A little gmail help

[MrGibbage]

I've used the same email address for years. I like having one email address--even having a second address at work kinda bugs me, but I deal with it. Now I need to have a new gmail account to set up the phone. Sure it's free and if I don't want to use it, I don't have to, but the truth is, I do want to use it, primarily (solely??) for the push capability. So, I have set up my gmail account in preparation for the Big Day. Looking around on the settings, I see... what's this? A way of linking other email accounts! Sounds great but it has to be POP3. I do everything over IMAP. My account supports POP3, but I really want my mail to stay on the server (I'm sure I don't have to tell you the benefits of IMAP over POP3). I have full access to the mail server itself, and can make configuartion changes (procmail and such), if that helps. What my goal would be is to have a way to keep my current email address as my primary address and have it pushed to my phone so I get instant notification of incoming mail. Plus I want to maintain all mail on my current server. Anyone see a good solution here?

[MrGibbage]

I thought of another way to put my question: In other words, is there a way to push non-gmail accounts, through hook or crook, to the phone? If so, does it maintain the mail on the original server (IMAP)? And what's more, if I reply to a mail, will it be from my gmail address, or will it be from my regular address? Just how seamless is it?

[insight spinner]

Hi, this will be a very end user explanation. Techies will fill in the details. I use gmail as my main source of email, but I use my biz email as my primary email. I read it in gmail, but it stays on the server. If I want, I can go to my domain account and see all the email I've ever received. But I've stopped doing that -- haven't been there in months.

[idawgik]

In gmail, when you set up another account to recieve email from over POP3, there's a checkbox to keep a copy of the message on the server.

[mast3rpyr0]

Gmail supports both IMAP and POP. It should not delete anything from the original source.

[MrGibbage]

Originally Posted by idawgik

In gmail, when you set up another account to recieve email from over POP3, there's a checkbox to keep a copy of the message on the server.

I thought about that, but the last time I tried doing that (a couple of years ago, at least), I remember it caused some real strangeness having one system checking via IMAP and one system checking via POP3.

I was thinking about writing a procmail rule to autoforward a copy of each email to my gmail account, but then each mail in that account would appear to be from me, rather than the original sender, correct? Is there a way to forward mail and make it look like it's from the original sender still? I don't know.

I'm still open for suggestions, and I haven't thrown out the POP3 and leave messages on the server option, if someone can tell me that it will play nicely with other IMAP clients checking it at the same time.

[ROGUE7474]

I've had a SBC Global/Yahoo email account for several years and I don't want to have to notify all my contacts, change business cards, flyers, and everything else that my current email address is on. How can I get around this, is it possible to have my SBC/Yahoo email pushed to the gmail account, while still keeping my SBC/Yahoo address (@sbcglobal.net), and having notifications of incoming emails, deleting, composing, etc.

[trumani]

It is possible, but Yahoo charges something to the effect of $20/year to allow it to be pop forwarded to gmail i think.

[insight spinner]

Originally Posted by MrGibbage

I thought of another way to put my question: In other words, is there a way to push non-gmail accounts, through hook or crook, to the phone? If so, does it maintain the mail on the original server (IMAP)? And what's more, if I reply to a mail, will it be from my gmail address, or will it be from my regular address? Just how seamless is it?

Hmmmm...i think the best bet is still to read your biz email through gmail. I have my biz email as my default addy for new mail and replies and except for some group lists, (which id the email as coming from my biz account through gmail account) it seems that emails come directly from my preferred account. I'm sorry I don't have time to spare today to look up push and pull differences so I can respond more accurately. Your mail remains on your server AND in gmail for all the benefits of storage and search, so that's an additional plus to me because all the files sent to clients are archived twice, but not locally. My biggest problem was getting used to tags vs. folders for a filing system. And for me a big problem is search. Gmail doesn't return results for partial words -- which irks me to no end (unless there is a lab for this I've missed). There are some cool "labs" that provide additional functionality based on user programming that help gmail tremendously with more growing all the time.

I haven't looked back to my email client or direct email source in a year and LOVE that I don't have to worry about crash losses (like how I lost ALL my emails in netscape -- TWICE). The only email I've lost with gmail is stuff I accidently trashed or spammed with a key combo and didn't remember to retrieve until too late. Maybe one or two emails tops.


I'm sure someone more savvy will chime in shortly.

[MrGibbage]

I just found the answer to one of my questions. I *CAN* forward mail from my server using procmail to my gmail account and the mail maintains the original sender. This is good. But of course, if I reply to it, the reply will come from my gmail account, which will surprise the sender since it was not originally sent there, but I guess I can deal with that.