[Coco] OT: Email Service ( was Coco 1/2 Faint)

[gene heskett]

On Monday, February 13, 2012 11:14:44 PM Louis Ciotti did opine:

> Funny you should mention the use of live mail Gene.  I switched to live
> mail recently because of gmail new direction on sharing information
> across all google services, and the hose job they did on the interface.
>  I had a live accound for some reasion, so I am using this right now as
> a stop gap.
> 
> I have been searching for a decent e-mail provider that is not linked to
> an ISP as I am bouncing around between ISPs at the moment, and don't
> really like chaning my email address, (takes a lot of effort).
> 
> Any one have any recommendations?  A Web interface is a must so I can
> check it anywhere, on any machine.  Would like to be able to set it up
> easily in any OS, I am moving toward linux more as XP will soon be
> EOL'ed and I don't like the M$ offerings.  I actually would prefer to
> use a console based mail program like MUTT or ALPINE assuming I can
> have IMAP access.
> 
> Any recommendations?? I would not mind paying a small amount for the
> service, but free is always better.
> 
I have (supposedly, my ISP's account I have never used, 3 accounts, one at 
Shentel, which they have now farmed out to gmail, one at gmail that I can't 
use for mailing lists, and as the retired CE at WDTV, a lifetime account on 
the stations qmail driven server.  That is the account I use for 99% of the 
mailing lists I'm on.  Gmail is out of the running for that, mainly because 
the echo coming back from the mailing lists servers is considered a 
duplicate by gmail if they saw it go by headed for the listserver, the net 
result being that you have zero ability to check and see if your email made 
it to the list, and you cannot opt out of that automatic dup deletion.

I do all my email locally on this machine, using the KDE mail util called 
kmail.  But I do not have it configured to fetch the mail from anyplace but 
the local /var/spool/mail/"name" file.  That file is written to, usually by 
procmail, which handles the spam inspections by calling spamassassin & 
deletions albeit not perfectly, and procmail is given the incoming mail by 
fetchmail, which understands most of the common mail protocols, pop3 in 
particular since that also supports security encoded emails.  Setup right, 
by login name and password never see the outside network in the clear, a 
major security advantage.  Fetchmail then is pulling the TLS encoded email 
from exactly the same account you would see if logged into gmail or qmails 
webmail, but it all comes to this machine, so no message sits on their 
servers for more than 3 to 3.5 minutes.

When I am finished typing this reply, then a daemon that does Simple 
Network Mail Protocol, logs back into the chosen account and sends this 
reply back to you via the mailing list server at maltedmedia.

Because I can't set kmail to monitor that spool file, I do the next best 
thing and use a utility called inotifywait, which watches that file, and 
when procmail has finished its write and closed that file, it sends kmail a 
message over the d-bus socket facility, to go check the mail, so that spool 
file will again be emptied in a few milliseconds.  Incoming mail, because 
of the spamassassin scan times, takes about a second from arrival to 
showing as a new message received by kmail.

This stuff all runs as long as this machine is booted, and since it also 
does other local duties, runs 24/7 between reboots, typically 3 weeks to a 
month apart.

A bit complex to setup, but it reduces my load to clicking next to see if 
the next mail interests me, clicking the correct reply button, and when 
I've finished typing and making missteaks, a click of the send button and 
my part is done.  All the logging in here and there, exposing me to all 
those viri & trojans, clicking to close those darned popups etc, is 
eliminated.

Whats not to like?

Cheers Lou, Gene
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene>
... this must be what it's like to be a COLLEGE GRADUATE!!