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To give some specific sample numbers, I am using IMAP and have about 2,300 messages in various mailboxes on the server. These include perhaps 50 messages that have attachments in the 50K to 500K size range, plus other smaller ones. This currently fills 40% of my 64MB of space. The oldest messages on the server are just over a year old, but, of course, this is far from every message I have received over this period. The issue of attachments is the one that would most likely make or break this solution. For example, this week someone sent me a 16MB Microsoft Word file. Obviously things like that cannot be left on the server for any length of time. The most extreme example I've seen so far was last fall when one of our researchers in Africa said that his mail had stopped working. He connects via modem to mail.msu.edu using Eudora, and it would start downloading his mail, try for a long time and eventually time out. He gave me his Netid and password so I could log on to webmail, and I found that there were two messages in his mailbox of about 30MB each, with PowerPoint files attached. I calculated that this was going to take him 3 to 6 hours to download! At 05:33 PM 4/7/2004, John Valenti wrote: >I think Chris is right on target here. >Some of the IMAP clients allow the SENT messages to be stored back on >the mail server, so that would allow access from each client. > >I've had some people that didn't want to use IMAP. They have been setup >with POP, leaving messages on the server, but with the option checked to >delete from the server when deleting from the client. I would say that >doesn't work out too well long-term, since eventually they fill their >mailbox. > >Another option would be to use a departmental mail system, if you have >one available. That might get you a mailbox on a server with a 250GB disk. > >At some point, people need to learn that there are limits to mailbox >sizes, etc. Are the messages she is interested in from mailing lists? >Maybe they can be searched with Google, rather than keeping a local copy. > >64MB of text emails is a lot. 64MB of emails in HTML, with fancy >backgrounds, or attachments might be just ten messages. > >I would certainly make sure that she knows how to use the web interface >to mail.msu.edu -- at least enough to see how full the mailbox is, how >to dump the trash/spam folders, etc. >-John --Chris ============================================== Chris Wolf Computer Service Manager Agricultural Economics [log in to unmask] Michigan State University 517 353-5017