Managing multiple email accounts

[thesaintv12]

I was wondering what people use to manage multiple email accounts?

I have about 35 accounts which I need to be able to reply to emails from and that are customised to individual domain names.  This is fine when I have my laptop as they are all set up within windows mail (they are also forwarded to one catch-all address).  However, when I am out and about I have to read what comes in to the catch-all and then log into each webmail account to reply. 

I am sure there is a better way, and before I start trawling I thought I pick peoples brains here.  Every time I build a new site it adds to the problem, so I want to sort it now before it grows too much.

[ukgimp]

Have you checked out google apps. I know people who do this with it.

[Rooftop]

We've started using a multi-domain helpdesk for this.  It also has the advantage of allowing us to have emails managed by different people based on the type of email (sales, support, complaint, general enquiry, ad enquiry etc) rather than by site name - which is what we have historically done.

We're using a commercial solution, but it wasn't expensive.  I'll dig out the details if you are interested.

[Drastic]

I have 3 ways of dealing with this.

1) Site forms/emails all point to a single incoming gmail account, the form puts the domain in the subj. Different ones get forwarded to different pop accounts on my main pc. I can log into the one account for checking and replies from anywhere. I use the forwards to archive important ones to my main pc. You can also set up specific domain email addresses to forward at your host.

2) Remotely, I use logmein and log into my main pc and handle email as usual.

3) I duplicate the main email client set up as on my main machine, but on my laptop. Only difference is I don't delete anything from the server. So, I can handle anything that comes up directly and have all incoming mail still archived on the main machine. Only problem with this is your replies don't get archived to the main pc. In situations it doesn't matter, fine. Otherwise, I check with this method and revert to #2 to have my replies archived if necessary.

[PaulH]

I use Free version of  Google apps.

Takes a couple of minutes to add another domain. So single mail(gmail) login, setup filters so different accounts land in different folders. Option to reply from any account you manage.

Need to be able to change mx and cname records

[thesaintv12]

PaulH, UKGimp - Google apps looks great, I'm just not sure about it handling all of my domains (and being able to link them all together?).  Is this a just a case of making a few accounts?  ...or maybe I am just being too paranoid? 

Rooftops idea looks great, but I am just a one-man-band at the moment, so it is probably a bit more than I require just yet.

Drastic - It looks like you are doing a more advanced version of my set up.  I use 'PhoneMyPC' on my android phone to control various things on one of my PC's (really good, fast and cheap app BTW and acts like a VPN connection.  Only around £10 IIRC) it has been a life saver while on holiday etc.

[ergophobe]

Actually, I use GMail, which now has the ability to let you automatically reply from whatever account received the email (using its SMTP server and everything as if it were a desktop client). This way I don't have to think about whether someone wrote me at addyA@gmail.com or addyB@gmail.com

There is a plugin that maps signatures to email addresses too, so you can have a different sig for each address.

And then if I have say a contact form on a website that sends to info@siteA.com, it gets auto-tagged with a label so all the emails associated with that site get thrown into the same folder.

[thesaintv12]

Actually, I use GMail, which now has the ability to let you automatically reply from whatever account received the email (using its SMTP server and everything as if it were a desktop client). This way I don't have to think about whether someone wrote me at addyA@gmail.com or addyB@gmail.com

There is a plugin that maps signatures to email addresses too, so you can have a different sig for each address.

And then if I have say a contact form on a website that sends to info@siteA.com, it gets auto-tagged with a label so all the emails associated with that site get thrown into the same folder.

Is that just gmail on its own or within google apps?  or are they the same thing (I have not used either before)?

[ukgimp]

gmail apps

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

[ukgimp]

i had teh paid one once, but just reverted back to non paid, less space but who cares. (can be slightly slower, as I am suer they give the better servers to the paid)

[ergophobe]

I've only played around a little with my Google Apps email, so the things I mention are only within regular GMail, but it may well be the same from within Google Apps.

The one thing that I would really like that GMail doesn't have is the ability to say "If a message comes to this email address, BCC the reply to this email address" (in other words, when someone writes to our rental business, I'd like my wife to get auto BCCed on the reply). There's a Greasmonkey script that does this, but it is unreliable, which sort of defeats the purpose.

There are days when I get spooked by how much of my life Google controls, but honestly that is the only reason I would use something else (and fully understand that this might be enough reason for a lot of people to look elsewhere). I initially wanted to use anything BUT Gmail for many reasons that you might guess (big brother) and might not (terrible on a high-latency connection) and when I first started trying it, I hated it (threaded, no folders/boxes, just "labels", search-based). It just wasn't how I worked.

I now can't stand to use anything that doesn't have these. Examples:

- labels.
At first I thought it was weird that I could have something in multiple "folders" since adding a label didn't move it out of my inbox, just added a label. But now I depend on a multi-level folder structure so a bill for a repair to our rental will get tagged "Rental/Admin", "bills and receipts"  and "tax deduction"

- search
I actually don't think much about organizing mail that isn't a tax deduction, rental booking or something like that. I just try to remember vaguely what it was about and who it was from and find it with search.

- threaded
I know lots of clients do this, but I never really liked it before GMail.

- all messages in one inbox if you want, but automatically reply from the address the mail was sent to

- segment out some messages into their own mailbox.
For example, I get daily avalanche reports in the winter. If I'm too busy to get out in the backcountry skiing, these are just clutter, but I want the archive so I can track the evolution of the snowpack, so they go into a "subscriptions/Avalanche Repots" folder and skip the inbox altogether and are there when I want them.

-auto label and filter email
I have labels for bills and receipts for all my auto-billing notices, a label for any rental inquiries and so on. When I'm in a hurry, I just go straight to my rental inquiries folder and get my essential business done, without getting distracted by my inbox.

[Rumbas]

Outlook/Exchange? Works for us.