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Can i use outlook on 2 PC's but monitor 1 email account?

2K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  letchworth 
#1 ·
Hi,

I run a small business from home and use outlook for emails. I want my wife who uses another PC to have access to the same emails through outlook but on her PC, is it possible? I answer questions whilst she handles payments / orders which all come through this one email account. Any help will be much appreciated.

Regards,

Lee1133
 
#2 ·
Hmm, hey Lee,
There's a few different things you could do.

1. If you moved the outlook PST file to say C:\email on the main PC and share this folder out on the network (assuming that you have the two PCs networked), you could set the second PC to use this PST file for Outlook. BUT, the host maching would have to be on the whole time for the second maching to be able to access the PSt file.

2. You could set up the machines with separate PST files and use the "Leave a copy on the server" option so that both machines will recieve a copy of all mails. I never like having two copies of the same thing though so I wouldnt personally do this. I'm not sure how well it works, maybe someone else has used this option.

The main problem is that normal POP mail accounts simply pull the mail down from the server and then delete it.

Option 1 is probably the best option, well aside from putting in Microsoft Exchange Server, which you're hardly gonna do for two PCs.

regards,
J
 
#3 ·
I'm not sure it is as easy as it sounds using a POP account (you don't mention your service provider and style of account).

I have a couple of online accounts (like Gmail or Hotmail--- which are online only) and it is easy to do with these. We check mail online--- do whatever we need-- and it leaves the mail there to be processed by the other workstation (unless deleted).

Problem with POP accounts is that once you have POP'ed the mail from your mail server--- the other person can't get to it. If you "leave mail on the server"-- it is hard to get rid of and needs to be processed multiple times.

There may be alternatives of which I am unaware-- but these come to mind.
letchworth
 
#4 ·
JonathanAnon said:
You could set up the machines with separate PST files and use the "Leave a copy on the server" option so that both machines will recieve a copy of all mails.
...

I'm not sure how well it works, maybe someone else has used this option.
I have been doing that for a few years for my work e-mail hardly any problems. I regularly exchange e-mails with people in Taiwan. If I send them an e-mail during our normal business hours, they don't reply until later that same evening (our time). I can read their replies at home that evening and answer any of their questions before the end of their day. I have Thunderbird on the home PC set to leave all messages on the server. Thunderbird is also set to send copies of all sent messages for that account back to my work address. I have Outlook on my work PC set to leave messages on the server for three days. The only time I had a problem was when the engineers in Taiwan sent me a whole bunch of large PDF files over a period of a few days. That maxed out my server quota of 10MB and some messages were delayed. Bumping up the quota to 25MB solved the problem.

As for sharing a PST file between two computers, wouldn't you get a "can not open - file in use" error message if both copies of Outlook were running at the same time?
 
#5 ·
I also do this. I have multiple email accounts which I monitor and they are monitored on multiple computers and user accounts. I have one "main" account which will download the mail from the server, the other accounts are set up to leave the messages on the server. It can be a balance, but it can work.

The other option is to use an exchange server account. Maybe even use the new Microsoft Live Office (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx).
 
#6 ·
Me too.

Several PC's have access to one POP3 email account. Only one actually deletes the email from the server though. As long as that one is only run after everyone has their copies it works well.

Also I have a permanent "vacation rule" set up on the POP3 ISP server, that forwards a copy and keeps the original. It forwards the copy to a GMail account, as an off-site backup of all incoming emails, and that means I can access a copy of my complete "inbox" on GMail for all emails from anywhere in the country or overseas that I can get web access.
 
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