Gallery: Save messages stored in webmail accounts

We’ll start with Google Mail (we’ll cover the Yahoo and Hotmail services later in this Workshop). Grabbing messages from a Google Mail account is quite straightforward. Browse to www.googlemail.com and log in. Choose Settings and then click the Forwarding and Pop/Imap link. We want to enable Pop download. This stands for Post Office Protocol, which is the standard system that most popular email programs use to download messages. Under the Pop Download heading choose ‘Enable Pop for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded)’. From the ‘When messages are accessed with Pop’ dropdown menu select ‘keep Google Mail’s copy in the Inbox’. Click Save Changes.

Launch Outlook Express in Windows XP or Windows Mail in Windows Vista. These two programs look slightly different but their menus and settings are almost identical. Our instructions should work with other email programs, too, although the means may be different. Choose Tools, Accounts, Add, Mail (or E-mail Account in Windows Mail). This starts the wizard for adding an email account. Enter a display name, followed by the email address. At the Email server names part choose Pop3 from the dropdown list. For the incoming server name enter pop.googlemail.com. For the outgoing server enter smtp.googlemail.com. There’s no need to use an outgoing server but the wizard needs an entry here to continue.

In the next screen enter the full Google Mail address and the account password. Tick the box marked ‘Remember password’ and complete the wizard. Select the account that we just set up from the list of mail accounts, which should still be open. Click Properties and select the Advanced tab. Under Incoming mail (Pop3), tick the box marked ‘This server requires a secure connection (SSL)’. To enable mail to be sent, tick the box with the same label under Outgoing Mail (SMTP) and change the port number displayed to 465. The incoming mail port should be displayed as 995. Click OK and Close.

Click Send/Receive to begin downloading Google Mail messages. These are sent in batches and it can take some time if there’s a lot of mail stored in the Google Mail account. With this in mind, it might be best to leave the email application to download all the messages in its own time.

Backing up messages stored in a Yahoo Mail account is a similar process. First enable Pop download. Browse to www.yahoo.co.uk and log into your account. Follow the link marked Options in the top right-hand corner, followed by Pop Access and Forwarding. Select the button marked ‘Web & Pop Access – Access Yahoo! Mail via the web interface and through any email program using Pop3’. Under ‘When downloading new messages’, select the option marked ‘I want to receive all messages, including those that Spamguard thinks are spam’. This will ensure that no messages downloaded as backups will be filtered by Yahoo Mail’s spam filter, though of course you may prefer it to do so. Click Save in the bottom-left corner of the page to confirm these settings and then log out of Yahoo Mail.

Back in Outlook Express (or any other email program), set up a new mail account in the same way as we did for Google Mail above (see Step 2 onwards). Choose Tools, Accounts, Add, Mail and supply the display name, followed by the email address. Choose Pop3 server and enter the incoming mail server as pop.mail.yahoo.co.uk and the outgoing mail server as smtp.mail.yahoo.co.uk. Enter the username and password and complete the wizard. Select the Yahoo account and choose Properties, followed by the Advanced tab. Tick the boxes offering a secure connection and ensure that the outgoing port is 465 and the incoming one is 995.

It’s possible to pick up Windows Live Mail or Hotmail messages in Outlook Express but the standard method simply mirrors the contents of the webmail server, leaving you without a local backup copy if something gets deleted accidentally. However, a program called Freepops makes it possible to download Hotmail messages in the same way as we did for Google and Yahoo Mail. Download it from www.freepops.org. Install and launch the program. It automatically minimises itself to the Notification Area and needs no further configuration.

Open Outlook Express and choose Tools followed by Accounts and then Add followed by Mail. Enter a display name and the Hotmail address. For the incoming server, choose Pop3 and enter ‘localhost’ as the server name. Use ‘localhost’ for the outgoing server name too, but don’t try to send mail with this account later. For the username, provide the full Hotmail address. Enter the password in the correct space. Complete the wizard. As before, select the account and choose Properties, Advanced. Leave the boxes for a secure connection clear in this case and change the port number for the incoming mail server to 2000.

Outlook Express can now download messages from each of the three main webmail providers. Make sure all the mail has downloaded correctly. We now need to back up these messages and put them on a CD or DVD for safekeeping. An easy way to do this is with a program called Mailstore Home, which you can get from www.computeractive.co.uk/2208303. Download and install it. You’ll be prompted to install the .Net framework if you don’t already have it – just follow the displayed instructions. Launch the program and choose Import messages. Select Outlook Express and click OK. Click Outlook Express to import the messages.

Mailstore examines the contents of Outlook Express and copies all messages to its own store. Depending on the amount of mail involved, this may take some time. Once Mailstore has imported all the email messages it’s possible to back them up to a CD-R. Click Burn Backup CD. Insert a disc when prompted and wait for Mailstore to write the messages to disc. If it needs another disc, you’ll be prompted to supply it. Label each CD and store them in a safe place.

Mailstore examines the contents of Outlook Express and copies all messages to its own store. Depending on the amount of mail involved, this may take some time. Once Mailstore has imported all the email messages it’s possible to back them up to a CD-R. Click Burn Backup CD. Insert a disc when prompted and wait for Mailstore to write the messages to disc. If it needs another disc, you’ll be prompted to supply it. Label each CD and store them in a safe place.