Outlook 2003 to Gmail

There are several steps: Outlook 2003 to Outlook Express to Thunderbird 2.0 to Gmail. I used Mark Lyon's Gmail loader on the final step. The steps below are only for Windows (XP is what I used).


Things to be aware of before you start:

• Try and use Gmail to grab your new messages using POP3. This is a good way of getting new mail and gets you familiar with Gmail. You may want to set up Gmail so that it labels incoming messages with a key word from your old account (ATT or Earthlink) and then Archives the messages out of the Inbox.
  
• Spam - When uploading your mail into Gmail sometimes it gets marked as spam so you need to clear out your spam filter beforehand. As Gmail Loader is uploading messages you can see on your Gmail account which ones are marked as spam. About every 50 uploaded messages or so I would mark my mail--the unread spams--as Not Spam and they would be moved into the Inbox on Gmail.
• Size - I uploaded about 100-200 messages at time with Gmail Loader. I did not want to have to do all at once and have it mess up and need to do it all over again. I thought it was better to do a few steps at a time.
• Make sure that your ISP allows you to login and use Gmail's SMTP servers. Some ISP's will block SMTP services preventing spam and forcing you to use their SMTP server. I could not connect to Google's SMTP servers at first (was getting timeout errors from Google) and so I needed to VPN to my company's ISP and upload the messages that way.
• Overall, Gmail did a great job of handling message threads ("conversations"). I was impressed with its organization of this. Also, even though old messages are timestamped with the date of upload, you can still use Gmail to search the message body for older dates with something like "label:ATT 2001".
  

Here are the steps I took:

1. Outlook 2003 to Outlook Express - this converts the proprietary Microsoft Outlook .ost file format into the proprietary Microsoft Outlook Express .mbx format. This is a necessary step. When you start Outlook Express (OE), go to File > Import > Messages > Microsoft Outlook. OE will look at the current profile in Outlook and give a choice to import all or "Selected" folders. It does not seem to offer the capability to import .pst files so you must have your folders in your current Outlook profile. Next, OE will import the Outlook mail folder you selected into your OE mail account.
   
   
2. Outlook Express to Thunderbird 2.x - this converts the proprietart OE .mbx format into mbox format needed by Gmail loader. Download and install the free program Mozilla Thunderbird; you can choose different languages or systems (Windows, Mac OSX). In Thunderbird go to Tools > Import > Mail and select Outlook Express. This will import ALL your email from OE into Thunderbird into a folder called Outlook Express. (You can delete any unneccesary folders such as Drafts, Junk, etc.)
   
   
3. Thunderbird to Gmail - download and install Mark Lyon's Gmail Loader. Follow the instructions carefully. You will need to choose an updated SMTP server for Gmail, type in your Gmail account and password for the SMTP server authorization, choose the Thunderbird folder you want to upload (this could be in C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profile\XXXYYYZZZ\Local Folders or some location like that). Next choose if you want this to go into your Inbox or your Sent mail folder, depending on if it is your incoming or outgoing mail from your old account. Finally, enter your gmail account. This will then begin to upload your email to Gmail. You can monitor the process by refreshing Gmail. You can periodically move messages out of t the Inbox by "Labeling and Archiving" and also marking messages as "Not Spam" moving them into the Inbox.
   
   
4. I did not try the option yet of uploading messages to the Sent items folder. This would be a nice way to upload all my Sent messages but there is not a pressing need for that now.

Observations: As far as I know, you can use this procedure to upload old Hotmail mail into Gmail. You would need to setup Outlook Express to access your Hotmail account. Next, you would import your messages into Thunderbird and then upload them into Gmail as in steps 2 and 3 above. You may also want to configure Gmail to send messages as a Hotmail user.

Good luck trying to run Outlook and Outlook Express in WINE on Linux! And I have no idea if this is possible with Entourage to Thunderbird on the Mac...

Secure access to Gmail

You can always be certain that you are reading Gmail securely when on the road or at an internet cafe if you always access Gmail using the following link:

https://mail.google.com/mail

Notice the s in https: that means a secure connection! It is "end-to-end" secure meaning there is a secure connection between the computer which is being used to access Google's mail servers.

So, if you are on a public WIFI system using your notebook, login ONLY at the https site because that means your username and password are not visible to hackers. Also, all of your email is encrypted and hackers can not read your email traffic. On the other hand, if you are at an internet cafe using their machine, then there is the chance that they have a keylogger installed and are capturing all of your physical keystrokes on their keyboard. Beware of public machines where you are not certain of the security!

How to use Google Talk

1. Use Google Talk inside Gmail - at the bottom center of Gmail you can choose your view: standard with chat, standard without chat, basic HTML, etc.

http://mail.google.com/mail/


2. Download and install Google Talk program - file transfers, voicemail, voice calls, Gmail notifications

http://www.google.com/talk/


3. Launch the Google Talk "gadget" - needs Adobe Flash 8 or higher, use from any browser in the world, group chat, more emoticons (smileys)

http://www.google.com/talk/