first, i finally got the treo 700p. yay.

now ive read on so many treo forums that its best to set up your email for imap. i wont bore you for the reasons you imap users already know. but i have to tell ya, i think its more complicated than pop. when i used pop, i just had the mail stored on the server for 15 days before deleting. that was easy as i could still access my newest mail from any web browser on the planet

however, this imap thing is really confusing for me. now i understand that the imap email sits on the server. great. so what. its really the same as what i did with pop. so my question is this: after awhile, your imap email storage space will get full. so where do you create the folder in outlook to store those emails you want to save? see the attached pic. i am not certain if you create a folder in the (already created) inbox, if it is local or if its part of the email space alloted to you.

also, lets say i get an email. it is on the server and i check it on my desktop at home and then a few minutes later, from another computer using a web client. what if i delete and purge the email on the web client? does that mean it will be deleted from my inbox on my laptop? i understand the principle that the email is on the server, but i am not understanding how a delete/purge will affect your email on your home email client (like outlook)

all of this of course, relates to what email client and method i use for my treo.

bob

 

IMAP isnt really more complicated that POP...

it just stores all the email on the server where you can access it from any another IMAP compliant reader.

also, IMAP is a superset of POP so you can configure your POP email to read and treat all emails as POP.

POP, when you give the option to stay on the server.

how IMAP differs though is the folders. you cant, (well i never really dealt with POP...) have folders on the server for a true POP server.

and that is the reason i like IMAP...

 

for me, our school is on a quarter (vs semester) system. so at the end of each quarter, i download all them locally (on the HD of the current work machine) to free up the IMAP disk quota.

unfortunately, for us, we get miniscule IMAP disk quota. i guess for smaller shops, this aint a problem.

all folders made under the IMAP branch is charged to your quota. now, i dont know how much each folder is actually charged though...




technically, when you login to your IMAP account, all it does is download the headers, unless your email client (been using mozilla suite's email client, now i use t-bird) needs to download the entire message in order to do junk filtering or your have setup rules for email.

so when you delete a message, it actually moves it to trash (or if you set up your IMAP client to makr mail for deleteion).

so the other client will still display headers. but if you try to open that message, the client will receive a flag saying that the message is no longer available and when it refreshes the screen, it will disappear from it... or at least that's how moz/t-bird behaves...

the IMAP server will know how to handle it...

FWIW, this is my work email IMAP folders...

 

correction:

check the default behavior of how a message is deleted on your IMAP server.

for me, using the web based client, and when i mean the web based client, not some 3rd party web based client. your provider should have a web based client that is from the vendor. for example, ours was the SUN email system and the web client was the SUN client. for outlook exchange people, you should be using the outlook web client...

anyways, the default behavior of the SUN client was to move the deleted message into the specific TRASH folder.

now, the problem i ran into early on, was netscape, then mozilla, had 3 diff behaviors:

1. move deleted message to trash. you then empty the trash to completely remove the message.
2. mark message for deletion by striking the message, but keep in the current folder. then use the client's PURGE MESSAGES command to completely remove the message.
3. skip the trash folder. just completely remove the message. no second chances of undeleting.

the problem was when on a user's work machine, they select #1. then on their home machine, they selected #2.

so when they got back to their work machine, the INBOX was totally screwed up sometimes...

so that's why you have to configure ALL of your email clients to behave the same when you delete messages...