IMAP > POP3 – Moving to the Cloud

Today, I finally got around to installing the RTM version of Windows 7 Enterprise on my desktop computer as I was fast approaching the crippleware period 11 days from now (i.e. Windows would start rebooting every two hours).

It was fairly painless, apart from forgetting to disable AHCI on my optical drive to get through the start of the installation without a BSoD. The thing I really dread is having to setup Microsoft Outlook from scratch with my mail account information and customise it to keep my email on the mail server unless I delete it. Then I have issues with duplicate mail coming down from the mail server as the cache that keeps track of what was downloaded end up being lost in the disk formatting process.

So, I’ve decided enough is enough and have ditched POP3 for IMAP. Since my domain is not hosted by my ISP but with my new web host InMotion Hosting, I can choose the size of my mailbox (currently 1GB). My iPhone already connects via IMAP and the webmail clients included with my web hosting package also use this protocol. This pretty much left my desktop computer as the black sheep amongst the various devices I own.

For some reason, I’ve always preferred having a copy of my mail stored locally and as a result I have a 3GB  PST file containing about seven years worth of mail. I’m still going to hang on to it but will leave mail from here on in up in the cloud. Of course, this comes with its own dangers such as if my web host goes down or I lose my connection to the Internet (in which case I can view cached copies of my mail) but I’m willing to give it a try for the next few months.

You might be wondering why I don’t use something like Google Mail to fulfill the same purpose. A close friend of mine made a comment in the last couple of days about reassessing their use of Google products given the uproar concerning privacy breaches and the release of Google Buzz. I have to say that I share those sentiments and don’t fancy Google reserving the right to trawl through my personal email even if it is for the purpose of serving targeted advertising. At least by using my own designated web host, I know that they shouldn’t be scanning my mail for potential commercial gain.

I know at least one friend of mine made a remark about Microsoft Exchange being even better than IMAP. Having used it for all of my corporate life and the last couple of years of school, I love having my calendar, contacts and mail all in the one location and more recently having my iPhone sync over the air with it. The issues I have are that hosted MS Exchange solutions are a little too pricey for my liking for the amount of space you receive. I’d much prefer to host my own MS Exchange server but don’t fancy hosting one off a residential connection.

At any rate, I’ll report back in a few months and let you know how I am going.