How can i download email folders from isp server to desktop?

[gospelSFX]

hello, i have an ISP that i am considering 'breaking up' with. of course i have a ton of emails on their servers that i wish to copy to my computer before i do so. is there an easy way of doing this, á la drag and drop? all of my searches end up talking about the application Mail which i don't currently use. any advice would be helpful. thanks -gospel

specs:
OSX 10.4.11
pre-intel G5
Safari 3.0.4
isp: earthlink

 

[BlueRevolution]

What application do you use? Or do you just use your ISP's webmail?

 

[gospelSFX]

i just use earthlink's webmail.

 

[swiftaw]

http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?s=st=13,e=0000000002206204032,k=187,sxi=1&article=375690

 

[BlueRevolution]

Then follow your ISP's instructions to set Mail up with their servers.

 

[gospelSFX]

@swiftaw are you saying i have to use Mail? this is like a one time thing as far as copying these folders. does Mail run all the time in the background? cause i don't really want that. just want copies of these emails. -g

 

[swiftaw]

You set up mail to access your email account. This will then bring all your mail off the server and saved to your computer. After that you can shut down mail and never use it again if you don't want to.

 

[gospelSFX]

ok cool, i will try Mail. thank you for the help, swiftaw. -gospel

 

[gospelSFX]

and you too bluerevolution -g

 

[gospelSFX]

update.
ok so i got Mail up and running painlessly this morning. Mail did indeed download all the email in my inbox. however i have several sub folders for different types of messages on my web mail account. is there a way to instruct Mail to download from those sub-folders or do i have to move them to the main email Inbox?
thanks again -gospel

specs again:
OSX 10.4.11
pre-intel G5
Mail 2.1.2