POCOMAIL 4.8 Stability - User Feedback

[OneBigNewbie]

I am thinking of using Pocomail v4.8 to replace Eudora v7 (no more support, and getting to be a big hog on resources).
Before spending time to install and transferring all my existing mail to Pocomail, and spending $ to purchase it, I need honest opinion from people who
1) are using it, and
2) had used it before.

I had read some reviews of their past releases (before or in 2005), and 99% of the criticisms are on its stability.

I would use Pocomail to support multiple e-mail accounts on a public server (provided by Bell Canada) and on a couple of dedicated private server which I have private access. I like many of its features. STABILITY IS A MAJOR CONSIDERATION FOR ME. And I am not contemplating to use the 'free scripts' available in their site in the beginning until I am familiar with the software.

Your honest opinion, please.

Thanks,

[jdc2000]

I have a copy, but I have not yet set it up or used it. I would expect it to more stable than the last version. The test will be seeing how it handles a large e-mail database. I may see about setting it up and testing it later this week if I have time. If I can import one of my large existing e-mail databases, that should be a decent test.

[HAN]

What volume of email do you process? If you don't need something commercial oriented, have you looked at Mozilla Thunderbird? Even if Pocomail is good, it's user base is tiny compared to something like T-Bird. T-Bird is still actively developed and IMO, is quite user friendly.

[OneBigNewbie]

Volume (messages):
Incoming : 30 to 50 per day - excluding SPAMS
Outgoing : 10 to 20 per day

Existing messages to be migrated to Pocomail:
100,000 messages, 80% are with attachments (e.g. pdf/Word/jpeg files)

HAN - I am not very good at computers and from reading reviews on TB3, it give me the impression that TB3 needs a lot of DIY twitching to get problems solved.

[jdc2000]

I have used Thunderbird, and it would be my second choice. It still has a few issues and is missing some features that I have and use with my current e-mail program. PocoMail is supposed to be a replacement for the Calypso / Courier e-mail program.


PocoMail info:
http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/PocoMail/

[HAN]

100k messages? Wow! With that volume of storage, you are beyond what I deal with even at work. Although the number of daily messages is no big deal. If I may, why are you archiving so many messages??

[OneBigNewbie]

HAN - 100,000 messages are archives (a strict legal requirement in business)

[jdc2000]

Thunderbird can handle 100,000 messages, but when the mail store gets that large, you can have issues, especially if you decide at some point you need to export a folder's worth of messages for legal discover requirements.

I have not yet had time to try importing my message stores into PocoMail. I have years worth of archived messages, although I'm not sure I have anywhere near 100,000.

Have you checked to see how large the files are that Eudora is using to store the messages? Many e-mail programs, including Outlook, Calypso/Courier, and Thunderbird store the messages in a database file. The files are often limited to less than 2GB in size. Once they get that large, they can become unwieldy and start to have problems that are not limited to slow searching and retrieval of messages.

If you have a need to keep archives that large online, you might be better off looking into an Exchange Server 2010 system with e-mail archiving.



Useful link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudora_(e-mail_client)

[OneBigNewbie]

In that case, i convert all my recent ones to Pocomail, and then keep all the old ones with Eudora and to keep Eudora (software) = all to an old PC. Mummification !!!

[jdc2000]

That sounds like a good idea. However, it couldn't hurt to try converting a COPY of your existing 100,000+ message Eudora mail box to PocoMail. You may find it works better that Eudora. I have not tried converting a mailbox that large, so I can't comment on the stability or results. However, with Eudora no longer supported, it might be good to know how a currently supported program will do with a dataset that large. If you find that PocoMail can handle that much data without issues, or if you find that there are issues, Rose City Software and the PocoMail authors would probably like to hear from you with some feedback.