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Transferring Mail from AOL?
Bazooka Joel asks: "My father has been a long time user of AOL. He subscribed to AOL's dialup service about 5 years ago and created his first email account with their services. We now have cable internet from a local company, but he still pays $15 a month just to access his email. I have tried to get him to switch to Gmail, but he is stubborn. He finally relented and said that if I could forward all of his old mail (thousands of messages) and import his contact list into Gmail, he would cancel his AOL subscription. After searching the 'net, I found a way to import his contacts. However, I cannot find a program that will forward all of his old mail. Can anybody lend me a hand?"
I agree. After years of helping out my family members and friends with their computers, I've learned that "no good deed goes unpunished".
If there is a way to change to a cheaper AOL service, tell your Dad about it. But think *3* times before taking on the responsibility of changing his email patterns (and protecting his data); unless your Dad is pleading with you for the change, it is almost never worth it to get involved. The effort will not be appreciated nearly as much as you hope, and there will be bad feelings if things don't go absolutely 100% correctly.
Good luck.
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