Mail Snapshots
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What are mail snapshots?
Sonic.net maintains limited backups of some customer information. These are "snapshots" of what that information's status (represented as files on our system) is at the time the snapshot is archived. More information about the Sonic.net Snapshots system is available at http://www.sonic.net/support/docs/backupdoc.shtml.
How can I retrieve messages I accidentally deleted?
In your POP3 mail client (such as Outlook Express, Netscape, or Eudora), replace your Sonic.net login name with "login%snapshotname" where "login" is your Sonic.net login name, and "snapshotname" is one of the following:
- hourly.0
- hourly.1
- hourly.2
- nightly.0
Though the names imply that snapshots are taken on an hourly and nightly basis, the "hourly" snapshots are actually taken roughly every four hours. The "hourly.0" snapshot is the most recent snapshot, "hourly.1" is from the roughly four-hour period preceding "hourly.0" and so forth. The "nightly.0" snapshot reflects the state of your email as of the previous night.
For example, if your login name is "abcdefg" and you wish to recover mail you deleted two hours ago (which was sent three hours ago), you may wish to try changing your name in your mail client to "abcdefg%hourly.0" or "abcdefg%hourly.1"
Having selected which snapshot you wish to retrieve mail from, commit your changes (as appropriate for your mail client, normally this is accomplished by selecting "OK"), then instruct your mail program to get new messages. Your mail program will now check your snapshot instead of your new messages, and any mail that was present when the snapshot was taken will be delivered.
Important Note: Always set your information back to normal after retrieving mail from the snapshots. Failing to do so will result in serious mail-delivery delays (as you will have to wait until a new message is archived to the file you are checking before it will be delivered).
