We host websites and email for a variety of clients. We’re looking into the possibility of offering an email backup service, whereby every year we send our clients a copy of all their email over the last year, on a CD / DVD which they can put in their computer and browse should they need to retrieve old emails. I think I know how to route all incoming and outgoing emails to a suitable place for backup. Our server runs Exim and emails are stored in the /cur/ folder for each email account. So I know where the emails themselves are, and can burn these to CD.
I’m now looking for a suitable freeware .exe program I can include with the CD to give customers a browseable interface to these emails. Something that would run on autoload when they put the CD in the machine.
Does anyone have any suggestions or is this just crazy talk?
I agree. I wouldn’t like someone offering my emails on a disc. Not that the host couldn’t read them anyway, but just the same.
I wouldn’t have any qualms about having the option to download them to my machine though. But do OS’s have native email clients that could read them or something that could work with them in another format? So I guess some sort of app would be needed anyway.
Maybe you would be better off listing reputable software choices (or one of your own) and providing a download option?
It is unsafe to send via a CD. Its a big security issue. Though, if you come across one, please let me know. I want one for my personal emails.
For your current solution, I suggest using a cloud email backup service. I am sure you will find many email back up services which helps back up your data and allows you to download it in a format which is recognized by Thunderbird or Outlook and so on.