Accessing Outlook Folder From Another Computer

[Hopester Doofus]

I have added a second desktop PC at home and have set up a wiress network with my existing desktop. Both have Outlook 2000. My goal is to access my email from either computer.

Is this possible?

[soybean]

And, you also mean to have Outlook synchronized between the two computers so that they both have exactly the same email.  Is that right?

[Rob Pomeroy]

Outlook does not allow two separate processes to open the same Outlook data store, so you can't just share the .pst file (unless you know that both computers won't be using it simultaneously).

The most elegant solution for email sharing is to use IMAP rather than POP3 to connect to your email provider.  You'd need to delete and recreate your accounts, selecting IMAP instead of POP3.  This will only work if your provider allows IMAP access.

IMAP basically keeps a master copy of all emails on the server, and keeps track of which emails have been downloaded to which computer, etc.  Excellent for multi-computer emailing.

[Hopester Doofus]

so you can't just share the .pst file (unless you know that both computers won't be using it simultaneously).

I don't think that would be an issue in our household. The wife accesses email only in the mornings, and I only in the evenings.

[Rob Pomeroy]

Well there's your answer then.  

But surely you and your wife have different email addresses, contacts databases, etc?

[Hopester Doofus]

But surely you and your wife have different email addresses, contacts databases, etc?

We don't actually. Is that abnormal?  

So the .pst file can be shared between two machines?

[Rob Pomeroy]

Absolutely - just share the containing folder.  You'll get an error if both machines try to open the file at the same time, but other than that, no problem.  This is what my wife and I do in fact.  We have separate email accounts, but we share my contacts so she has to open my .pst file to access them.

[Hopester Doofus]

Okay, so I've shared the .pst file. I've installed Outlook 2000 on my second machine.

Now, is it correct that I have to navigate Outlook on my second machine to the .pst file on my primary machine? And how?

[Rob Pomeroy]

File-->Open, would you believe?    You might want to map the shared folder to a network drive first, to make things slightly simpler.

Once you've got the .pst file open, right-click on the root of the personal folders tree.  Select the box that says something like "deliver pop3 mail to this folder".  Close and reopen Outlook.  You can now close the other personal folders (right-click; close).