deleting e-mails and constant down loading

[#1]

I use outlook Express to recieve and send my e-mails. My webmail account has stopped deleting my mail and I have nearly 7000 e-mails stored that I cannot delete. I keep getting told to go back to the login page. For some reason every time I open outlook express it starts to download all the e-mails.
Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved.

[#2]

Hi flinty,
A quick check on your mailbox and I can see almost 7000 emails.  You have a few options here.  The best thing you can do is configure Outlook to use the IMAP protocol.  Let Outlook download all the emails and then delete the emails as necessary.  IMAP allows the mail on your computer to be synchronised with the server.  This means that no matter where or how you check your email you will have the same mail in all locations.  Due to this when you delete an email in Outlook (IMAP) the message will be deleted from the mail server itself.
I suspect this issue has arisen as you are using POP3 protocol instead of IMAP.  For instructions on how to setup Outlook for IMAP see here:  http://www.plus.net/support/email/setup/settings.shtml
Any issues or if you would like us to delete all the emails from your mailbox for you then get back in touch.

[#3]

@Alex Slightly surprised that you recommend using IMAP as this more for users that use multiple PC's to access their email accounts. It also has the disadvantage for the ISP point of view that emails are more likely left on the server.
For the OP if they are using a single computer and do not require to access old emails if using Webmail from a different computer then using POP would be a better solution. They just need to check in the settings that 'Leave a copy on the server' is not selected.

[#4]

Quote from: itsme

@Alex Slightly surprised that you recommend using IMAP as this more for users that use multiple PC's to access their email accounts.

True.  But if the client is configured for IMAP it will mean any changes to the emails within Outlook will be mirrored on the server and so the mail can be managed better.  It's not of any significant disadvantage to us if mail is stored on our mail servers.

Quote from: itsme

They just need to check in the settings that 'Leave a copy on the server' is not selected.

This is another way to achieve a similar result.

[#5]

When travelling overseas I had my email on POP and could set it up to stay on the server for two weeks before it was deleted this allowed my wife plenty of time to download using outlook while I could use outlook or webmail to see our emails while travelling how would you do this using IMAP 

[#6]

Quote from: Alex

It's not of any significant disadvantage to us if mail is stored on our mail servers.

It is because every so often PN has to email users that have a large amount of stored emails.

[#7]

Quote from: PeterLoftus

When travelling overseas I had my email on POP and could set it up to stay on the server for two weeks before it was deleted this allowed my wife plenty of time to download using outlook while I could use outlook or webmail to see our emails while travelling how would you do this using IMAP

Webmail is in fact imap. If you setup folders in Webmail you can't see them in Outlook using POP but if you use IMAP you can see all the folders. I been using IMAP for many a year and I have the same account setup on several machines and can view all emails in any folder, i.e. Inbox, xyx, abc, and Sent so it does not matter which PC I use or if I travel and use Webmail in an Internet Cafe I can see the same emails.

[#8]

@itsme
It's true that our networks team keep an eye on mailbox size and contact customers if the mailbox is getting too big.  However, providing your mailbox is managed correctly it's unlikely we'd have to intervene.

[#9]

I would like to ask a question for me, you can switch it to a new thread if necessary 
I have been at home for a few months but I am intending to go overseas again and need to set up my e-mail to suit my wife at home and myself travelling 
As I posted below I used to use POP3 and with the provider I used then there was a tick box and a setting so I could leave e-mails on the server for two weeks after reading. This gave us what we wanted because all the e-mails were on our home desktop running Outlook and I could log in anywhere using a number of means while travelling and pick up the same e-mails. We didn't see the benefit of having all our e-mails permanently on the server and that provider had a nag box telling us to archive our e-mails anyway. I got pretty adept on logging on in airports, at work, in hotels to get my e-mails using web-mail. Latterly I have had an IPad Touch. 
How do I do this using IMap? What if any are the advantages? Any other options? 

[#10]

Hi PeterLoftus,
From what you've said it sounds like POP3 with the leave on the server options is best for you.  If you switched to IMAP, anything you deleted from any of the computers or other devices would be deleted at all locations.

[#11]

One of the main advantages for me is when I send/reply to an email from any device, touch, mobile, 3 PC's or Webmail, a copy is left in the Sent folder which is an IMAP folder and therefore visible to all machines. Unlike the sent folders using POP which only store emails sent by the PC.

[#12]

I think the difference is we have multiple users on multiple machines. I forgot to mention we have a laptop and a desktop which my wife uses at home. 

[#13]

So do you know when you wife has replied to an email and can you read it. With IMAP you will be able.

[#14]

if i need to know she can copy me 

[#15]

I use thunderbird, on a win 7, win xp and Linux netbooks, using IMAP, you have a lot of control, you can slide the mail from one box to another, my wife uses the XP machine and she likes Outlook Express, that is set to just look at here box and download it to her machine.
No trouble with access on Thunderbird, have used it all over the UK and Eire, but the OE can be difficult to send