Gmail

I remember well a humorous article that Mike D passed around the group last year - with the catchline "Owning a PC is more trouble than keeping a pet!"

Last week I told the story of how I became a convert to Google mail (Gmail), how it saved my bacon when my PC failed and how the more I use it, the more I think it makes computing simpler for me. It was a bit of a complicated story and I didn't get around to putting a summary on last week's notes, but a number of people offered opinions which made me think that I hadn't told the story quite well enough. The main point of this story is how I now believe I have found a simple way to give me greater protection for my emails and immediate access should my computer fail, and in a way that brings many other benefits, including independence of relying on any one ISP. I am conscious that there may be many CNC members who do not feel such a strong need as I do to keep one's email going through thick and thin. There are many times when I rely heavily on it. Over the years, the few times that I have totally lost my email capacity - whether through software or hardware failure - have caused me significant distress. There are also many CNC members who are much more technically skilled than I am, and who are happy to weather any storm with software or hardware failure. For me the PC remains a large assembly of mysteries, many of the somewhat threatening kind. There are also others in the group who are prepared on a daily basis to implement very stringent backup plans on their local PC. I don't have the enthusiasm for this level of machine vigilance. I am afraid I look for solutions which to me appear much simpler. So here is my story again, as I told it very briefly at 2 recent meetings, together with points raised by others as well as I recall them.

AUTO OFFSITE BACKUP AND SECURITY

Early last year I installed Windows XP Pro on my 2.7 megahertz Pentium 4 machine, using a 60 meg hard disk. Around September/October the system crashed. It would not boot up properly. As soon as I started it, it went into the shutdown screen. On advice from Tony S, I took the machine to Eva at ATM computers. They spent a lot of time on diagnosis and could find no fault with the hard disk nor any virus or malware. Mystery! And more trouble than keeping a pet. So they simply backed up the contents of the hard disk on another machine and reloaded Windows for me, plus other software. My hard disk was already a couple of years old and I was getting a little nervous about it anyway, long before this total system failure. Being a prudent soul, I had purchased an 80 meg hard disk early in the year as a replacement - so that I could do a Drive Image and change over to a new disk. But I could not get the new disk to work properly. I found out later that it was from a faulty batch of Seagate Barracudas (Thanks Tony S). This problem took me quite a while to sort out. More trouble than keeping a pet! This system crash happened at just the time that I was busy organising some October meetings. My email had been buzzing. I was suddenly without my machine for almost a week - and deprived of all my recent emails and addresses on my hard disk at just the moment I needed them urgently. Fortunately, Charlie K had given me an invite to Google mail earlier in the year. I have been using various forms of webmail extensively as part of training beginners at Digital Divide centres around Canberra. I recognised Gmail's superior features. I immediately made Gmail my main email tool, with copies auto forwarded to my email client (Eudora) on my home machine. When my main machine crisis hit, I just booted up my ancient Windows 98 machine, went onto the web and Gmail, and I had everything at my fingertips. I didn't have to worry too much about my malfunctioning system. Google had taken care of my mail for me - offsite. Now while you are still on dial up, webmail is not the most convenient tool. In fact, without broadband, the whole computer loses a huge proportion of its utility and convenience. But Google webmail did save my bacon, even when on dialup last October. Now that I am back on broadband again, Gmail is "always on", as an envelope-shaped icon sitting in the system tray. Just right click and up comes the Inbox and I am up and running. I still use Eudora to send a lot of messages, but I nominate my Google address as my sending address and then get all mail back to Google mail automatically copied back to my ISP and Eudora. Auto backup.

EASIER CONTROL OF SPAM

I get plenty of spam via my ISPon Eudora. I have experimented with quite a number of webmail accounts over the last couple of years. The Telstra one was the only one I met which had problems with spam. But not on Google mail. It automatically quarantines spam and I just don't have to worry about it. It's there in its little spambox, if I am curious. I started wondering about installing a spam filter such as the one Peter H uses (Frontgate?), but this is just another complication I would rather not have to worry about. Let Mr Google look after it. The simpler my computer is to run the better. John S said Gmail's spam filtering didn't work for him.. But because I get the Gmail to be my main recipient address and channel as much as possible through it, it cleans out the spam before I see it.

ENJOY BETTER SOFTWARE WITHOUT WORRY ABOUT UPGRADES

I have used Eudora now since first going on the net in the mid 1990s. I have also had to teach Outlook Express to beginners a fair bit over the last couple of years. This experience has not made me any fonder of OE. But I am also tiring of Eudora now too. With Google mail automatically keeping my address book for me without me raising a finger, and not having to worry about creating and managing folders to keep stuff in, I now see Eudora and OE as belonging to an older generation of software. Gmail is still in beta mode I believe. Since joining up, it has been very significantly improved - and development is continuous. What I like about this is that with this software, I don't have to worry about upgrades anymore. It all happens automatically. You never know when you boot up next whether the Google engineers will offer you yet another valuable feature with the software. I believe Gmail will come to reflect the cutting edge best practice with email. Or so I hope. I had warned my neighbour next door a number of times about relying on OE on his old hard disk for keeping his records of old emails. But then it crashed and he lost the lot. What I didn't expect was that I would lose significantly too with Eudora, when I had my bout of woes with XP Pro. I still have all my old emails, but most of my old address book is inaccessible. And I have lost enthusiasm for remaking all the old mail folders and links I had put together so carefully. Until recently, there was also another new and streamlined piece of email software available with many of Google's features - but operating as a resident email client. It was called Bloomba and was developed by Stata Labs. It got many rave reviews. Automatic address book. No folders. Bloomba uses power searching instead, etc. But Yahoo recently bought out the company in order to recruit the brains there - and the Bloomba email client software has been taken off the market. Perhaps Bloomba features will soon be incorporated into Yahoo mail. Perhaps this is just another indication of the future direction of email.

NO NEED TO DISCARD EMAILS - PLENTY OF SPACE

Until my recent problems with XP Pro, I had accumulated 4 years email on my Eudora client. Including attachments, this amounted to 360 meg. So Google mail's one gigabyte will obviously be quite adequate for me for some years. I don't put much weight on the objection that Gmail space is not big enough. If so, why not give yourself more than one account - and use extra ones for receiving the mailing lists that fill up your space.

ISP STABILITY - WHY NOT USE GMAIL AS YOUR DEFAULT ADDRESS?

One of our CNC subscribers recently wrote: "I've had enough complications with ISP's (no names mentioned) not handling my mail and not notifying me that it was just going to the big bit-bucket in the sky." Here, here, Terry! I have just changed ISP again in order to move to broadband. But instead of telling everyone that I have a new email address, I will just let people continue to write to me at Gmail. Even though Google has only been with us for 5 years, it seems like a major institution already. I recall John S telling the meeting that Google is now worth more than the combined value of GM and Ford. I think my mail will be safe with them as an offsite location and home for my email for quite some time to come. Provided you back up your emails on your resident email client (easily arraned under Gmail options), you should have a failsafe and simple way of using and securing your email. So if Gmail does fall over, I still have all my stuff in a backup copy on my email client on my home PC.

SUMMARY

So if you are on broadband, want to keep your email computing as simple and failsafe as possible - while keeping up with changing technology - I would recommend using Gmail as your main email and using your ISP and PC client email software as a backup. Just use Gmail forwarding function to send a copy of all your replies to your PC email client. And perhaps continue to use your email client for originating correspondence, but auto send a copy to your Gmail address.
The advantages of Gmail in a nutshell are:

Making email simpler and safer - gmail