[canistel]

Hi, I just bought a bb bold, and like it for the most part. I get my email on both the bold and my desktop machine. Here is my problem:

Email setup:
I have a shared hosting web server where all my emails are routed to.
I also have an email server (dovecot) running on my desktop. The emails are retrieved from the shared hosting web server (via getmail) and dumped into dovecot which is the definitive source for all emails, sent and received; nothing is deleted from this local server. My email clients use imap to access this local server.

I created a little python script (for my desktop) to login to my email server (shared web hosting), and then IDLE while there is no mail. When a new mail arrives, the script calls "getmail" which then proceeds to download the email into my local email server on my desktop. This effectively gives me "push" email on my desktop. So far so good.

However, with this setup, my bb will not get the emails from the shared web host email server, as the python script will get the emails first, and delete them (via getmail) before BIS gets them. (The bb cannot read from the local email server as it is a private network.)

Options to fix this are:
1) put a 1 - 2 min delay in the python script so that BIS gets a chance to see them.
2) leave all emails on the shared server for a time and then delete them afterwards.
3) remove the idle functionality from the python script; create a little app on the bb so that when it gets an email, it tells my desktop to download (it would use the wifi connection for this).
4) (variant of option 1) create a desktop app which detects whether I'm using my desktop; if so, then it downloads email; if not, then it puts the delay in the python script so that bis can download first.
...
...
Problem with 1 is that it defeats the purpose of instant email (direct push)
Problem with 2 is that the desktop email retriever software (which I didn't write, and which is otherwise excellent) has trouble with "seen" emails, and sometimes downloads them twice even though it has downloaded them already
Problem with 3 is that I don't know if it's possible to create such an app for the bb
Problem with 4 is that the bb will then not receive a copy of the emails when I'm at my desk, working, which is the greater part of the day.

So I'm just curious, how do you manage synchronizing your email on both your desktop and your bb? (please don't suggest the complete trash which is blackberry's Desktop Software (hard to believe it comes from Blackberry); I really can't go there for various reasons, one of which is I'm running linux).

Any ideas?

[Heresy]

WOW...you got quite the setup goin there. I personally dont "sync" my emails. I use outlook and just leave a copy on there. So I can not help you out. I do wonder though, if you did option 1 with a one minute delay if that would work? I know its not exactly push but 1 minute delay would be ok with me.

[canistel]

Thanks for your reply...

The problem with 1, is that I don't know how much of a delay I need. I've tested this by sending email to myself from my gmail account. Somtimes my bb gets it within seconds, other times it takes much longer (2 mins). It could be just a problem with my hosted server, or maybe my reception conks out (I live in a rural area). Once I start trying to be safe (3 mins), then it's no longer push email... I like "elegant" solutions

canistel

[Heresy]

Ahh, I see. That sucks. Hopefully someone else will be able to help you out. I know theres a few linux users here. I run linux but I dont use email with it. Try this....use the search forums option and look for linux....there was some talk on here somewhere about something like this.