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Back That Gmail Up

blog.jerodsanto.net

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Re: Back That Gmail Up

#31

Post by icebraining »

there wrote: post #24
icebraining wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shit happens with every provider, free or paid; hoping it won't because you pay $400/month for it is foolish. The smart thing is to make sure it doesn't affect you much, by decoupling from the service and turning it into a replaceable commodity as much as possible. That means using your own domain, keeping backups, etc. Then, when shit happens, you can just sign up for another provider and keep going.

Shit happens, but with nearly every other provider, you can at least talk to someone to find out what happened and get your service restored, or at least get your data.

You can always get your data if you do backups - like you should in any case - so that point is moot.

So, you're paying and giving up on a nice webmail client with two-factor auth (how many providers offer this?) for "finding out what happen". I don't think it's a great deal.

I'm not a Gmail apologist, by the way - I think there are valid reasons not to use it, like not giving Google a copy of your whole life - but I don't find their policy for when "shit happens" a real problem.

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#32

Post by [deleted] »

sp332 wrote: post #26
esbwhat wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think about this, but I find it far more likely that my domain goes bad for one reason or another, or my server crashes than that gmail shuts down my account.

At least you can just change some DNS records and get your mail working on another server. If your gmail account gets suspended there's no way to get that address back, ever.

[deleted]

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#33

Post by masnick »

Instead of putting the password in as a plaintext argument, you can store it in the OS X keychain and access it with the command described here: http://www.maclovin.de/2010/02/access-os-x-keychain-from-ter...

I use this in my .zshrc to create Bitbucket repos on the fly:

  function bitbucket() {
    curl -X POST -u masnick:`security 2>&1 >/dev/null find-internet-password -gs masnick.bitbucket.org | cut -d '"' -f 2` https://api.bitbucket.org/1.0/repositories/ -d name=$@ -d scm=git -d is_private=True
  };
(Running "bitbucket newrepo" will create a new repo in my Bitbucket acct called "newrepo".)

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#34

Post by k_bx »

msy wrote: post #21
there wrote: post #12

I'm not leery of Google shuttering its Gmail service, but I can imagine a scenario where they cut off my access to Gmail and I have no way to plead my case to the search behemoth. I am baffled at how people continue using such a service for something as important as e-mail in 2012, while still being fully aware that their access can be completely cut off at random with no reason or recourse. Does everyone just assume…

I couldn't agree more. Email is essentially the skeleton key to all your other accounts thanks to email reset, even if you use your own domain and don't risk the virtual armageddon of losing both all your mail and your address forever you still risk losing all your mail. Even worse, if your account is hacked you have no effective recourse whatsoever and someone will have access to all your accounts, contacts and emai…

> I couldn't agree more. Email is essentially the skeleton key to all your other accounts thanks to email reset

That's why I decided to get my own domain and use google apps 4 domain. I mean, who knows what happens in 10 years, maybe twitter will became internet-giant and I'll use twitter apps 4 domain then.

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#35

Post by muyuu »

Does this generate some sort of "standard" mbox file? something one can open with Thunderbird or similar?

Probably more convenient than periodically running a POP3 client.

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#36

Post by jarofgreen »

gouranga wrote: post #18

If you're going to go through that level of effort and you're going to have a computer on at 3am, just run your own SMTP/imap setup and back that up. You'll never have to worry about getting kicked off or them going under then. I've been running my own mail server for 15 years and I've probably spent a couple of hours administering it over that time.

Then you just have a bunch of other worries; are your servers up and secure; not an open relay; has an anti-spam measure kicked in against your server so your emails aren't being read .... not saying you shouldn't do it, just that there are pluses and minuses to both.

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#37

Post by jarofgreen »

I like it. Just got it going.

Specifically I like that it stores all your emails as plain text, one file per email, so you can easily use/write other tools to search/browse your backups if you need to. Maybe someone already has?

(Well, it stores the raw email contents as text. Most emails have a text/plain bit but not all, so you can almost just use grep.)

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#38

Post by jarofgreen »

sneak wrote: post #17
there wrote: post #12

I'm not leery of Google shuttering its Gmail service, but I can imagine a scenario where they cut off my access to Gmail and I have no way to plead my case to the search behemoth. I am baffled at how people continue using such a service for something as important as e-mail in 2012, while still being fully aware that their access can be completely cut off at random with no reason or recourse. Does everyone just assume…

> I am baffled at how people continue using such a service for something as important as e-mail in 2012 It's free and works PERFECTLY 99.9%+ of the time, for 99.9%+ of users. The edge case (being shut off) can be easily worked around by having backups and changing your MX records to some other email provider ifwhen you find yourself without service from Google. This risk is acceptable when weighed against "worst-case…

Of course that only applies to Google Apps and not @gmail.com addresses.

But good point, and I reckon that's another good reason for anyone using email for professional purposes to get their own domain and use it.

(One of my pet peeves is seeing businesses advertise a www.mycompany.co.uk website and a bob@aol.com address. Small places do it a lot - why would you buy a domain and not use it fully? Why?)

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#39

Post by gouranga »

jarofgreen wrote: post #36
gouranga wrote: post #18

If you're going to go through that level of effort and you're going to have a computer on at 3am, just run your own SMTP/imap setup and back that up. You'll never have to worry about getting kicked off or them going under then. I've been running my own mail server for 15 years and I've probably spent a couple of hours administering it over that time.

Then you just have a bunch of other worries; are your servers up and secure; not an open relay; has an anti-spam measure kicked in against your server so your emails aren't being read .... not saying you shouldn't do it, just that there are pluses and minuses to both.

Most of which is just paranoia and will never shoot you.

Are my servers up? Don't really care - SMTP will be redelivered if I discover they are down. They were down for about 2 days once thanks to the idiots at BT digging through the cable. No major effect other than some peace.

Is it an open relay? no it's not - I checked it.

Anti spam? I deal with it manually. I don't get much as I don't publicise my email address.

Re: Back That Gmail Up

#40

Post by jarofgreen »

gouranga wrote: post #39
jarofgreen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you just have a bunch of other worries; are your servers up and secure; not an open relay; has an anti-spam measure kicked in against your server so your emails aren't being read .... not saying you shouldn't do it, just that there are pluses and minuses to both.

Most of which is just paranoia and will never shoot you. Are my servers up? Don't really care - SMTP will be redelivered if I discover they are down. They were down for about 2 days once thanks to the idiots at BT digging through the cable. No major effect other than some peace. Is it an open relay? no it's not - I checked it. Anti spam? I deal with it manually. I don't get much as I don't publicise my email address.

> Are my servers up?

Fair point on SMTP retries, but "up" also includes "not under attack, not already hacked, fully patched & secure".

> Is it an open relay? no it's not - I checked it.

Good for you, you clearly have the skills to do so and to be confident in it. Not everyone does or even knows what that means.

> Anti spam?

Actually, I wasn't talking about the receiving spam problem. You can deal with that on your own server in many ways.

I was talking about the email you sent being marked as spam problem, so your intended receiver never reads it. Maybe your reverse DNS records are wrong or missing, or SPF records, or one of a thousand little things. This is much harder to fix, as you have to do it on each mail host you send to, and worse, you may not even realise it's happening.

Again, not saying you or anyone shouldn't, just that there are downsides that need to be considered. I did it for years then realised my time was better spent elsewhere and moved to Google Apps.

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