[Techtalk] Using Evolution and Pine

[Mary Gardiner]

On Sun, Oct 29, 2006, David Sumbler wrote:
> One page I found on the web was suggesting downloading mail from the
> ISP's mail server, and then runnng an IMAP server on my own computer.
> That way I could use my existing Procmail filters etc.  But, from the
> little I know, I could probably do some filtering and sorting even on
> the remote server, couldn't I?  So running my own server is perhaps an
> unnecessary complication.  What does anyone else think?

It really really depends on the kind of capabilities your ISP has. Some
will let you install filters on their servers, some won't. Some will
only provide POP access, others IMAP. (FWIW POP is a protocol
essentially designed to allow the following conversation between client
and server: "I have 10 messages", "OK, I want to download them", whereas
IMAP has folder capabilities and the possibility of keeping all your
messages on the server is designed in better). Another factor is disk
space: you are going to be leaving messages on the server. Does your ISP
have room for all the messages you want to keep at any given time?

So you need to not only look at the theoretical capabilities of IMAP,
which are quite large, but also the actual functionality that your
proposed hosts (your ISP, you, a dedicated mail provider) can offer.

-Mary