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This is what I want and I am having issues finding a solution.

I have a number of websites (around 5) each with an email account. I have a server at my office and I would like to centralize it. I have a workstation too. What I want to happen is for the server to receive all emails from all those websites (from the web servers) and then connect my workstation to my local server to grab the emails from there. As the server downloads the emails, I would like them to be stored. Also, if I connect another workstation, I want the 2 workstations to sync. So if an email is read on one, it shows up as read on the other.

Ideas? I am able to virtualize a Linus environment if that helps.

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No, you do not want that. Because you have no idea how to maintain it, and you have no idea about the implications for securing your Network. MAYBE you want a VPS at a Provider to act as email Server - but then you should want first to learn how to adminsitrate Servers. I would suggest talking to your web Provider. – TomTom Oct 28 '12 at 8:40
Agreed. With the caveat that you could use IMAPSync to sync multiple remote mailboxes to the local system, keeping track of state. Obviously the caveat there is that IMAP must be in use. – Steve Kemp Oct 28 '12 at 8:46
TomTom i think you should becareful with your assumptions. I made no references to me not knowing anything about IT security or server administration. I am not that familiar with mail servers however your comment was rude. I have installed Postfix, fetchmail and IMAP server. It's working great. I am NOT stupid. Think before you make rude remarks about someone you know nothing about. Not knowning about the inner workings of mail servers by no way means I know nothing about servers. – KriiV Oct 28 '12 at 8:58
So now you are a rformulaa 1 racind Driver becuase oyu manage to start a car? There is a LOT more involved, espeically in keeping things safe. Best is you hide under a bush - i.e. you Keep the email Server in a data Center and pull the stuff to your local Server, hiding behind a NAT device. Email is quite tricky - and the fact that you miss prety much every Piece of relevant Information in your post says it all. Call it arrogant - reality does not care. Pull the emails fro mthe Servers down. And you can not install "a Linus". Linus does not like being installed. The OS is called "Linux". – TomTom Oct 28 '12 at 9:03

1 Answer

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A possible solution could look like this:

  • setup a mail server on your office server (SMTP and IMAP)
  • configure the server to accept only authenticated connections from outside your LAN
  • place the server in a DMZ as it will be accessible from the internet
  • forward port 587 to the office server if you're behind a NAT router, or open the port inbound to the server (if possible restrict inbound connections to your external servers)
  • have the other servers forward their mail to your office server
  • have your client access the office server via IMAP

This is only a rough description, because implementation details will depend heavily on what software you're actually using.

With that said, I do agree with @TomTom that your question didn't inspire much confidence in your ability to build and run such a setup. You may indeed be better off having an ESP (e-mail service provider) handling the mail and just point your web servers and client towards their service. If you want to handle this yourself anyway: be prepared for a rather steep learning curve.

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