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Outlook Express: Multiple Users in One Mailbox

Why is it a problem ?

Well, let's say that three email addresses all end up in one mailbox. The native mailbox name could be john@isp.com and arrangements have been made for mary@isp.com and jane@iap.com to both be alised into the same mailbox. But when John downloads the mail he pulls out Mary's and Jane's mail as well. Likewise when they get their email, they'll empty it of everyone else's at the same time. What we need is a system whereby each person's Outlook Express will download only their mail. And Outlook Express (and Outlook) has this facility.

How to Set Up Mail Download Exclusion Rules

In theory, a set of rules is entered into each user's Outlook Express telling that program to ignore mail on the server which does not have a specific address in either the To or Cc fields. So if four people share a mailbox, then each person will have three mail exclusion rules, each of rule will specifically exclude the downloading of mail for one of the three other people.

But, be warned, this is not a perfect system. Many people send out "Blinded" mail and there are also maillist systems which carry the recipient's email address in various other parts of the mail header section. This system will not recognise such mails (for exclusion purposes) and the first person to download will get these mails instead of the intended recipient. If you work out how to get around this issue, then let us know.!

The steps to follow:

At this stage your email account should already be setup.

1-Open Outlook Express,then click on the tools menu,select 'message rules' from the dropdown list and then select 'mail' You are now hopefully where you need to be.

2-Under'condition for rule'select the 'Where the TO or CC line contains people"

3-Under 'Actions for your rule' select 'do not download it from server'

4-Under rule description click on 'contains people' and add the appropriate email addresses of the others who will be sharing you mail box.

5-Give your rule a name and press OK to accept.

6-Get everyone to check their mail and make sure that no one is downloading mail which is no addressed for them.

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