Sharing The Bat! Data file from remote locations?

Hi,

I'm trying to help a small non-profit organisation to deal with workers from remote locations managing the emails.

Basically, the main office has to rely on dial-up for Internet, no options there. A new employee is being hired and will work from a separate town, where she has High Speed Internet.

At the office now, they have invested quite a bit o time in their email setup, it's organised exactly the way they want it in the Bat!.

My question is: How can I make it that the remote user is the one that sorts the mail and directs only the necessary emails to head-office (i.e. the ones that the manager needs to act upon).

Is that what the Synchronisation function could be used for?

This is what I'm seeing.

1 - The remote employee, with the high-speed connection, manages the mail.
2 - At the office, the manager uses a separate mail account (Everyone uses the same now). That way, mail for the manager can be redirected to her and she only has to download hers, hopefully more limited flow, on a regular basis. Her replies can be sent as from the same global account as they always use.
3 - Once or twice a day, the synchronisation function is used to get a snapshot of the difference between the main mailbox and the office one.
4 - That diff. file is put up on the website in a special folder for download at the main office over dialup.
5 - Once downloaded, the main office gets updated

In order for synchronisation to work, do the accounts on both PC have to be exactly the same?
i.e. I would like for the manager's replies to also go to the main email box.. I guess there could eb an automatic BCC: ?

If anyone has a simpler way of doing this I would really appreciate hearing about it. I would love for them to keep on using the Bat, but my other way would involve using IMAP an dOther email clients seem better at managing that than the Bat!

Thanks for all suggestions and help.

Gerard

The synchronise system of TB is not quite what you think it is. First it's a two way system that wants to make two message bases identical.
The way it does this is by making an archive file of the first message base, you transport that to the second computer, the second TB extracts the archive, checks what's new for it and checks what isn't in the archive while it is present in the second message base. Those last messages are imported in a second archive that needs to be send back to the first computer.
Basically that means that you're not sending diff files, but that you're sending the complete message base over the dail-up connection instead of only the new messages.
I guess it's clear that you don't want to synchronise.

You mentioned a dial-up and a high speed connection, but you didn't mention the flow. Do they really need a high speed connection in order to cope with the bandwidth of their mail transport? If so then I'd suggest a two account system where the remote worker scans the mail and forwards the mail for the head office to the second account. The Head office would only need to check the second account.
In order to keep all mail together a BCC for all mail from the head office to the first account would be sufficient.

When the flow isn't a real problem I'd go for a three account system. Both locations check account1 (with settings to leave the mail two days on the server) the external employee BCCs all outgoing mail to account2 and checks account3, the head office BCCs all outgoing mail to account3 and checks account2.
This way you've got two full copies of the mail.

I'd advice IMAP whether it's with TB or with another client, as IMAP is definitely something for high speed connections, because it's not only the new mail that you've got to get from the internet, but also the mail from yesterday and last week whenever you want to look back.

But I don't know anything about your organisation:
Why do you prefer one address, why not one address for every employee?
Why not a domain for the organisation with a number of personal accounts, the mail addresses either managed by a hosting company or by a mail server at the location of the remote employee?
Why not a high-speed connection for the head office?

It's hard to say what's really the best option. I've done a little bit of brainstorming, but I really can't say what's the best option, with or without TB. And that's a bit besides the topic of this forum and as moderator I'm supposed to keep the discussion a bit on topic.

When you want discuss this further, contact me via private mail.

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Roelof Otten Guru Posts: 2963 Points: 5336 Rating: 60 Authority: 60 Joined: 19 September 2004	#2 0 21 November 2005 18:19:27 The synchronise system of TB is not quite what you think it is. First it's a two way system that wants to make two message bases identical. The way it does this is by making an archive file of the first message base, you transport that to the second computer, the second TB extracts the archive, checks what's new for it and checks what isn't in the archive while it is present in the second message base. Those last messages are imported in a second archive that needs to be send back to the first computer. Basically that means that you're not sending diff files, but that you're sending the complete message base over the dail-up connection instead of only the new messages. I guess it's clear that you don't want to synchronise. You mentioned a dial-up and a high speed connection, but you didn't mention the flow. Do they really need a high speed connection in order to cope with the bandwidth of their mail transport? If so then I'd suggest a two account system where the remote worker scans the mail and forwards the mail for the head office to the second account. The Head office would only need to check the second account. In order to keep all mail together a BCC for all mail from the head office to the first account would be sufficient. When the flow isn't a real problem I'd go for a three account system. Both locations check account1 (with settings to leave the mail two days on the server) the external employee BCCs all outgoing mail to account2 and checks account3, the head office BCCs all outgoing mail to account3 and checks account2. This way you've got two full copies of the mail. I'd advice IMAP whether it's with TB or with another client, as IMAP is definitely something for high speed connections, because it's not only the new mail that you've got to get from the internet, but also the mail from yesterday and last week whenever you want to look back. But I don't know anything about your organisation: Why do you prefer one address, why not one address for every employee? Why not a domain for the organisation with a number of personal accounts, the mail addresses either managed by a hosting company or by a mail server at the location of the remote employee? Why not a high-speed connection for the head office? It's hard to say what's really the best option. I've done a little bit of brainstorming, but I really can't say what's the best option, with or without TB. And that's a bit besides the topic of this forum and as moderator I'm supposed to keep the discussion a bit on topic. When you want discuss this further, contact me via private mail. __________________________________ I'm just a user of The Bat! I don't work for Ritlabs.