webmail vs desktop email client

[ezkop]

Originally Posted by EricG

With the ability to move and copy, you can migrate accounts and cached IMAP serves as a backup.

It seems these days most webmail services support importing emails from other account.

[rmns2bseen]

Originally Posted by David

If I had enough cash, I would just purchase a high end smartphone, and then buy a plan from a Canadian provider, that would push mail to my phone, wherever I was in the world.

However, if I did that, it would likely cost me more than what I am paying for airline tickets (and hotels) so, what I do is to purchase local (and global) SIM cards, for wherever I plan to visit, and then piddle around using wifi.... which is a pain in the butt, for sure

Canada is the biggest rip off in the world (when it comes to smartphone plans and rates) for sure.

Yeah, I just use my phone mainly these days. This is my first time back at this forum in a long, long while...looking at some of the discussions still going on about services I had totally forgotten about (eg VFEmail) is like stepping back in time. Ahhh the days of getting into cyberfights over email services. Good times, good times.

[David]

Welcome back to the forums, rmns2bseen

When I travel, I mostly just use my phone too....

How to figure out, how to access online banking (when away from home) is one thing I I still have not totally figured out though - it is totally difficult to access online banking (risk free) without spending a bundle of money.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by David

Welcome back to the forums, rmns2bseen

When I travel, I mostly just use my phone too....

How to figure out, how to access online banking (when away from home) is one thing I I still have not totally figured out though - it is totally difficult to access online banking (risk free) without spending a bundle of money.

Depends on the bank. My bank has a free mobile app which is easy to use and convenient.

[David]

Originally Posted by Cory

Depends on the bank. My bank has a free mobile app which is easy to use and convenient.

Right, but you are likely paying big dollars a month for a Smartphone plan (if you live in Canada) plus extra per minute charges, if you use your smartphone overseas..

[FredOnline]

Originally Posted by Cory

Depends on the bank. My bank has a free mobile app which is easy to use and convenient.

Personally, I would never use my 'phone to access my bank.

When I travel (personal not business), I couldn't do without my Chromebook - I use free wireless in hotels for general stuff, but use a LAN adapter to a wired connection if I ever (very rarely on vacation) have to access any banking.

Also have a dual-sim 'phone, so can get a local SIM to tether if really necessary.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by David

Right, but you are likely paying big dollars a month for a Smartphone plan (if you live in Canada) plus extra per minute charges, if you use your smartphone overseas..

I lived in the United States so its very different the mobile plans. Most my family is in Canada though so I know the pain in the wallet it would be.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by FredOnline

Personally, I would never use my 'phone to access my bank.

Definitely one of those personal preference things.

[Steven Avery]

Originally Posted by chrisretusn

I rarely use webmail. I can't imagine doing email without out an email client. I do almost all my email from my home computer. I don't worry about loosing content for any of my providers. It's in my client and my computer is backed up daily. with the exception of one account that uses IMAP4, I use POP3 and delete from server after downloading so there is nothing stored anyway. I don't think email client software is in any danger of fading away yet. While I do have multiple email accounts I don't consider my self a heavy user. For example I received 11 emails this morning. Five of them from my clients mailing list. None of them need to be replied to. For me this is the best method. Plus when folks complain about how they messed up Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook.com, etc. I just sit back on enjoy the consistency of my client.

When you hit reply on the client, can you get the gmail return address? Which client does that effectively? (I know gmail can allow a non-gmail return addy after a verification.)

Or do you answer the new letters in gmail first?

My understanding is that this would be automatic with imap (is that correct?) but it take a type of tweak or spoofing with POP. If I find a robust email client will do this then I may start using a gmail account as my basic home account name that I give out, knowing that I can sort and compose and filter with my home address.

Thanks.

Steven Avery

[chrisretusn]

Originally Posted by Steven Avery

When you hit reply on the client, can you get the gmail return address? Which client does that effectively? (I know gmail can allow a non-gmail return addy after a verification.)

Or do you answer the new letters in gmail first?

I answer all messages using my client. I rarely log in to Gmail (except via POP3). When I hit reply in my client, the default return address "From:" is the same as the account it was received from "To:". If desired I can change the account to send the reply to. The will change the "From:" header to that account.

My understanding is that this would be automatic with imap (is that correct?) but it take a type of tweak or spoofing with POP. If I find a robust email client will do this then I may start using a gmail account as my basic home account name that I give out, knowing that I can sort and compose and filter with my home address.

With an IMAP4 account you are basically within that particular account, so yes it would be (or should be) automatic. It is with Claws Mail, the client I use.

With a POP3 account it depends on the client. No tweaking or spoofing needed. Could be I am misunderstanding something here though. Claws Mail can be set to automatically select the account used for replies to the account the message was received from. If this option is not set, then the default account is used for all replies regardless of account. Example: The Gmail account is the default account. With the automatic account selection option set, messages received To: me@gmail.com will be replied From: me@gmail.com, messages received To: me@yahoo.com will be replied From: me@yahoo.com. If the automatic account selection option is not set then all replies would be From: me@gmail.com, the default account. The automatic account selection can be independently set for replies, forwarding and re-editing messages.

One note, I use POP3 because I prefer to have messages on Gmail deleted after downloading. This has to be set in Gmail since Gmail ignores the POP3 DELE command. If I planned on keeping those messages on Gmail and using the Web interface as well I would go with IMAP4.

[Steven Avery]

Hi Chris and others,

Thanks.

Yes, let's talk only POP3. My understanding is that Gmail Imap is problematic.

In POP3 there are 2x2 distinct ways to retrieve mail to your desktop.

One is forwarding, leaving copies in both places
Or deleting in gmail.

The second is POP3 download, delete on server. Am I right that this is what you are doing?
Or POP3 download, leave on server. (with options to archive or mark as read in the Gmail settings of POP)
If you have a Google App coordinating with the mail, this might make sense. Then you do have to do any server deletions by hand.

Are the gentlemen hitting reply talking about the POP3 download method? I got so use to forwarding, that might be the problem, it might not be doable then because it changes the "To".

Steven Avery

[Steven Avery]

Ok, got it working with Eudora.

Tell Gmail it is working in POP3 (keeping mail on server in this case, it is a shared collaborative account).--

And go into the "trusted certificates" realm a couple of times (as explained by the Eudora techies) and say ok.

And tell Gmail it is a "less secure" App.

And, more simply, have the user name without the @gmail (some instructions said otherwise.)

Now it downloads from Gmail to home base, and reply brings up the gmail account.

Have Eudora filtering that mail into a special inbox.

And, if I wanted to do five accounts that way, it should work fine. No Imap problems this way.

Apparently you can not achieve this with just forwarding, and still get the right return address.
(Note that the reverse, Gmail having an alias return email addy that is a different ISP, is possible,
after a verification.)

Thanks!

Steven

[janusz]

Originally Posted by Steven Avery

In POP3 there are 2x2 distinct ways to retrieve mail to your desktop.

One is forwarding, leaving copies in both places

How one does forwarding with POP3?

[chrisretusn]

@Steven Avery, Based on your last post I am still not clear on what you are attempting to do.

With POP3 and an email client you are correct there are two ways to retrieve your messages; however, forwarding is not one of those. You either leave the messages on the server or you delete them after downloading.

With Gmail these two options are controlled by Gmail, client settings are ignored by Gmail (with one exception, mentioned below). You have to tell Gmail what to do when using POP3. There are four options. 1) keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox, 2) mark Gmail's copy as read, 3) archive Gmail's copy, 4) delete Gmail's copy.

In my case, I use option 4. This moves downloaded (to my client) messages to Gmail's Trash for the default 30 days. If I am accessing my Gmail account from another client using POP3 I must add "recent:" to my email address (e.g, recent:me@gmail.com) and I must ensure that client is set to leave the messages on the server. This is the exception I referred to above. When back at my main client, those messages will be download normally and then deleted from the server per my settings in Gmail.

Perhaps this forwarding you are referring to is Gmail's forwarding option? When you can forward messages to another address.

[libCognition]

Mail clients are more likely to outlive webmail than the contrary.

In short, webmail is for novices who need a gui and do not care about security. Going forward, webmail will survive as long as there is a constant stream of simple users. The numbers will diminish over time, although it's unclear to what extent.

MUAs are for the street wise, and for advanced users. Security is inherently compromised with webmail in a variety of ways (e.g. encryption, at-rest inspection, outbound traffic, etc). The population will get smarter about security over time, and there will be an increase of mail client users.

From a practical standpoint, the keyboard is faster than the mouse, and even faster than the touch screen. Advanced users are likely to have dozens of email accounts, which cannot get central treatment without associating the accounts together in the cloud. A client can draw messages from all accounts without associating them together.

Filtering-- advanced users have procmail, which is a tool and a language for filtering email well beyond what a webmail service could do. E.g. when a bank sends you a message saying "your statement is ready", a webmail filter would not be able to trigger a web scraping script to automatically download your statement. Procmail can do that.