[BlueOnyx:12766] Re: Uncool email

[Ralf Quint]

At 09:28 AM 4/3/2013, shouldbe q931 wrote:

>Well I use gmail for all my mailing lists, and the web interface is
>much easier than having to manage a POP3/IMAP client, it also does
>"plain text" reasonably well. I can see the headers with one click.

Sorry, can't concur here at all. I use several GMail addresses 
myself, the first one since the first round of "invitations" more 
than a decade ago now.
But I use their web interface only when I am not anywhere near a 
computer of mine and would have to check out an email that I can't 
read properly on my phone or need to get a printout/download of an 
attachment...
All mailing lists are retrieved from accounts either on GMail or GMX 
(which I have longer than Gmail) via POP3, as I do not need to be 
online to read and or look for old posts/topics, as all is stored 
(and backed up!!!) locally.
Nice to have if I decide to get out of the city and seek a quiet spot 
up in the hills where there isn't any Internet access for my laptop 
or my phone..

All business or more important private accounts are handled via IMAP.

Both POP3 and IMAP take mere seconds to set up and I can organize my 
email far better than on Gmail and those stupid "labels". And you can 
not even do half of what I can do with either Eudora or T-Bird in 
terms of filters/rules to manage emails...

>Spam filters don't belong in web browsers, they belong on email
>servers. IMHO Client based spam filtering is a waste of resource, spam
>filtering should be done at the perimeter...
So much for the theory. Would be nice if you could relay that for 
example to the folks at Yahoo, Earthlink or Verizon, those poor souls 
get inundated with spam despite all the (false) promises of their providers.
Even my now 8 year old version of Eudora does a better job of 
catching what comes occasionally through, T-Bird does an outstanding 
job too. And try to hijack either one and get hold of my contacts to 
spam them, something that I see all the time happening at work with 
people that use a web browser and web based email providers only...

>Granted I only use gmail for mailing lists, I wouldn't use it for
>"real" email. For "real" email I run Exchange, as I am yet to find an
>open source shared nothing clustered email solution that is as easy to
>use.
Exchange? Easy to use? =-O
"Nobody knows the troubles I have seen, nobody knows my sorrow..."
Sorry, Exchange is a cest pool. The only thing that makes it viable 
is the way contacts and calendar integrate and that stupid iCrap 
devices can only use dreaded ActiveSync and even then loose all info 
if for whatever reason the account settings get screwed up or get 
lost. Had to go through this mess over the past Easter weekend for a 
client who changed Internet providers at the end of last month when 
most users were already gone for a few days...

Granted I only use the email on BlueOnyx for some info mailboxes on 
Open Source projects I am involved in and to provide email for a 
couple of friends who roam this planet out of the country.

For myself, I use actually hmailserver, which is not Open Source but 
free of charge and that does both a good job (I use it set up for 
IMAP) and is easy to set up/use.

As I am using an Android phone (couldn't be arsed into using a Jesus 
Mobe) I use Google Calendar though which syncs "all by itself" ;-) 
and for contacts, I use Zindus to sync between my address book in 
T-Bird and Google/Android phone. And that keeps contacts and calendar 
even if my home/office IP changes or becomes otherwise unavailable...

>My perimeter spam filtering is however most certainly not on Exchange :-)

Not only would that set up back quite a few more bucks, but there 
isn't much that works too well either (and I have used several on my 
previous job, including GFI and Symantec)
I am running DSpam on my (Linux based) perimeter firewall, so for all 
email that's going to my own server, I am not worried at all. Has a 
far higher percentage than any commercial spam filter I have deal 
with so far...
Have set this also up at a couple of clients, in front of their 
(Exchange) email server and it works there just as well...

>Different horses for different courses...

Exactly! Use a web browser for just that, browsing www, and a proper 
email client for email. Using a web based mail client can be an 
alternative in "cases of need" but I would never, ever recommend that 
as the primary way to use email...

Ralf