Backup: Delete Mail - Wife Survives (Thanks Google!)

Share application data via the Internet.
Survive disaster scenarios.

Make email webworker ready everywhere!

The title tells a whole dramatic story in seven words. Let's talk about which desktop applications to sync with which services over the Internet to reach redundancy on an application AND work level.

This scenario could become a series: Your house burns down. How to work on with the help of the Internet.

Today: Mail provider -> mail client = mail backup and fallback solution

Email disaster recovery

• What a disaster would it be to be forced to have a day without email?

The most people are handling their email account(s) either through web interfaces or through mail programs installed on their computers. Let me show you how easy it is to get A) a backup for your mails AND B) how to assure that you can work on if your house burns down.

The two step inbox and outbox workflow!

A two step workflow means to have a backup solution either before you read your mail in a desktop application or to have a backup solution after you have read your email on the web. Combining webmail with an email application will grant you at least one backup for your mail. Of course you can also combine webmail service-1 with webmail service-2 to have the same effect.

Let's say you have a Google mail account. Set up your mail application to fetch the mails from Gmail via POP3.

Important: Don't delete any mails on the server!

• Setting in your email application i.e. in Thunderbird: Extras, Accounts, Server properties, Keep mails on the server
• Setting in Gmail: Forwarding and POP, Archive Google mail copy when accessing via POP

Google mail has the advantage of also archiving your outgoing mail automatically. This way all your mail traffic is secured. Other mail providers only offer a backup for your incoming mails.

Bonus: Redundancy taken serious

Create two accounts at two webmail services i.e. in Google and Yahoo.

• Incoming mail: Let Google and Yahoo pull the incoming mail from each other OR activate automatic mail forwarding to each other
• Outgoing mail: Send each outgoing mail bcc: to the other account (Google -> Yahoo + Yahoo -> Google). (Thunderbird: Extras, Accounts, Copies & Directories, BCC to this address)

The only thing which is not redundant now is the Internet (and You).