Free pop/smtp email providers (reliable!)??

[pilot999]

Anyone recommend any free pop/smtp email providers (ie so I can get my mail through outlook express rather than web based) that are reliable. I have tried www.hotpop.com (http://www.hotpop.com) and www.flashmail.com (http://www.flashmail.com) recently, both sometimes work, othertimes are useless. Any suggestions? (UK based) :)

[spannersatcx]

you can use hotmail.com with outlook distress.

[Tinstaafl]

www.mail.com (http://www.mail.com)

Can act a a web based email service or a forwarding service to your current ISP. From there access the mail using any POP/SMTP client.

[JetLag]

I've been using fnmail for over more than a year now with now problems whatsoever. They provide free pop3 which can also be accessed through a webpage (handy when you're away). They do not provide smtp but usually that's no problem since you can use the smtp server of your provider. http://www.fnmail.com

[This message has been edited by JetLag (edited 13 August 2000).]

[pilot999]

Tinstaafl - unfortunately it would seem that www.mail.com (http://www.mail.com) charge $39.95/pa for pop mail. I am still looking for free AND reliable POP AND SMTP mail - any more suggestions welcome. I keep going to new sites that seem to offer it, then after you have signed up you find you have to pay for pop and/or smtp - rip-off! Those that don't charge seem to fallover regularly. Hotmail is readable from Outlook but is not a proper pop/smtp provider. hotpop.com and its aliases seem to work 80% of the time; flashmail.com initially worked well for a few days and now seems to have totally died!

[Tinstaafl]

I probably wasn't clear.

The free service provides either a web based mail account OR a mail forwarding service.

Mail forwarded to your ISP can be accessed using any POP email client. You don't actually access your email at mail.com since it was sent on to your nominated email address.

In my case mail addressed to my [email protected] address gets forwarded to the mail address assigned by whatever ISP I use. I can change my ISP as many times as I like but as long as I update the address to which my mail is forwarded, any change to the sender is transparent.

This also means that I can establish several email identities, that remain constant irrespective of my ISP, for different purposes, but collect them all from the one place ie my ISP.

[pilot999]

Thanks

[JetLag]

fnmail is free pop3. You won't find free smtp other than with a (free) provider because it would be imediatly abused for SPAM.

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Diagonally parked in a parallel universe

[Carpet Rodent]

http://www.mollymail.com is pretty good for retrieving an existing POP3 account. You can also set up a web-based account from here as well.

[Cat&Duck]

Just another one to mention, Juno.com is very good, quite similar to hotmail and you can pop3 it thru to outlook express.