which email service do you choose ?

[bob3160]

@Dch48 post:20

@bob3160 post:17

Gmail sucks in my honest opinion.

Maybe that's because you don't know how to use it ???

There is no reason for an email service to have that many options and “features”. It should be light and simple. I don’t need apps, facebook or twitter and I have never even owned nor used a cell phone. I don’t need links and options to half of the internet and you should at least have the option to not use the spam filter that many people have found to be too aggressive and have lost important mail because of. You also should not have to wade through a maze of settings to turn off what you don’t want and at least maintain a modicum of privacy.

Some of us happen to need a lot of features. Just because you still want to live in the “good old days” when email was personal communication between 2 parties and telephones hang on the wall and need to be cranked before use, doesn’t mean it’s what most of us use. ;D

[Pondus]

@Dch48 post:15

I use GMX which to me is the best of the free services. Gmail is bloated and has too many features that I never use. Yahoo just has a terrible interface, in my opinion, and Hotmail I never have liked much. I don’t keep mail after I’ve read it (with very few exceptions), I don’t need any sorting features, and I turn off all provided spam filters. I let everything come through in Outlook Express and use the free version of SpamFighter to sort it out. That way I can see what has to be adjusted without having to go to a website to see what I may have missed that was classified by the provider as spam. I never get more than 5 or 6 spam mails a day and SpamFighter puts them in it’s own folder where they are easily deleted. Another thing I don’t like about Gmail is that the mail does not get deleted from their server after Outlook Express retrieves it even though it is set up in OE to do so. The GMX mail is cleanly removed automatically but I have to go to the Gmail site periodically to clean things out. I greatly prefer the interface of Outlook Express (or Windows Mail) to read my mail in. The web based interfaces are, without exception, terrible.

Update— On going to the Gmail site, I discovered that you can’t turn off their spam filtering. How stupid is that? I have had to make a custom filter to stop mail being sent to the spam folder. I just told it to ignore anything that has the @ symbol in the To field. That’s basically everything so now it will all go to my inbox and be dealt with by Outlook Express and SpamFighter. I did however find out how to have mail in the inbox deleted after being retrieved by Outlook Express. It’s buried in the myriad of mostly useless options. Gmail sucks in my honest opinion.

That setting is in the Gmail gui

you find it under settings > POP/Imap > what to do after …

they will then be sendt to the Gmail resycle bin where they stay for 30 days and then deleted

[system]

@Pondus post:22

@Dch48 post:15

I use GMX which to me is the best of the free services. Gmail is bloated and has too many features that I never use. Yahoo just has a terrible interface, in my opinion, and Hotmail I never have liked much. I don’t keep mail after I’ve read it (with very few exceptions), I don’t need any sorting features, and I turn off all provided spam filters. I let everything come through in Outlook Express and use the free version of SpamFighter to sort it out. That way I can see what has to be adjusted without having to go to a website to see what I may have missed that was classified by the provider as spam. I never get more than 5 or 6 spam mails a day and SpamFighter puts them in it’s own folder where they are easily deleted. Another thing I don’t like about Gmail is that the mail does not get deleted from their server after Outlook Express retrieves it even though it is set up in OE to do so. The GMX mail is cleanly removed automatically but I have to go to the Gmail site periodically to clean things out. I greatly prefer the interface of Outlook Express (or Windows Mail) to read my mail in. The web based interfaces are, without exception, terrible.

Update— On going to the Gmail site, I discovered that you can’t turn off their spam filtering. How stupid is that? I have had to make a custom filter to stop mail being sent to the spam folder. I just told it to ignore anything that has the @ symbol in the To field. That’s basically everything so now it will all go to my inbox and be dealt with by Outlook Express and SpamFighter. I did however find out how to have mail in the inbox deleted after being retrieved by Outlook Express. It’s buried in the myriad of mostly useless options. Gmail sucks in my honest opinion.

That setting is in the Gmail gui

you find it under settings > POP/Imap > what to do after …

they will then be sendt to the Gmail resycle bin where they stay for 30 days and then deleted

Actually they do not go to the trash or recycle bin as you called it. They are gone immediately.

[Pondus]

Actually they do not go to the trash or recycle bin as you called it. They are gone immediately.

They go to the Trash folder....the one that you access in Gmail web, not in your computer...

mail settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > POP Download: 2 When messages are accessed with POP > Delete Gmails copy

I use that setting and that is where they go in my Gmail POP account…

[Marc57]

Primary email is my ISP’s, I use Yahoo when I don’t want to give out my primary address.

[system]

@Pondus post:24

Actually they do not go to the trash or recycle bin as you called it. They are gone immediately.

They go to the Trash folder....the one that you access in Gmail web, not in your computer...

mail settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > POP Download: 2 When messages are accessed with POP > Delete Gmails copy

I use that setting and that is where they go in my account…

That’s the setting I found and am using and I just checked and you’re right, they do go in the trash folder. Even that is not acceptable in my opinion. With GMX, they are immediately fully deleted just by telling OE not to leave a copy of the message on the server. That OE setting does not work with Gmail.

[Pondus]

If you use IMAP you will have full sync and it does what you do on your computer

delete a mail and it is deleted on web…delete on web and it will be deleted in your comp

[scythe944]

@Pondus post:27

If you use IMAP you will have full sync and it does what you do on your computer

delete a mail and it is deleted on web…delete on web and it will be deleted in your comp

Exactly. IMAP, not POP3 should be used whenever possible, especially if you download your mail at several locations.

Otherwise, it’s a nightmare to keep it all straight.

[SpeedyPC]

@Pondus post:27

If you use IMAP you will have full sync and it does what you do on your computer

delete a mail and it is deleted on web…delete on web and it will be deleted in your comp

Pondus is 100% correct that’s how mind is setup through Thunderbird

[scythe944]

Also wanted to throw this out there, ISP mail is good, except for when you move or change service providers. Then you have to change email addresses, change logins for websites, update all sorts of information, let everyone know your new email address, etc.

It’s a big pain in the rear (I had to do it twice in a year, no fun). If possible, use one of the free web-based email services for your primary email, or at least for websites that you subscribe to.

You don’t have to worry about losing emails if your hard drive fails or laptop is stolen, etc.

With Gmail (sorry Dch, it’s a great service) you get a ton of space, so you don’t have to worry about getting too much mail and deleting the old stuff if you choose not to. Secure IMAP (for free, by the way, Yahoo charges for this) keeps your emails synched almost as well as MS Exchange does on multiple devices, and it’s secure unlike POP3.

[Pondus]

Also wanted to throw this out there, ISP mail is good, except for when you move or change service providers. Then you have to change email addresses, change logins for websites, update all sorts of information, let everyone know your new email address, etc.

yepp, that is why i gave up using ISP mail

i also used the same spam filter as @Dch48 “SpamFighter pro” (it is very good) but found out after i got Gmail i don`t need it any more…

[scythe944]

Technically, I don’t need my spam filter service either (spamarrest), but the way that I have my things setup it works pretty well.

I basically have all of my mail available to me on gmail’s site, but only mail that I approve in my spamarrest settings get to my phone. That way I don’t have to keep getting stupid emails (not spam, just undesired at the time) on my phone all day, so I can concentrate on just work. Then, if I want to check the rest of my mail, it’s off to gmail.com for that.

[system]

Outlook 03 and 2010 using exchange server. Wth gmail account and Windows Live Hotmail.

[system]

@scythe944 post:30

Also wanted to throw this out there, ISP mail is good, except for when you move or change service providers. Then you have to change email addresses, change logins for websites, update all sorts of information, let everyone know your new email address, etc.

It’s a big pain in the rear (I had to do it twice in a year, no fun). If possible, use one of the free web-based email services for your primary email, or at least for websites that you subscribe to.

You don’t have to worry about losing emails if your hard drive fails or laptop is stolen, etc.

I totally agree with this. I’ve been through that not only when I changed ISP’s but when they got bought out and changed themselves. I first had Earthlink, which became Sprint, which then became Qwest if I remember right. I had to change every time.

I’ve never tried IMAP so I’d have to learn how to set it up. GMX does offer it and they will still be my primary provider.

[system]

Okay I tried IMAP and I hate it so I went back to good old POP3. Why do I hate IMAP? When I make an IMAP account in Outlook Express it creates a whole new folder for that account in the Folders list. I don’t want that, I want all my mail to go into my main inbox no matter where it comes from. If I delete the folder, the whole account gets deleted and I have to create it over again. IMAP stinks.

[scythe944]

@Dch48 post:35

Okay I tried IMAP and I hate it so I went back to good old POP3. Why do I hate IMAP? When I make an IMAP account in Outlook Express it creates a whole new folder for that account in the Folders list. I don’t want that, I want all my mail to go into my main inbox no matter where it comes from. If I delete the folder, the whole account gets deleted and I have to create it over again. IMAP stinks.

Lol, to each their own. Creatures of habit I suppose.

The point is that IMAP supports MORE than just the inbox. It might create a special folder or two, but at least you can organize your mail and synch it across multiple devices.

I’m definitely not saying you’re wrong, just saying that if the conditions where right, you might swear by it.

[DavidR]

I’m of exactly the same thought as Dch48, I used to use OE and to be honest it was excellent (but effectively no longer supported). I had one inbox and many filters, so I can organise my email based on who it was for (email account) or from, which was generally the content, e.g. newsletters, etc. They override other filters and once set up it is a walk in the park.

When I moved to thunderbird on my desktop system, that was how I set it up having imported my OE emails. However, when I installed it from scratch on my win7 netbook at first it was a right royal pain in the rear wanting to create an inbox for every account even for pop3 accounts. Anyway I on my netbook I don’t have it delete mail from the server upon collection, so I can download it on my main desktop system.

I never really figured out how to stop it from creating a new area for each account, but you can also select View, Folders, Unified.

My main email accounts are from my domain name so I never have to switch if I change ISP. I never liked gmails T&C and have never been a fan of webmail (HotnotMail killed that for me). I like to have my email under my control for all aspects including SPAM and Virus scanning and I regularly backup my emails to prevent total loss.

[MikeBCda]

My ISP is a large regional operation (southern Ontario and Quebec), and when they were bought out about 5 years ago they retained their old domains strictly for email purposes, everything else is under the new name. So it’s extremely unlikely I’ll ever move far enough to have to change my email addy.

[system]

I use Gmail account for another websites or forum signup and as my trash/spam receiver. Windows Live account as my private email. Yahoo account for my business.

[Eddy]

I use KPN (my provider) and Yahoo.
Too bad though that Yahoo devellopes things that are initally not working in Opera.