretty good from what i remember and boasts a lot of security. 

 

[Sidewinder]

Apart from GMail indexing everything you send and receive, Google saving it and analysing it, so none of your communications are private.

 

[calltronics]

Sounds like you’ve been using an old pop3 email system.

Firstly an email program as you refer to is a program that reads emails from your actual email server and displays them on your computer.

The email server is either yours if you are a large company and run an email service or more commonly it is a service provided by the hosting company of your website (as you have your own domains I would imagine this was your operation).

So POP3 downloads the emails from the server and stores them on your computer. Lose your computer or crash it and you’ve lost the lot.

The more modern approach is to use the IMAP/SMTP mail service where your local machine running your email reader will “synchronise” with your hosts email server. All the emails will remain stored and backed up on the host, just “local” copies will be made. The host’s mail system keeps all your emails and attachments until such time as you tell it to delete them.

Now the latter option is so much neater and can be read by any device with every mail server and on multiple devices. So reading an email on your computer does not mean that you cannot read it latter on your tablet or phone.

The question you posed is not really correct but I hope this sheds some light on POP3 and IMAP and gives you some ideas to think about.

 

[Essex1]

Royal Mail?

 

[ProDave]

Yes you are right.My emails are hosted by the doman host, and their servers can be accessed by POP3 or IMAP. I have been using POP3

I don't like the idea of IMAP as I don't like things on "the cloud" and not being able to access them if the internet connection is down (which happens a lot here) so though old fashioned I will probablt stick to POP3.

But that is not the issue. the issue is finding a replacement email program, one I can rely on.

As to losing things if your computer crashes, that's what backups are for.  I had a recent backup of my emails and imagine my horror when the new version of my email program when through the motions of restoring the backup, then showed no files at all.

THAT is why I don't want an email program that stores messaes in a proprietery format (in this case one file contained all emails in a folder, so one file per folder).  I want storage in a standard format that can, of necessary be read by a different email program, and is easier to backup with standard backup tools, not relient on the whim of the program you use whether it bothers to read a backup or not.

 

[calltronics]

Though so, just use the same or any email program that you are comfortable with and use the IMAP option.

Let the host provider store and backup everything!

So much easier!

Glad to be of assistance first time back on this forum for years.

Hello to everyone again who reads this post.

 

[Blue Duck]

Apart from GMail indexing everything you send and receive, Google saving it and analysing it, so none of your communications are private.

That is very true but I think it's more for the purpose of advertising rather than industrial espionage. 



@calltronics Hello

 

[Sidewinder]

No good for me though Duck, nor you really if you use your personal email for work.

Data Protection & all that.

To such an extent, that we are looking at in house (literally) hosted Exchange Server for compliance!

 

[ProDave]

Though so, just use the same or any email program that you are comfortable with and use the IMAP option.

Let the host provider store and backup everything!

So much easier!

Glad to be of assistance first time back on this forum for years.

Hello to everyone again who reads this post.

As I understand it (SWMBO uses IMAP) only the INBOX remains on the server.  Anything you move from the inbox to another folder is then removed from the server and only stored on your computer. So you still need to back those up.

 

[Blue Duck]

@Sidewinder

At work we got in trouble with the council (one of our contracts) because our databases are held on servers in the US and not in the EU!

They are all full of viruses and ransomware now. 

:lol:

 

[Sidewinder]

This is one of the reasons I now have a Synology 2413+ in house to give my our own private cloud storage.

Looking at taking this one stage further with the Exchange, and hoping to grow the business with the "NHS" to cover it.

Having had meetings with the Trust I can see where they are coming from.

 

[calltronics]

As I understand it (SWMBO uses IMAP) only the INBOX remains on the server.  Anything you move from the inbox to another folder is then removed from the server and only stored on your computer. So you still need to back those up.

No you can set up subfolders but only under your imap folder on the email program and sync all the folders to your mail server.

But really you should not use an email server as a filling system, it's not designed for that job.

The important emails should be copied and filled on your computer and simply left on the server for archive.

At least this way you can access an old email from any device or web browser.

 

[calltronics]

@Sidewinder

At work we got in trouble with the council (one of our contracts) because our databases are held on servers in the US and not in the EU!

They are all full of viruses and ransomware now. 

:lol:

I think you are being a little dramatic here, the security of information on servers is pretty good, certainly better than the average company or individual.

Most reputable server companies would be out of business by now if what you said was true.

But in saying this if you trust your data on a "cheaper" provider who uses not so reputable support staff your data can go amiss!!

Stick to reputable and I agree UK server companies, they are affordable and reliable

 

[Blue Duck]

Thanks, it's not me being the pedantic one its the council /EU rules apparently.