[SOLVED] email being grabbed

Hi
A friend of mine needs an answer to a problem I have never heared of before.
He has a desktop PC running Win XP and using Outlook express for email. His laptop runs Win 7 and uses Monzilla for email. They are both conected to WIFI but to the best of my knowledge are not on a shared network (at least he didnt do it, not being knowledgeble)

Ok heres the problem. He downloads his email to the laptop to work on it but doesnt delete the emails from the laptop. Later on he uses his desktop to download any later email from his server. This action causes any emails on his laptop to disappear and appear in the in box of his desktop PC along with any new ones. This happens every time.

I cannot figure this out, any help available. I havent checked out his setup.

Paul~

Some questions for you ...

1) What email server is your friend using ? (Gmail,hotmail,yahoo)

2) You said that your friend is using Outlook Express...as well as Mozilla( I'm assuming you mean Mozilla Firefox.. and or Seamonkey ( if i remeber the names corretly for e-mail) ..there is a differnce ( some what subtle) in how things get recieved and IF they get deleted from the server when the emails are reciveved. This would be in the setting for your e mail server.

Comment:

What it sounds like is POSSIBLY that a setting is not set correctly .. which causes the email to be deleted once its recived from one machine to the other..

For this .. DEPENDING on your freinds email server (Gmail; for instance) there is a setttting to NOT delete email when its read or recivrd via (POP or IMAP) I belive this is also avalable in Outlook ..

Your freind would be looking for something along the lines of " Delete the messeages when they are recived and/or read in ( mail software of choice)" you DONT want that option selected ..

Just my suggestions(Outlook 2010 user)
LoneWolf

Hi
thanks for reply and I will check on his settings and post any other info, but what puzzles me is how a mail server can access his laptop to delete the emails he has already received !

Paul~

As i mentioned ..

It depends on how the client(meaning the email client.. Outlook or other wise) is configured...or POSSIBLY the server itself since you didnt specify what server is being used .. its hard to tell you what the settting would be)

SOME times what happens is as soon as mail is recieved it will take it off the server ... and then delete it FROM the server ...then there is no back up....

Its kind of hard to expalin but it IS in the settings.. I'll see if i can get a screen shot and post it here ..


Give ya an example ..I have..EXCATLY 5772 mails in my Gmail in box ( not using outlook but by acessing the website directly )

However since I did my reformat and install of Win 7 (which was on Christmas 2010 weekend) and and install of Office 2010(which was about a week or so after Christmas) I only have 87 (unread) E-mails in my Outlook Inbox..

Hope that makes sense.
~LoneWolf

more to add. His mail server is TalkTalk.net and laptop email client is Monzillz Thunderbird.

Paul~

Thanks fo the info ...

Mind you I dont use Mozilla any more .. I DID at one point

But in my Gmail(Web based ...see attached thumbnail)

.. under "Forwarding POP/IAMP"

I let it leave a copy on the sever

and it does not mark the emails as "read" at all ..

Again a little confusing .. but that SEEMS to me from what i can see .. is whats happening ..

Maybe some else may have a diffrent solution for you .. but this is just my "2 cents"
~LoneWolf

Mozilla is just a browser so he is simply browsing the files while stored on his mail hosts' servers.

Outlook express is NOT a browser and is not looking at the files on the mail hosts' server; it actually downloads the files from the pop server to his harddrive and then deletes them from the mail hosts' pop server.

Once they are downloaded and deleted from the POP server he will no longer see them in his browser because they are no longer on his mail hosts' server.

If he doesn't want it deleted from the online server then he could start using the Mozilla browser on the XP machine.
...Or...
He can open up outlook express and go to Tools ... Accounts. Choose the Mail tab and he should see his ISP mail host listed there ... select it with the mouse and choose Properties. Choose the Advanced Tab. At the bottom is an option ... Check "Leave a copy of messages on server". Note that now the only way they ever get deleted from the server is if he deletes them from within Mozilla. Also it may keep downloading a copy every time he connects with outlook express, even if he already read them (I'm not positive on this, it's possible it keeps a record of mail that was downloaded and doesn't download it again).


Frankly I find using web-based mail AND mail stored on your harddrive very confusing. I prefer harddrive based mail but I only have one computer. If I had multiple computers I might use web-based mail on both machines so it wasn't confusing and they both would always look the same.

BTW: as his email is set up there is no communication from one computer to the other about email via wi-fi. Both of them get their information directly from the mail hosts' internet mail server.

W7 doesn't have Outlook Express because Microsoft has retired it; if he ever upgrades his XP machine to W7 then his days of using Outlook Express are over.

Hi
thanks for that but Im missing a point here. He and I are ok with the setting up to delete an email from the server after it has been downloaded to a PC. That is not the problem, it is the fact that the emails downloaded to the laptop (W7 Thunderbird) disappear from the laptop inbox when he uses his Desktop PC (Win XP Outlook express) and they re-appear on the desktop PC Outlook express inbox when fetch mail is initiated. Why and How ? after all if he had set it to be deleted on the server after download, then the only copy would be on the laptop

All of these things are the very reason that I prefer to check my emails through the browser, and leave important ones in "Drafts", delete the spam and unwanted ones, and let it run as that.

However, I recognize that some users needs a real "mail" program, be it GMail, Thunderbird or Windows Live. I've tried the last two that I mentioned, and it just wasn't my cup of tea.

As far as transferring email from one computer to another, I've never attempted that, so I can offer no solution.

But as lonewolfmage stated, it's all in the configuration and settings. I tried setting up email services with Thunderbird, but was too complicated for me to figure out.

Cat

Yes, I guess I'm not being clear.

OK his email is on the internet (TalkTalk.net mail servers) and his Laptop Mozilla Thunderbird is merely showing him a picture of each one. As long as he doesn't use Thunderbird to delete it from the TalkTalk.net mail servers it is still there, on the internet.

Now when he goes to the desktop and opens outlook express it pulls all those messages he was looking at from the server (as well as any new ones that showed up) and it puts them on the harddrive and deletes them from the internet. So now he can see them in Outlook Express because they are on the desktop harddrive but they are GONE from the internet.

So when he looks at his thunderbird it shows him the emails on the internet; well Outlook Express just deleted them from the internet so he sees nothing.