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> |
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> I already divide my emails into folders. Example, any email that |
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> contains [gentoo-user] goes to the gentoo-user folder. Similar for -dev |
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> etc. I also have folders for things like banking, friends, family, |
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> shopping websites etc etc. Well over 95% of my emails goes to a folder |
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> other than the general purpose inbox. Any email that will be a regular |
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> thing gets filtered to something. Most of what is in the inbox is |
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> either a one time thing or spam. Right now, I just have it set to emtpy |
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> the trash, a LOT. Clicking the unsub link is doing no good at all. |
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> What stupid politician came up with that idea anyway. |
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> |
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> My plan is to have it so I'm not so dependent on Seamonkey. I want |
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> something, Dovecote for example, that will fetch new emails from gmail, |
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> or any other service if I move, and also allow me to send emails as |
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> well. The actual emails tho would be here on my puter, as they are now |
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> but at the moment depends on Seamonkey. |
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|
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Okay, a little reading will tell you that Dovecot's mail store is |
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chooseable between Maildir and mbox format. So your mail is physically |
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stored on your hard drive in a totally standard format that most mail |
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agents can read. I'll leave you to find WHERE Dovecot puts it, it's not |
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hard :-) |
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> |
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> Seamonkey seems to be on its last legs. It's bad enough that it isn't |
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> maintained much in the tree but I don't think upstream is keeping things |
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> working either. It needs a rewrite sort of like Firefox did. Finding |
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> or updating add-ons for Seamonkey is almost non-existant. Some add-ons |
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> haven't been updated in ages or are not even available at all. As a |
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> example, I switched from Lastpass to Bitwarden almost a year ago. I |
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> can't find a Bitwarden add-on for Seamonkey at all. I'm stuck using |
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> Lastpass which is at a version a few years old. There's no telling what |
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> security holes it may have. Even the very common and popular adblock |
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> hasn't been updated in ages. My concern, losing Seamonkey completely |
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> and losing all my emails with it. I'd like to have a better way but I'm |
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> not sure I can do that. This appears to be complicated. |
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|
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Find out what Seamonkey (like Dovecot) does with its mails. If your |
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Dovecot service is working, you should be able to just create an account |
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in Seamonkey, tell it your computer provides an IMAP service, connect, |
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and copy your emails into this account. Dovecot will then stash them in |
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its cache, where you can get at them with a text editor or better. |
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> |
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> I may search for a video on this. Maybe watching someone else do this |
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> will helps. I dunno. I got the service to start but after that, I'm |
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> clueless. |
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> |
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Learn a bit more about mail transport, and which tools do which job. |
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Then make sure you're not using the wrong tool - like asking Postie to |
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drive a delivery truck ... |
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|
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Okay lets start at the beginning: |
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|
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An MTA (Postfix, qmail, sendmail) transfers bulk mail between Post |
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Offices like gmail.com, yahoo.de, youngman.org.uk. That's over port 25. |
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They then dump it into a PO Box. |
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|
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You now have two choices. You need a mail client (mutt, thunderbird, |
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seamonkey, Eudora, etc) or a web client. And you can read your email |
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over one of three different protocols. |
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|
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A mail client using POP is like you going to the Post Office (or postie |
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coming to you) and transferring all your mail from the post office to |
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your front door. |
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|
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A mail client using IMAP is like you going to your PO Box at the post |
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office, and treating it like a reading room, reading your mail and |
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leaving it behind it the box when you go. |
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|
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A web browser using http is pretty much the same as a mail client with IMAP. |
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|
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Now the big question is, is your mail client running on the same server |
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as the post office? If it is, and you are storing mail locally in your |
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account, a Mail Forwarding Agent typically collects it on your behalf |
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(like postie) from the PO Box and dumps it in your account for your mail |
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client to find. Otherwise, your mail client has to reach out and fetch |
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it with POP. |
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|
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If your mail client is using IMAP, it will often cache your email much |
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like if you were using POP, but it leaves the master copy in the Post |
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Office. Think of IMAP as the counter clerk looking after your mail / PO |
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Box for you. |
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|
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If you want to have a local post office, and read your mail with a web |
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client, you will need a mail web server - I believe squirrelmail is one |
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such. |
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|
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So if you're worried about the integrity of your mail, you need to worry |
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about where and how it is stored. And if you are using SeaMonkey as an |
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IMAP client, it does NOT have the master copy. If you lost SeaMonkey, |
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you just need a different client and the data will still be there. |
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|
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That's why I use thunderbird as my IMAP client, and move my email from |
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my cloud "youngman.org.uk" server to my local dovecot IMAP server |
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"youngman.org.uk". So now my email is cached in thunderbird, and stored |
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in dovecot. And because I know dovecot uses industry-standard mail |
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storage, should anything happen to that I can just import it into any |
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other tool that understands it. |
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|
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You need to know which tool does what, and which tool you're looking for. |
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|
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Cheers, |
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Wol |