I work for a small business that has approximately 15 separate computers, all connected to the internet. Our business has a single e-mail account, which is shared among all of the computers for both receiving and sending messages.
Currently, we use our ISP's web mail client to use the mail on these computers. Unfortunately, this poses a problem. Let's say that Computer A is currently checking the mail when Computer B, in a different office down the hall, decides to also check the mail. When this happens, Computer A is disconnected from the mail server, a normal security function of the web mail client which, unfortunately, cannot be disabled.
A recent change in our business operation now requires that more than one computer at a time be allowed to use the mail account. This means that the ISP's web mail client is no longer a workable option, since it only allows one computer at a time to connect. So, we are looking for an alternative.
At first we thought about setting up an e-mail client on every computer and configuring them to not delete the messages from the ISP's mail server, but this would raise two new problems:
1. Once a message has been downloaded on one computer, it will not be downloaded again by any other computers after that, even though it is still on the server (After being downloaded a message is marked as read, which means any further download attempts will ignore it). For example, if there's a new message intended for Computer A, but Computer B checks the mail first, then Computer A will never receive the message.
2. If configured to leave the messages on the ISP's mail server, then eventually the mailbox will fill up, and no new incoming messages will be allowed at all. This would take only a matter of hours, as we receive many dozen messages a day with large attachments (5MB+), and our ISP has our mailbox capped at 100MB.
So, I am seeking a more efficient way to share this single e-mail account with all 15 computers, with emphasis that more than one computer should be allowed to use the mail simultaneously and have access to ALL messages, new and old, at the same time. What I have in mind is the following:
Designate one of the computers on the network as the %26quot;master%26quot;. This computer will, on a regular basis (Once per hour or so), download the mail and save it on its hard drive. Then, whenever any other computers on the network want to check the mail, they will then connect to the master through its own web mail client, and retrieve the messages from it instead of connecting to the ISP's mail server. Likewise, any messages being sent will go through the master, which will then direct them to our ISP's outgoing SMTP server.
How would I go about setting something like this up? As mentioned before, the ability for two or more computers to be checking the mail simultaneously is a requirement, as is the ability for all computers to access ALL messages, including old messages. We most desire a free option/setup, but if it will cost money, let's try to keep it under $100. Linux is not an option, this must be able to run on one of our currently-existing computers, which are all running XP.
Perhaps an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that adds a web mail interface to it? (Thus using Thunderbird to download and store the messages, with the extension allowing other computers on the network to remotely read those messages and send messages).
I appreciate any input on this.
How can I share one e-mail account with 15 computers simultaneously?
I share Email accounts over three computers using Outlook. I set the computers to leave the emails on the server for 7 days. About once a month I use web mail to delet the emails that somehow slip through the crack and are not deleted.
