Murdoch wrote: A) Pocomail startup still shows "evaluation version"
This will only be resolved by entering the licence code on each workstation - the information is stored locally; that on the server is not accessible to the workstations.
I agree with Jim that the dial-up from the server may be contributing to some of the problems. Can you try re-locating the modem to the workstation and trying again - it should be OK from there.
Regarding accessing the common data; once again bear in mind the possibility of overwriting the database if you have the two workstation copies open at the same time and making changes to the database at the same time: if one downloads some mail and stores it, then the other downloads some mail and stores it, the mail downloaded by the first *may* be lost. Only using one
or the other copy should not present a problem (it's little different to me using PocoMail and Barca in the same directory).