So What's A Good Email Service?

[Nite Owl]

I've been using MSN for something like 10yrs and I have had it with them. In July I kept getting that sign in box pop up for almost a day so I called. The tech reset the mail and everything seemed to work ok but it was different. No more Word, no little arrow to show that you replied, no notification that mail had arrived, no rules. I'm sure it was a pop mail but the tech guy said to make it HTTP. So a few weeks ago I started getting these notices from Hotmail that my account was full to delete mail. I did that and again it seemed ok. Got another Hotmail notice and I go over to Hotmail and low and behold there is all my mail. I had had a free email account a long time ago, I went there because I figured it was spam mail. So I call again this afternoon and the tech gal tells me that it's kept on that server and my box is full. It's only a 25k limit. I'm paying $69.50 a yr for msn. I never had a problem before, I had no idea that all I had was Hotmail account as it reads @msn.com not @ hotmail.com. She told me to put my Outlook folders on my desktop which would free up space. I did that and it's still reading 98% full. My son comes home and he told me that the mail in my folders is not on the server anymore anyway. I'm ready to switch to something else. I have a Yahoo account already but just for emergency use type thing. I get mail with lots of attachments and charts and the like. I don't want to do this more than once I have a lot of people to notify. I'm sure I'm not understanding something. Help!

[donco6]

1. I never use any service

Just my free hotmail account. Have DSL from Qwest for access. Don't need anything else.

[Talkative1]

2. I like Yahoo

I have the free service, 10MB of space. I imagine the pay service is even better.

[slutticus]

3. GMAIL

Want an account?

1GB of free storage

[Nite Owl]

7. Dumb question

but can gmail be used in Outlook or is it just on the web?

[slutticus]

9. Gmail is web-based...

....just like Yahoo or Hotmail...however...there is a program called "eMail2Pop" which allows you to interface Gmail with Outlook.

Here's the site... http://www.email2pop.com/

[EnfantTerrible]

4. I'm a mac devotee

and ".mac" has proven to be outstanding. I switched from the evil AOL.

[gospelized]

5. i have about 12

gmail invites if anyone wants one. just send me a PM.

1gb of storage space.

[agates]

6. If you'd like a gmail account

send me your email address in a PM and I'll send you an invitation. This is google's new email service. Lots of storage, web based, free, ad supported.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. fastmail.fm is excellent

I don't use it because I haven't needed it (i have my own domain and pop and smtp servers), but a friend of mine uses it.

You can get your email through the web, or through a client (like Outlook (which you shouldn't ever use) or a good one like The Bat!, which is a great one that everyone should use).

There's a fee for it, but it isn't much - ten bucks a year, I think. maybe 15 at the top. For 39 bucks a year, they'll host your domain, give you five email accounts on it, host your website, and give you a boatload of bandwidth.

They have a very secure server system, they've been around for years, and they have overly-adequate backup systems. My friend has been on it for maybe five years, and I don't think she's ever experienced a blackout from them.

And apparently their web-based interface is also very good and usable.

Oh, and she gets almost nothing in the way of spam on it, either.

[Nite Owl]

11. I'm going to go look them up.

Thanks. And I've always used Outlook what is the problem there aside from the fact that they are Microsoft? I'll google The Bat! and see what it is too.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. It's just that Outlook is a pathetic pile of shit, full of security holes,

and it forces you to handle email the way IT wants, instead of how YOU want.

And don't forget the security holes.

The Bat! is at http://www.ritlabs.com

I've been using it for years, and I AM IN LOVE WITH IT!! They just released version 3.0, which I haven't gotten, but it's wondrous.

And bullet-proof safe in terms of viruses, worms, and other shit.

Plus amazing - truly extraordinary - filtering abilities, and for those who REALLY want the power, you can program your own macros to do anything from generating autoresponses to formatting reply text to grabbing email addresses from emails you get and more more more more more.

Also totally integratable with PGP and some other encryption programs, and AVG anti-virus.

I would neve give up on The Bat!. There are also a number of brilliant discussion lists for it, on various aspects of its funcationality, with some truly outstandingly knowledgable people on it from all over the world. I've never had a question, no matter how bizarre, that hasn't been answered within a day. Usually within an hour. (since it's people all over the world, there's always someone who's up :-))

Not just the best email program out there, but one of the best applications for anything ever written for a ciomputer. That's how highly I think of it.

oh, and unlike Outlook, it saves everything in actual files taht you can see and look at and cpy and move around to other computers, etc.

I just can't say enough good things about it.

but, I'm also a power user - and that includes everything on computers - and I don't like programs that make all the file saving and other stuff "invisible". I want to know where everything is, and I want to be able to see it through a command prompt. :-)

[Nite Owl]

16. Just looked at the site

It's inexpensive too. Home edition or the Professional? I really like that it can be moved around That way I can look at my charts and stuff out on the deck on the laptop instead of sitting in the office.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. I use the student one, which is the same as the home one

Though I've not been a student for a long time...it's really time to give 'em full price for the new one. :-)

And no, it isn't that expensive. Considering the amount of they time they put into it, and you can also send them an email any time asking questions and it gets answered fairly quickly. Great tech support there. I believe they are German, so it makes sense they'd be good and efficient.

My friend with the fastmail account turned me onto The Bat! a number of years ago. I hated it at first, since ti wasn't very intuitive. I could tell it would do everything I wanted it to, I just couldn't figure it out. It does have a learning curve associated with it - at least, if you want to do the fancy stuff that I need to do - but once I got over my initial hate, and gave it a try, I had it down pat in a week or two.

Also nice is that you can have as many email accounts on it as you want, and can share address books and folders across all the accounts.

Oh, I could go on and on and on about it.

There is no other program, for anything, that I'm this excited about.

[EstimatedProphet]

10. Excite

It's recently gone up to 125 MB storage for free. Hard to beat.

[partygirl]

12. don't you have to have

an account that costs money to sign up here? I am just wondering because I mostly use yahoo but could not sign up for here with it. So I had to use a work account (which I could get fired for doing) but I just couldn't resist joining. I don't know if I like this policy, smart people (Democrats) use free e-mail. Why pay for something you can get for free?

But it sounds like most of you have free e-mail service? How did you sign up here? Maybe it was just me to have troubles?

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. Welcome to DU partygirl!

Pretty much anyone with internet has a pay email account - ISPs, as far as I know, always offer an email account with the internet account.

I believe DU doesn't want people giving a free email account because of the amount of abuse, and difficulty tracking someone who uses a free email account.

[partygirl]

15. thanks for the welcome!

I guess I don't have one because my father got internet service for the whole family, I bet he got the e-mail account. I don't know how he worked it (we don't live together). All I have is the internet service so I got a yahoo account. I love the yahoo cause I can get to it anywhere in the world, all I need is to get on the internet. I have travelled a bit and had lots of fun and my e-mail is always pretty easy to get to.

[Nite Owl]

17. Thanks everyone!

[Kellanved]

19. GMX

1 gig storage and works with outlook. Problem is, you'd be getting a lot Spam in German, as it is a German service.

http://www.gmx.net