Help selecting new IMAP provider

[elyssabernard]

I am seeking to escape from Mailsnare. I hope someone can suggest a good reliable IMAP provider for me! I have tried a few so far but am frustrated to find each one lacks something I need.

LuxSci - signed up for free trial, but it's got some bugs. Also, cannot use an alias. No apparent spam filtering.
PolarisMail - I read about it here, but they only allow 50 msgs outgoing daily. We are a legitimate business (a hotel) and have much more mail to send daily than that. So I did not sign up even for a trial.
Fastmail.fm - I signed up and paid so I could try a real account. Sadly, they only poll pop mail max once an hour! I need mine polled constantly as timely emailing is key to our businesses (hotel reservations.) I cannot go into fm and manually poll all the time. Sad this basic feature is missing.
MobileMe - would have been thrilled to use this as a Mac user, but cannot poll pop mail and cannot use aliases.
gmx.com - tried this (although I am happy to pay for a good service provider) but here again, no aliases.
Runbox - did not try it but read so many bad comments here about downtime and no service (which I already contend with now with Mailsnare), that I would rather not try.

In a nutshell, I need a reliable IMAP provider that allows me to poll pop mail every 5 minutes, let's me send using smtp and an alias (i.e. from my own domain as in info@mydomain.com and not from the domain of the provider), is NOT considered a spam provider (as mailsnare is...I currently have to double send all my mail out of a secondary gmail account, just to make sure our mail is not blocked bc it comes from mailsnare!), and has really good spam filtering. I also would LIKE to use two features I have now in Mailsnare: file storage and tasks/notes.

I would be grateful for any help! Thanks so much,

Elyssa

[JRobert]

Sadly, they only poll pop mail max once an hour! I need mine polled constantly

That you're looking for an IMAP provider suggests you're using a mail client. Can't the client poll the other accounts for you?

[nbarr]

Tuffmail is a very reliable IMAP provider that will allow you to poll an external account by either IMAP or POP as often as every 5 minutes. It does not have file storage though.

I'm not sure if understand what you need. Could you clarify. It sounds as if you want an IMAP provider but for some reason must fetch the mail for your domain from another source. Is that correct?

Why not host the mail for your domain with the IMAP provider, then Polling via POP would not be required in which case Fastmail would also be a good solution.

[Aimlink]

Another suggestion:

I don't poll my other accounts. I have them forward copies to my main account. In this way, no polling is required. As a new message comes to the other account, I immediately am sent a copy. The forwarding works like a redirect.

A lot of service providers offer the forwarding facility these days.

[William9]

Originally Posted by elyssabernard

I am seeking to escape from Mailsnare. I hope someone can suggest a good reliable IMAP provider for me! I have tried a few so far but am frustrated to find each one lacks something I need.
...
LuxSci - signed up for free trial, but it's got some bugs. Also, cannot use an alias. No apparent spam filtering.
...
Elyssa

Elyssa,
I'm surprised by some of the conclusions from your analysis, since some of the email hosting providers that you mention are benchmark providers that meet the needs of many people and organizations.
Luxsci has great spam filtering with their Premium Email Defense option. You mentioned using an alias but described and alias as having your own domain name. Luxsci definitely supports hosting your own domain name with as many user names as you need. That's what most customers want.
I agree that Tuffmail is another really good email hosting provider.

[marcus0263]

Originally Posted by elyssabernard

I am seeking to escape from Mailsnare. I hope someone can suggest a good reliable IMAP provider for me! I have tried a few so far but am frustrated to find each one lacks something I need.

LuxSci - signed up for free trial, but it's got some bugs. Also, cannot use an alias. No apparent spam filtering.

<snip>

I've been with LuxSci for some time now, they're simply the best email provider I've had the pleasure of being with.

1. Outstanding Anti-Spam, the base is good but the premium is unmatched. I may get 1 piece of spam every 3 months or so if I'm lucky.

2. Rock solid stable, I honestly cannot remember if my service has been down.

3. I have and use multiple aliases with them

4. I have multiple domains with them also, works awesome.

5. Support is incredible and their online help system is also great. It is customized to your account so howto's are a breeze to use.

So if you're looking for a great IMAP provider you cannot go wrong with LuxSci.

[Sherry]

Originally Posted by elyssabernard

Fastmail.fm - I signed up and paid so I could try a real account. Sadly, they only poll pop mail max once an hour! I need mine polled constantly as timely emailing is key to our businesses (hotel reservations.) I cannot go into fm and manually poll all the time. Sad this basic feature is missing.

Hi Elyssa,

A FastMail user made a little email notifier program called FastCheck that works "great". It notifies you instantly of email in the Inbox and will check other folders you've asked it to every 5+ minutes. It's made for Windows users and runs from the systray however he does seem to have a Beta out for the Mac that you may want to try?

Here's a link to the FastCheck program so you can read about it.
FastCheck

Here's a link to the Forum post about the Beta version. The link in that post will take you to the FastCheck Forum where they are posting about the beta.
New FastCheck beta version

Sherry

[George_B]

Originally Posted by elyssabernard

PolarisMail - I read about it here, but they only allow 50 msgs outgoing daily. We are a legitimate business (a hotel) and have much more mail to send daily than that. So I did not sign up even for a trial.

In a nutshell, I need a reliable IMAP provider that allows me to poll pop mail every 5 minutes, let's me send using smtp and an alias (i.e. from my own domain as in info@mydomain.com and not from the domain of the provider), is NOT considered a spam provider (as mailsnare is...I currently have to double send all my mail out of a secondary gmail account, just to make sure our mail is not blocked bc it comes from mailsnare!), and has really good spam filtering. I also would LIKE to use two features I have now in Mailsnare: file storage and tasks/notes.

I would be grateful for any help! Thanks so much,

Elyssa

I might add that our sending limit was only for the free/demo account we were offering to EMD users. Regular customers do not have such a limit. We also have all the other features you require.

Cheers

[elyssabernard]

Thank you all for so much detailed and helpful advice. I only just found this forum and it is a great resource.

Perhaps I am going about this the wrong way, only because I am used to the system we are using now. Maybe I need to rethink my entire email solution/procedure.

If I may, in answer to some who asked above, here is a bit more detail:

We are based in Italy and I tried to have our site hosted here, and eventually in the UK (to be in same time zone) but with many problems. So finally I found a good and reliable host in the US. Unfortunately, they don't have IMAP mail (which we require.) I really don't want to move my site again as that is quite a pain. So my mail is hosted on a non-IMAP host. I need an IMAP provider to pull that mail in and store it...and then, at our 5 different locations, we all use Eudora on Macs (yes I know it's not being supported any more), to work with mail. We like Eudora bc of the stationeries, and ability to see nested folders. I think I tried a few others (like Thunderbird, Odysseus) and nothing compares yet (unless someone can tell me otherwise.)

So pop mail goes to our host. IMAP server pulls it in and stores it there. We then use Eudora to manage the mail (sorting it into various folders/sub folders, and responding from there with the stationeries.) We also keep the Mailsnare window open, because in that web interface, it allows us to see tasks (which we use for announcements to staff), and also how many messages are in each folder (which we cannot see at a glance in Eudora without opening the folder.) The file storage is a bit less important, as we can do that in other ways.

In addition, I would like to use my new IMAP provider as my SMTP server. We cannot seem to use our site host or our local ISP as SMTP when using Eudora (as our local isp blocks port 25.) So, when using the IMAP host as our sender, we need to be able to put in a “sent from” address (alias) that is our real address and not that of the IMAP server (i.e. info@ourdomain.com, and NOT ourname@imaphost.com.)

I am open to a new system. Since I have read all of your responses, I have tried these again and here are the issues:

Runbox: no nested folders
Fastmail.fm: polling no more than once an hour (I don’t want to have to add an app for this)
LuxSci: polling no more than every 20 minutes, and when polling automatically, there is no spam filter (hence my comment above.) Also no option to leave on the server (which we use to keep a backup in case a mail gets lost.)
Tuffmail: Maybe I am just not technical enough for this but it completely loses me.

To sum up, features I want are: nested folders, seeing msg count of all my mailboxes, Pop mail polling at least every 10 minutes, ability to use a “sent from” address which is our own domain.

I will look into Polaris next and maybe eumx. Any further advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Sorry to be so long but I have spent the entire weekend on this and am still stuck with mailsnare. Thanks again in advance!

[marcus0263]

Originally Posted by elyssabernard

Thank you all for so much detailed and helpful advice. I only just found this forum and it is a great resource.

Perhaps I am going about this the wrong way, only because I am used to the system we are using now. Maybe I need to rethink my entire email solution/procedure.

If I may, in answer to some who asked above, here is a bit more detail:

We are based in Italy and I tried to have our site hosted here, and eventually in the UK (to be in same time zone) but with many problems. So finally I found a good and reliable host in the US. Unfortunately, they don't have IMAP mail (which we require.) I really don't want to move my site again as that is quite a pain. So my mail is hosted on a non-IMAP host. I need an IMAP provider to pull that mail in and store it...and then, at our 5 different locations, we all use Eudora on Macs (yes I know it's not being supported any more), to work with mail. We like Eudora bc of the stationeries, and ability to see nested folders. I think I tried a few others (like Thunderbird, Odysseus) and nothing compares yet (unless someone can tell me otherwise.)

So pop mail goes to our host. IMAP server pulls it in and stores it there. We then use Eudora to manage the mail (sorting it into various folders/sub folders, and responding from there with the stationeries.) We also keep the Mailsnare window open, because in that web interface, it allows us to see tasks (which we use for announcements to staff), and also how many messages are in each folder (which we cannot see at a glance in Eudora without opening the folder.) The file storage is a bit less important, as we can do that in other ways.

In addition, I would like to use my new IMAP provider as my SMTP server. We cannot seem to use our site host or our local ISP as SMTP when using Eudora (as our local isp blocks port 25.) So, when using the IMAP host as our sender, we need to be able to put in a “sent from” address (alias) that is our real address and not that of the IMAP server (i.e. info@ourdomain.com, and NOT ourname@imaphost.com.)

I am open to a new system. Since I have read all of your responses, I have tried these again and here are the issues:

Runbox: no nested folders
Fastmail.fm: polling no more than once an hour (I don’t want to have to add an app for this)
LuxSci: polling no more than every 20 minutes, and when polling automatically, there is no spam filter (hence my comment above.) Also no option to leave on the server (which we use to keep a backup in case a mail gets lost.)
Tuffmail: Maybe I am just not technical enough for this but it completely loses me.

To sum up, features I want are: nested folders, seeing msg count of all my mailboxes, Pop mail polling at least every 10 minutes, ability to use a “sent from” address which is our own domain.

I will look into Polaris next and maybe eumx. Any further advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Sorry to be so long but I have spent the entire weekend on this and am still stuck with mailsnare. Thanks again in advance!

Again LuxSci does have spam filters both standard and premium. The "Polling" and "Leave on server" is dependent on your email client

Plus a your domain for the email is just a matter of changing your dns settings. Who ever you choose their support can assist you with this, just insure they provide private domain services (most do)

[nbarr]

I think your desire to leave Mailsnare is a good decision. I haven't used them myself but I have seen more and more complaints about their reliability on this forum over time.

Originally Posted by elyssabernard

... So finally I found a good and reliable host in the US. Unfortunately, they don't have IMAP mail (which we require.) I really don't want to move my site again as that is quite a pain. ...

It isn't necessary for your Website and your Mail to be hosted with the same organization. You could keep your Website where it is now but have the Mail for your Domain hosted with another (IMAP) provider. Most Domain registrar's allow you to set the MX Records for your Domain and thus determine where your mail is hosted.

Leaving Mailsnare and going with a new IMAP provider should give you more flexible and reliable access to your mail. But you also mentioned the problem of your mail being considered Spam. One of the many factors in determining what is Spam is where the mail is sent from. If your MX record (where your mail is hosted, in your case your Website host) and the SMTP server you use are not at the same place, this can be a contributing factor in being considered a source of Spam.

If you host your mail with a new IMAP provider and use their SMTP server that should improve things in two ways. You won't have to retreive your mail via POP from your Website host and it might improve the situation as far as your mail being considered Spam. (Setting up the SPF record for your Domain would also be a help in this regard. One step at a time)

[beq]

Originally Posted by marcus0263

The "Polling" and "Leave on server" is dependent on your email client

I think the poster was talking about using the IMAP provider to poll her POP host, instead of using a local email client to do so.

I would like to add my recommendation for Tuffmail. Might take awhile to get used to it, but in the end it's very configurable, very powerful. My Tuffmail account's external POP/IMAP polling frequency starts from 1/5/10 minutes and goes up from there, delivering to an internal mailbox (to a specific folder) or forwarding to an external address. You can leave POPed mail on the remote server for up to 7 days (external IMAP mail can be deleted right away or left on the remote server indefinitely, and you can fetch IMAP mail from a specific remote folder other than Inbox). Other account levels may have different polling frequency options though (as frequent polling with extended tracking of messages left on remote servers can become resource intensive for the provider, I think). On an unrelated note, if you ever need to access your Tuffmail mailbox itself via POP, you can also fetch specific folders other than Inbox... BTW I seem to recall that I could still apply the antivirus (ClamAV + Sophos) and antispam (user-configurable SpamAssassin, system Bayes, and/or user Bayes) to remote polls, although Tuffmail's powerful MX filtering restrictions obviously only apply to inbound mail received via SMTP as opposed to POP/IMAP polling.

Note though that that some of the other providers also share some of these features...

As far as webmail, I'm used to Tuffmail's SquirrelMail which you can set to show the unread and total message count for every folder. The other provided webmails (Horde IMP and Dynamic IMP, and RoundCube) look more modern though. But there's no custom webmail as Tuffmail is really geared towards email client users in some respects.

Personally, I would suggest that you allow whichever IMAP provider you choose to perform as much of the folder filing as can be done via automated rules, to reduce your manual filing chore in the email client. The provider should be able to filter on any email header and body (as well as the message envelope sender or recipient value, either directly or via injected headers).

As others have mentioned it's also a good idea to have your domain's MX records hosted directly at the IMAP provider, to take advantage of the provider's MX-stage spam filters as well as rules on the message envelope recipient (when you use different plus or subdomain addresses). If you don't care about the MX spam filters, you can also forward your mail to the provider (preferrably if the provider can be configured to trust the forwarding host as a form of "inbound gateway" and parse the message headers for the previous-hop sender to use for the spam scoring tests). Either method would obviate the need for (frequent) remote POP polling.

P.S. I do think the other providers mentioned here are also good (when I'd used them), even if specific features might not suit your needs. I admire you trying all options and keeping an open mind Sorry for the long rant.

[Berenburger]

Originally Posted by elyssabernard

I will look into Polaris next and maybe eumx. Any further advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Sorry to be so long but I have spent the entire weekend on this and am still stuck with mailsnare. Thanks again in advance!

EuMX polls standard every two hours (and on each login to Open Web Mail). You are free to ask support at eumx.net for other possibilities. Usually they are very cooperative.

[William9]

With LuxSci you can set it up so that the polled external mailbox messages all go through the Premium spam filter. It's a configurable option.

[JRobert]

Wouldn't it be simpler to set your pop host to immediately forward all mail to whatever IMAP mail host you choose? That sidesteps the whole polling issue and your mail should arrive nearly instantly at the IMAP host.