New e-mail account
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New e-mail account
Would appreciate comments recommendations for a suitable e-mail account
In the past I have been with various ISP's - Virgin, AOL, Orange and currently Plus Net and consequently have had/used various e-mail accounts
Currently despite being with Plus Net I'm still using Orange and still have active accounts with Virgin and Hotmail
My Orange account is a pain - Virgin are threatening to shut me down as I'm a 'long gone' customer and I distrust Hotmail
Am reluctant to use the Plus Net account as I feel I may be switching ISP's again
Can anyone recommend a FREE stand alone e-mail account that has good security and minimises SPAM
Thanks in Advance
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
In the past I have been with various ISP's - Virgin, AOL, Orange and currently Plus Net and consequently have had/used various e-mail accounts
Currently despite being with Plus Net I'm still using Orange and still have active accounts with Virgin and Hotmail
My Orange account is a pain - Virgin are threatening to shut me down as I'm a 'long gone' customer and I distrust Hotmail
Am reluctant to use the Plus Net account as I feel I may be switching ISP's again
Can anyone recommend a FREE stand alone e-mail account that has good security and minimises SPAM
Thanks in Advance
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
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The free e-mail system with the best spam filters is clearly Yahoo!
They're also far less intrusive than either Hotmail or Google in terms of automatically enrolling you into other junk software / profiles etc
And more importantly - its easier to manage your profile and keep it private than it is with the others
AOL (I hate to say this) is a close second - its Spam filters are nearly as good, and the profile management is OK
Both enable you to use IMAP if you want - the AOL is easier to set up in that respect
They're also far less intrusive than either Hotmail or Google in terms of automatically enrolling you into other junk software / profiles etc
And more importantly - its easier to manage your profile and keep it private than it is with the others
AOL (I hate to say this) is a close second - its Spam filters are nearly as good, and the profile management is OK
Both enable you to use IMAP if you want - the AOL is easier to set up in that respect
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Options
- Use bareback webmail using own filtering
- Use any free webmail via MS Outlook/Outlook Express and use their Junkmail Filters
- Buy Firetrust Mailwasher Pro which will filter any spam (with the option to boumce as per a non-existant address for any unknown sender)
(free Lite-version available)
Last edited by unclenelli; 6th Sep 2012 at 18:13.
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"FREE stand alone e-mail account that has good security"
Something I should have pointed out in my first reply
"good security" and "e-mail" is almost an oxymoron.
"good security" and "free e-mail" IS an oxymoron
Web mail accounts can, and do, get hacked. If you want security, you need end-to-end encryption, but thats another story (which others here are better able to advise on than me)
Something I should have pointed out in my first reply
"good security" and "e-mail" is almost an oxymoron.
"good security" and "free e-mail" IS an oxymoron
Web mail accounts can, and do, get hacked. If you want security, you need end-to-end encryption, but thats another story (which others here are better able to advise on than me)
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I've been using Yahoo for a couple of years now without complaint, as Milo said they don't bug you to sign up to anything, in fact I don't remember getting any messages from them.
The junk/spam filter isn't perfect and has put a couple of legitimate messages in the spam folder, but that's pretty much par for the course from what I've read.
The junk/spam filter isn't perfect and has put a couple of legitimate messages in the spam folder, but that's pretty much par for the course from what I've read.
Last edited by zarniwoop; 7th Sep 2012 at 12:03.
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Could I be a little cheeky and ask a related question?
I currently have a Freeserve email account (now supplied by Orange) with Orange supplying my broadband, but they are quite expensive and BT appear to be offering much better deals. If I move over to BT, will my freeserve email address disappear? I quite expect to have to migrate eventually to Yahoo or similar, but I would rather not try and do it overnight.
Many thanks,
I currently have a Freeserve email account (now supplied by Orange) with Orange supplying my broadband, but they are quite expensive and BT appear to be offering much better deals. If I move over to BT, will my freeserve email address disappear? I quite expect to have to migrate eventually to Yahoo or similar, but I would rather not try and do it overnight.
Many thanks,
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If you are using an android smartphone, without doubt, use Googlemail. I have several different accounts (including Yahoo!) and by far the best integrated is google, nothing comes near it for a slick operation on WIN, tablet and phone.
Last edited by OFSO; 7th Sep 2012 at 14:59.
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"will my freeserve email address disappear"
Probably
they used to state they would be killed off after a certain period following the end of contract. 120 days comes to mind, but thats just a vague memory.
In practice some accounts seem to be ceased quickly, others carry on, while others continue to receive mail but not send. Part of this variance may be due to the terms on which you left - those who moved at contract end seem to have a better result than those who moved due to contract problems, breaking the contract early
Its also worth remembering that Orange/Freeserve are a bit funny about allowing e-mail to be sent from "other" networks - they block some of the commoner ports to stop spam, you have to work around that
Best to start making moves to a different e-mail account some time before you make the ISP switch
As to the costs of Orange vs BT - Orange did go a long way down the route of unbundling exchanges to reduce costs, but gave up around two years ago and sold their backbone network to BT. All they offer now are retail versions of BTOpenreach services, so theres unlikely to be any price advantage in using Orange. They realised they were simply too small a player in the UK
Probably
they used to state they would be killed off after a certain period following the end of contract. 120 days comes to mind, but thats just a vague memory.
In practice some accounts seem to be ceased quickly, others carry on, while others continue to receive mail but not send. Part of this variance may be due to the terms on which you left - those who moved at contract end seem to have a better result than those who moved due to contract problems, breaking the contract early
Its also worth remembering that Orange/Freeserve are a bit funny about allowing e-mail to be sent from "other" networks - they block some of the commoner ports to stop spam, you have to work around that
Best to start making moves to a different e-mail account some time before you make the ISP switch
As to the costs of Orange vs BT - Orange did go a long way down the route of unbundling exchanges to reduce costs, but gave up around two years ago and sold their backbone network to BT. All they offer now are retail versions of BTOpenreach services, so theres unlikely to be any price advantage in using Orange. They realised they were simply too small a player in the UK
Last edited by Milo Minderbinder; 7th Sep 2012 at 15:06.
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I currently have a Freeserve email account (now supplied by
Orange) with Orange supplying my broadband, but they are quite expensive and BT
appear to be offering much better deals. If I move over to BT, will my freeserve
email address disappear? I quite expect to have to migrate eventually to Yahoo
or similar, but I would rather not try and do it overnight.
Orange) with Orange supplying my broadband, but they are quite expensive and BT
appear to be offering much better deals. If I move over to BT, will my freeserve
email address disappear? I quite expect to have to migrate eventually to Yahoo
or similar, but I would rather not try and do it overnight.
Last edited by Shack37; 7th Sep 2012 at 15:30.
Another vote for Yahoo. Their e-mail spam filtering is not perfect, but is very good for me. I've not yet missed an important e-mail.
Anyway, if it is important, I have a phone that they can call me on.....
Anyway, if it is important, I have a phone that they can call me on.....
Nerd Solution
I bought my own domain name years ago. I have a DNS service/redirector that allows me to point e-mail to any hosting service I want.
I've seen hosting services come and go. And I've seen policy changes at bigger outfits that switch from protecting their customers to selling their souls to the highest bidder. No problem for me. I just get a new host, reconfigure the redirection and never have to broadcast a change of address to my friends and business associates.
I've seen hosting services come and go. And I've seen policy changes at bigger outfits that switch from protecting their customers to selling their souls to the highest bidder. No problem for me. I just get a new host, reconfigure the redirection and never have to broadcast a change of address to my friends and business associates.
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Back to the asked question: GMail works well for email, readily accessible anywhere and on any device. Spam filter there is better than Yahoo in my opinion.
BUT yes, Google has become overbearing and you have to be very careful to avoid downloading crap you don't want.
BUT yes, Google has become overbearing and you have to be very careful to avoid downloading crap you don't want.
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Hotmail is absolutely brilliant. All the folders and sub-folders you could want, so it is easy to file emails by sender or to archive those account setups. The spam blocking is excellent, you benefit from other users reporting spam. You also can set individual blocked addresses. I've had lots of other email accounts, most of them come free with websites or isps, and nothing has ever approached the features of hotmail. Hotmail is robust, solid, reliable.
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
Outlook Express fans (I wuz one once):
What are you using on a new computer, seeing's how OE is no longer existant?
What are you using on a new computer, seeing's how OE is no longer existant?
The other 2 desktop PCs are only used with webmail interfaces, so doesn't matter.
SD
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Milo,
Sorry, don't understand. There is only one of me and I log in on one terminal at a time, tablet via app or public access windows xp or 7, going in via whatever browser, google, chrome, ff, ie.
Am I missing something?
Sorry, don't understand. There is only one of me and I log in on one terminal at a time, tablet via app or public access windows xp or 7, going in via whatever browser, google, chrome, ff, ie.
Am I missing something?
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you hit the problem right there without realising it
You're using webmail through a browser, which isn't actually always a good idea - especially on a tablet or phone, where the internet connection can be intermittent
Far better to have a system whereby the mail is actually downloaded to each device and synchronised - and that means IMAP. Which Hotmail can't do.
AOL, Google, Yahoo can all do IMAP
On a Windows PC you can get an rough approximation to IMAP by using Windows Live Mail - but that has a number of idiosyncracies which count against it, especially in the way it handles photo attachments. And you can't do it with any other hardware
If all you do is browse in web cafes, fine. But for real work it fails
You're using webmail through a browser, which isn't actually always a good idea - especially on a tablet or phone, where the internet connection can be intermittent
Far better to have a system whereby the mail is actually downloaded to each device and synchronised - and that means IMAP. Which Hotmail can't do.
AOL, Google, Yahoo can all do IMAP
On a Windows PC you can get an rough approximation to IMAP by using Windows Live Mail - but that has a number of idiosyncracies which count against it, especially in the way it handles photo attachments. And you can't do it with any other hardware
If all you do is browse in web cafes, fine. But for real work it fails
Last edited by Milo Minderbinder; 7th Sep 2012 at 23:26.