Tangled Web: Aging Email Systems
I’ve been totally spoiled by Microsoft. There. I’ve said it. And I didn’t realize how spoiled I’ve been until I got my Mac and iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret the move.
But I simply HATE the fact that every email I get on my iPhone (including every piece of SPAM I get on four email accounts) has to be manually deleted (that’s one by one) - even after synching my iPhone to my Mac.
Why haven’t people been yelling about this for months???
Apparently, I’ve uncovered a horrible secret: Comcast’s (my internet provider with whom I’m stuck) email system is antiquated - based on POP technology. And apparently MSFT’s Outlook took care of the synching problems with Comcast’s aging POP servers with workarounds; so that when I deleted an email on my Blackberry, it would be deleted on my Outlook and vice versa. And, by the way, SPAM rarely made it to my Blackberry.
And apparently, according to Apple and my web hosting provider (and excellent resource) Michael Krol at Phorium; IMAP email systems are built to move email from web to device to device more easily.
Apple’s advice, switch to a Gmail account - which is built on IMAP; or use .MAC.
Obviously, I can’t do that. I consider my email address an important business tool. So my hero at Phorium helped me with what I consider a life-saver. Run everything through my janetleejohnson.com account at Phorium, and ditch my [insert expletive here] Comcast dependency.
I’ve updated my main email account, and am testing it now. It’s early in the process, and I’ve run into a couple of snags with Apple Mail (which - under Leopard - fails on me a couple times a day in heavy use); but I have hope.
And IMAP. Which is apparently a lifesaver. Who knew?
