How to check email from more than one computer

Like most folks who work for a company, I have a computer at work and a computer at home. My work computer is a laptop because I travel a lot, and when I'm gone I also need to check my personal email. If you use web-based email, that's easy, you just check it from either computer, and store the ones you want to keep online. But if you use Outlook or Outlook Express, it's difficult because the emails may end up on either computer depending on which you check with. You can set up Outlook or Outlook Express to handle this.

I have a server (a virtual server at The Planet) and I use Outlook to check the emails to my domain (hevle.com.) I also use Outlook to check my Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, SBC/AT&T, and AOL/AIM accounts (yes, I am a total geek.) It's very nice to be able to check all your email accounts from one program, and have only one filing system. If you want to set up Outlook to check these types of email accounts, I've supplied links here:

AOL/AIM
Gmail
Hotmail
SBC/Yahoo!
Yahoo!

Once you have all your accounts set up in Outlook or Outlook Express, decide which computer you want to archive your emails. Then set up the other computer(s) to check the emails, allowing you to read them but leaving a copy on the server. That way eventually you'll download every email onto the archive computer, allowing you to save the ones you want to keep. Here's how:

In Outlook, select Tools | E-mail Accounts, then select View or change existing e-mail accounts. For each account, select the account and click the Change button, and then click on the "More Settings..." button. Click on the Advanced tab and you'll see this dialogue:


In Outlook Express, select Tools | Accounts, then click on the Mail tab. For each account, select the account and click the Properties button, and then click on the Advanced tab and you'll see this dialogue:


That way, when you check the email on the computer, you'll always leave a copy on the server, unless you're checking from the archive computer. Then, just delete the emails once you've read them on the other computers, and when you download them at the archive computer, file the ones you want to keep and you'll have a complete archive. You could keep some email accounts on one computer and some on the other, for example, keep all your personal emails at home and your work emails at work. Since we don't use Outlook at work, I send all Outlook emails home to my personal computer.

Sometimes you'll want to send things from one computer to another. I set up an email account for each computer (one called home and one called work) that is only checked by the respective computer. I also set these email accounts up as receive-only, but it's not that important. To do that, click on Tools | Send/Receive | Send/Receive Settings | Define Send/Receive Groups and you'll see a dialogue like this:


Click on the group (you probably only have one, like me), and select Edit. You'll see this dialogue:


Just deselect the "Send mail items" checkbox, and you're done. To send a file or email to a particular computer, just email it to that computer. I use this alot for reminders, I keep my calendar and task list (à la Getting Things Done)on Lotus Notes at the office, and if I want to create a reminder from home, I'll just send a quick email to that computer. Easy!

Now, you'll want to be able to send emails from both computers, and often you'll want to keep your responses as well. One way to do this is to send a cc: to your archive computer using Outlook rules (unfortunately, Outlook Express rules won't do this function, but there are add-ins that will accomplish this.)

To set up a rule to send a copy of every email you send, click on Tools | Rules and Alerts and select New Rule. You'll see this dialogue:


Select "Start from a blank rule" select "Check messages after sending", and click on Next. Then you'll see this dialogue:


Don't select any of these conditions, you want to send a copy of every email to your other computer. Click on Next and you'll see this dialogue:


Click Yes, and you'll see this dialogue:


Click the "CC the message to people or distribution list" and then click on the hyperlink for "people or distribution list". You'll be asked to enter which email address you want to send a copy to. This should be the email address you created for the computer that you will be archiving your emails. You'll see this dialogue:


Enter the email address to copy, and then press OK. You'll see this dialogue:


You may want to enter some exceptions, but it's not critical. You can always get rid of email responses you don't want to keep when you download them on the archive computer. Select Next. Finally, you'll see this dialogue:


Give the rule a name that you'll understand, and check the "Create this rule on all accounts" box. Just click Finish and you're done.

This way I have all my emails in one place on my home computer, and I just delete all the emails I receive in Outlook on my work computer once I've read them.