You've got mail but I'm not telling

[susandennis]

In the early days of corporate electronic mail, I worked at IBM and we had PROFS (made famous, some of you may remember, by Ollie North). It was an office system that included email. The early PROFS, however, had this little quirk. It did not automatically poll for mail. You had to hit a 'receive' button, in order to get your mail.

I was in the office of one of the executives one day just as his secretary (yep, we called 'em secretaries) was showing him how to see his mail. He was astounded at how stupid the system was. "So... this is like getting a phone call where the phone doesn't ring. Instead I have to remember to pick it up and check to see if anyone is there to get a call??!!"

All of my email systems today, poll. And all but one gives me a audible cue. I have one mail wav for gmail and personal mail on my desktop computer. Mail comes in and I can hear the news from anywhere in the house.

On my work laptop, we have a little bit of a situation... Most of the time, I can hear it when my company pop mail comes in. But, I use Outlook to poll that pop3 server AND I use the same Outlook to poll Microsoft Exchange via RPC. It's very handy as I get more than half of my business mail over Exchange. I could use Outlook Web Access (which does give me a little pop up window and a very faint sound when new mail comes in) but it's way handier to get it via Outlook. I could use regular Exchange instead of via RPC. Regular exchange would give me an audible alert BUT, I'd have to be logged onto the remote server to get it AND while logged on, I could not get my pop3 mail.

So... I never hear if I have mail from Exchange. I have to remember to look. It make me crazy.

Comments

[qnetter]

On my work laptop, we have a little bit of a situation... Most of the time, I can hear it when my company pop mail comes in. But, I use Outlook to poll that pop3 server AND I use the same Outlook to poll Microsoft Exchange via RTP. It's very handy as I get more than half of my business mail over Exchange. I could use Outlook Web Access (which does give me a little pop up window and a very faint sound when new mail comes in) but it's way handier to get it via Outlook. I could use regular Exchange instead of via RTP. Regular exchange would give me an audible alert BUT, I'd have to be logged onto the remote server to get it AND while logged on, I could not get my pop3 mail.

Um...

1) What's "RTP"? I'm aware of using HTTPS with Outlook-to-Exchange connections, but what's RTP?

2) I use one Outlook with an Exchange and multiple IMAP or POP connections, and all are polled properly -- what's the deal?

[susandennis]

doh! not RTP... RPC - Remote Protocol Connection? (not sure that's exactly it, but you get the gist).

It polls fine. It just doesn't click in the audible alert.

when i was at sterling forest

[henare.livejournal.com]

we had to have PROFS and regular email (something that sucked virtual card decks out of the virtual reader and reformatted them as mail messages). PROFS because it's what all the execs used, and regular mail for all the sensible people.

Re: when i was at sterling forest

[susandennis]

We had the exact same setup!! At Charlotte and then in White Plains. By the time I left White Plains for Rochester, they had fixed PROFS. Well, fixed is way too strong a word but they had gotten it so it polled for mail anyway.

[kyrielle]

Can you use a (local) rule to create a sound? I'd test this theory except I don't have my system up and linked to the exchange server.

[susandennis]

ohhhhh what an interesting idea!!! I'm trying it now!