a gmail system that works for me.

[nudone]

just letting people know what i've finally chosen - i use gmail by default even though i also use maxthon as my main browser, which has a problem attaching multiple files to google mail.

after trying the suggestions in this thread: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=17927.0



i've added "Affixa" (the free version) http://www.affixa.com/ to my system. this gets around the maxthon browser problem of not being able to select multiple files when uploading to an email (you have to upload each file individually regardless of the google mail "advanced" settings of allowing multi upload). Affixa lets you attach/upload several files in one go. great.

Affixa also makes gmail your systems default mail client - so clicking on any mailto: link will open a new gmail "compose" window in your browser with the correct "to" address completed. (i'm not using firefox as my main browser so i'm not interested in any related solutions there - nor with chrome.)


Affixa main window for attaching several documents at once (drag and drop didn't work but copy and paste does).


then, finally, i use "Digsby" http://www.digsby.com/ which has the best system tray email notifications i've seen. just by clicking on the system tray icon you can do several actions - all without even opening up gmail in your browser.

you can:

open, mark as read, archive, delete, report spam - just by accessing the drop down menu from the tray icon. and it lets you quickly perform these actions on several emails at once. it's so easy (and quick) it makes opening your inbox feel very tiresome.

you can, of course, click to go to directly your gmail inbox or click a link to compose a new email.

as an added bonus you can have more than one gmail account monitored too - or yahoo, or hotmail, etc. i also use digsby for all my chat clients (though it's still lacking a proper "Skype" feature).


menu accessed via try icon (circled in red) note the quick links and useful info displayed for each email.



popup message indicating you have new mail (i tend to ignore this feature and just click to view the list of new emails shown above).

i just thought i'd mention all this as i know there are a lot of people trying to make gmail their system default for emailing - without using a standalone mail client program (e.g. outlook or thunderbird). it might not be the ultimate solution having two programs doing the work of one (or three programs when you include your browser), but for the features and ease of use this setup provides i'm more than happy.


p.s.
i'm surprised Digsby can't do the work of Affixa and respond to mailto links as it does everything else (maybe that will come eventually).


(edited: to add small screengrabs).

[cmpm]

The "Google Pack" has Google Apps that include Gmail.
When opening that Gmail "app", it will ask if you want gmail as default. Click yes and it covers everything in and outside of the browser. Adds Gmail to the start menu as well.
The one thing is, it requires that you install Google Chrome.

[nudone]

The "Google Pack" has Google Apps that include Gmail.
When opening that Gmail "app", it will ask if you want gmail as default. Click yes and it covers everything in and outside of the browser. Adds Gmail to the start menu as well.
The one thing is, it requires that you install Google Chrome.

-cmpm (November 13, 2009, 07:59 AM)

hmm, that's not bad really. i was about to rush and say i'd already mentioned i didn't want to use chrome but (after installing goolge apps) and giving it a try it's pretty good.

i guess it removes the need for Affixa completely (Digsby remains just as useful though).

[Innuendo]

The Gmail system that works for me is not to use Gmail at all. I hate how they index your emails, keep copies of your emails even after you delete them & Google employees can read your email any time they want.

Google wants to index the world & I'm trying my best to keep them out of my little corner of it.

[nudone]

The Gmail system that works for me is not to use Gmail at all.

-Innuendo (November 13, 2009, 10:38 AM)

heheh. nice one.

[zridling]

Wouldn't it be cool if we had a home grown web mail app? Gmail-like, but just run on your own server. That's stupid talk, forgive me.

[Stoic Joker]

Wouldn't it be cool if we had a home grown web mail app? Gmail-like, but just run on your own server. That's stupid talk, forgive me.

-zridling (November 13, 2009, 02:35 PM)

Why? I host my own Email (have for years). I've often thougt about looking into a browser based access solution for my mail server ... I've just never had the time to get it off the ground.

[JavaJones]

Google employees can read your email anytime? Really? And you know this how?

There are web-based interfaces to free/open source email servers. You could easily run your own mail server that way and have web access. Or if you have one of the millions of cheap web hosts out there, you get the same thing for free - POP, IMAP, and web-based email. The advantage there is that if your machine or 'net connection go down at home and you're away, you still have email.

- Oshyan

[Innuendo]

Google employees can read your email anytime? Really? And you know this how?

-JavaJones (November 13, 2009, 04:28 PM)

This was a reference to a statement made when Gmail first went public that Google employees could, if need be, access users' emails 6 months after they were deleted. I think they removed that 'feature' pretty quickly after privacy organizations complained.

Over 30 privacy organizations are still petitioning Google over Gmail privacy issues. Your emails are still scanned by Google's computers to provide context-aware ads while you read your email. The information gleaned from these scans (not the emails themselves) are kept by Google for an unspecified amount of time. Google has declined to answer on how long it keeps this data.

And a bit of advice for those who keep all their emails on webmail servers forever, not just Google's, at least in the United States, after 6 months an email loses its protected status becoming just another database record & can be used by the company who owns the server however they wish including giving it to anyone they want. Coincidentally, Google actively encourages Gmail users to never delete any emails. Conclude whatever you may from correlating those two facts.

[Carol Haynes]

If you have a server with CPanel you can host your own POP/IMAP/Webmail very easily.

Suppose you have domain.com registered on the server.

You just set up email addresses in the Mail section of CPanel.

You get a confrimation of POP/IMAP settings in the results screen

To access via webmail go to www.domain.com/webmail and login with the email account details.

It comes with 3 different webmail applications.

Not as sophisticated as GMail but is is more secure and you can use https if you have a certificate registered for your domain.

[cmpm]

I don't think any email is safe from being read by others.
Especially free email services, as well as other services.
If it's on the net it's in the open to be hacked as well.

But I do understand the major concern about google's use of gmail. And it's abuse of privacy by their own people and indexing and whatever else benefits them. I know for sure my email recipients names are intercepted by someone, as the spam has recorded.

Some kind of moral conflict there.

Maybe it's in the license agreement that it's free cause we use the info. I don't know, I didn't read it.

Important private info is best kept private, without a third party involved.

[Innuendo]

I don't think any email is safe from being read by others.
Especially free email services, as well as other services.
If it's on the net it's in the open to be hacked as well.

-cmpm (November 13, 2009, 10:56 PM)

I agree with you, cmpm. I think my main problem with Gmail isn't the service in & of itself, but the fact that with Gmail, iGoogle, and all the other services that require you to log in to use them people just stay logged in all the time & then without thinking they go and do their web searching with Google, too. Once you do that all that anonymous data they *used* to have regarding your searching & surfing habits all of a sudden has a specific name and identity attached to it.

I know Google preaches the philosophy of do no evil & I think that's great, but when all of their EULAs and usage agreements boil down to the meaning of, "Hey, buddy...remember us? We do no evil. Trust us." it's not comforting to me.

Personally, I never log into Google, use a Google anonymizer, and disallow Google Analytics. They may not like me doing that, but that's okay...I'm not doing any evil. 

[Stoic Joker]

And a bit of advice for those who keep all their emails on webmail servers forever, not just Google's, at least in the United States, after 6 months an email loses its protected status becoming just another database record & can be used by the company who owns the server however they wish including giving it to anyone they want. Coincidentally, Google actively encourages Gmail users to never delete any emails. Conclude whatever you may from correlating those two facts.

-Innuendo (November 13, 2009, 05:25 PM)

I know Google preaches the philosophy of do no evil & I think that's great, but when all of their EULAs and usage agreements boil down to the meaning of, "Hey, buddy...remember us? We do no evil. Trust us." it's not comforting to me.

-Innuendo (November 15, 2009, 10:29 AM)

...And that's why I run my own servers. If one of those freebie comercial servers gets hacked, they may or (most likely) may not deem it necessary to tell anybody about it. Which can seriously impact the users whos data was stolen because they won't be given the much needed heads-up to look for falling rocks.