On using email:
Today I was backing up my server, and noticed that some clients have over 1 Terabyte of email.
Honestly, I’m surprised their email has not slowed to a snail’s pace, and been kicking up all kinds of errors.
What happens is this: every email you get is stored on the host’s email server. If you don’t do something about it, you can end up with 15, 20, or 30 THOUSAND emails, and each time you log in, they ALL have to be accessed; each time you search, they ALL have to be searched.
Things just plain bog down. At some point, you’ll end up getting a warning notice from the host to “clean out the stables.” Automatic mechanisms take over from the ISP and move older email out.
Here’s how you to get around that; how to archive and backup emails; how to move them from the server to your computer: Use an Email Client.
Unfortunately, if you are accessing your email ONLY by webmail (using your bowser) then you’re in trouble: your only option is to -delete- old emails, losing them forever. In some states, that is, in fact, illegal for businesses.
If you use an email client…
With an email client, the process is -extremely- simple: drag the emails from your INBOX to a mailbox -on your computer.- Yep: that’s it.
In fact, with an email client, you can automate this using “rules” (aka “filters”) so that emails that meet any given criteria you choose, can be routed directly to your chosen mailbox on your computer. That way you never have to worry about the server filling up with old, outdated emails.
If you use webmail exclusively…
If you use webmail because it keeps others out of your email, you’re still doing it the hard way, not to mention permanently stuck deleting, instead of backing up and keeping archives of your correspondence.
I >strongly< recommend you set up an email client on your computer instead of using your browser.
You can still create password protected email boxes using the client.
This will allow everyone to use the same computer for everything, >except< email.
If you want to protect more than just email; if you want only some things on a single computer available to only some few people, the process is to set up separate users. All modern operating systems, Windows and MacOS, offer the ability for separate users to have completely independant environments on a single computer.
But, if ALL you care about is email, then create a separate profile for each user in Outlook. Functionally, this exactly the same as you are doing now with webmail: signing IN, and then signing out.
Once you are using Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever client you choose, you’ll find organizing, tracking, replying and so on are MUCH more elegant and useful… and you can automate your archives.
For example, I have every single non-spam email I’ve ever gotten going back to 1993, and it’s all automated!
Here is how to do it on a Windows system, using Outlook:
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If the user needs to share a common desktop, then the best way is to create multiple Outlook profiles and then configure them with different email accounts. The user has to setup a password for the PST files within their profiles, so that other users would not access them.
Refer to the following article ‘How to create and configure an email profile in Outlook’ and check if it helps:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829918
To setup a password for the Outlook data file, refer to the following link:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/set-a-password-to-help-protect-your-outlook-information-HA102749452.aspx
The other work around is to setup/create multiple Windows user accounts for the users on the computer and then configure their respective email accounts in Outlook. In that way each user would only have access to their own User profile.
To create additional Windows user accounts, you may refer to the steps mentioned in the following article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2782153