[hanguolaohu]

Hi,

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to Apple Mail, and I was wondering whether it's possible to have multiple logins. Here is my situation:

I have a small company with 5 employees who need to access their website e-mail using IMAP. We've been using the Horde web client which is horrendously slow and ugly. I would like for each employee to be able to use Mail to login to their e-mail account and then logout once done. This way employees won't be able to read each other's e-mails. I don't want to have different OS X root level login ID's because then my employees won't have access to all the files on the main admin ID. Unless there's a way around that as well. Any info would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Alexander

[ibook_steve]

I don't understand. You have one computer for you and 5 employees? And we're talking about web mail like Gmail? I think a little network setup information would be helpful here.

Steve

[Big Mac]

And how many email addresses? You can have multiple IMAP accounts within Mail, but if you want multiple separate email logins within the same user, you have to use a client like Thunderbird.

[hanguolaohu]

Steve, the workers work in shifts on different days. They've been using webmail like Horde as I haven't figured a way to make Mail work for multiple users. I don't really understand what you mean by "network setup information". It's an iMac connected to a Time Capsule router. E-mail is routed via IMAP.

Big Mac: 5 e-mail addresses for 5 employees. I will checkout Thunderbird thanks. I just wish Mail could do this.

[Big Mac]

Yeah, it's a longstanding limitation of Mail. Apparently Apple doesn't want to add any feature that could encourage some people in multi-user environments to rely on just one account and the switching of email account identities. Thunderbird isn't that pretty interface-wise, but it's free and open source.

[turtle777]

Am I missing the obvious here ?

Why not create 5 separate user accounts, and set up Apple Mail for each of them ?

-t

[Big Mac]

That's the better choice, but it sounds like the OP doesn't want to do that.

[turtle777]

I don't want to have different OS X root level login ID's because then my employees won't have access to all the files on the main admin ID.

Uhm, yeah, I guess we should better give the OP some advise on how to set up multiple users and file sharing across users.

As a start, use Sharepoints to create folders accessible by multiple users.

I'm still not clear what he means by "different OS X root level login ID's".
Clearly, you don't want to set up the users as admins.

-t

[Spheric Harlot]

Anything that's in /Users/Shared will be accessible by all users on a machine, so you can set up five accounts and still have shared data.

Is this a possible solution?

[Big Mac]

I think he meant OS X multiple users and was not referring to root.

[JKT]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Anything that's in /Users/Shared will be accessible by all users on a machine, so you can set up five accounts and still have shared data.

Is this a possible solution?

It is also accessible to absolutely everybody else as well. Not very good security for a company, no matter how small it is, and it potentially leaves them liable if a customer's information was stolen from such an accessible location.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

I think he meant OS X multiple users and was not referring to root.

Probably.

So, what's wrong with setting up a shared folder, using Sharepoints to assign the access rights ?

-t

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by JKT 

It is also accessible to absolutely everybody else as well. Not very good security for a company, no matter how small it is, and it potentially leaves them liable if a customer's information was stolen from such an accessible location.

But having some data exposed to all local users is infinitely better than having all data exposed at all times.

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Probably.

So, what's wrong with setting up a shared folder, using Sharepoints to assign the access rights ?

-t

Nothing at all wrong with that, other than the OP's apparent desire not to use multiple users.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Nothing at all wrong with that, other than the OP's apparent desire not to use multiple users.

It seems like the OP's hesitation to use multiple users comes from his lack of knowledge how to share data between the users.

-t

[hanguolaohu]

Wow, I'm happy to come back and see so much effort put into answering my question. Thank you guys!

To clarify the situation, I don't know much about making multiple users and my initial experience trying that made it feel like an entirely new system. But I am open to that now, especially if "/Users/Shared" will allow all users to access those files. One potential problem though is my employees are not very Mac savvy and tend to save files on the desktop, so I guess I'll have to train them to save on the "/Users/Shared" folder, unless there's another workaround. Besides that, I was advised on another forum that I might run into permission issues with files which concerns me as I need those files to be easily accessible for everyone.

In terms of security, I will be the Admin, and anything under "/Users/Shared" will be data deemed to be safe for all users. The only confidential info that I would like to create is a contact database that couldn't be easily copied onto a flash drive or e-mailed to someone else. Would appreciate any advice on that as well.

Thanks again!

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by hanguolaohu 

In terms of security, I will be the Admin, and anything under "/Users/Shared" will be data deemed to be safe for all users.

Yes, but be aware: if the Mac is networked (connected) to other Macs in your company, *ANYONE* could access the data in "/Users/Shared".

If you don't want that, you'd need to set up a folder on your HD and set permissions specifically for your group of users. Sharepoint is a good tool to do that.

Originally Posted by hanguolaohu 

The only confidential info that I would like to create is a contact database that couldn't be easily copied onto a flash drive or e-mailed to someone else. Would appreciate any advice on that as well.

So, you want that database only to be accessible to you, not the other users ?
Then just put it into /Users/yourusername/Documents/

If you are thinking about a way to let the other users only read that contact database, but not allow them to copy or email it - sorry, that can't be easily implemented.
As soon someone has read access, he can "do stuff" with the data, like printing, copy&paste, taking screenshots etc...

-t

[Big Mac]

He could put the database online, which would offer protection against the copying of individual files that employees need to access.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

He could put the database online, which would offer protection against the copying of individual files that employees need to access.

Protection from printing, copy&paste, taking screenshots etc ?

See, this is what I don't get.

The only way that what OP said would make sense is if the database is *NOT* accessible by everyone, but just by himself.

I guess we need more info to understand where he was going with that.

-t

[hanguolaohu]

Well, I might just keep those contacts on my personal laptop to make life easier. I just assumed there's a way to keep certain databases secure from copying the file to a flash drive or being sent by e-mail. It'll probably be an Address Book file, so I'm not so concerned about screenshots/copy & paste/printing.

[Big Mac]

The rule in computing is that if a file is made available for reading within a filesystem, it can be copied (unless you use some sort of third party DRM solution). You could disable the USB ports to prevent flash drive copying, but the file could still be sent as an email attachment.