Free email services

[Andem]

I'm curious as to who uses a free email service like Hotmail, Lycos, Gmail, Msn, Yahoo, etc.

I decided a year ago to sign up for one since I was changing my ISP and my @isp.com email address would become inaccessable. So I signed up for firemail.de and used it as my main email address for personal friends and such.

Anyhow, firemail.de was bought out by lycos.de so I was forced to change my email address to lycos.de in order to receive free forwarding from my @firemail.de address for 6 months -- so I could get all my contacts to change my address.

The reason why I chose firemail.de was for the pop3 access and large storage space.

So here I am with my @lycos.de email address and every single day, I get tons and tons of spam. According to their little ads, it advertises "Spamschutz" or Spam Protection.. I have it set to high and either way, I get tons of untargeted spam for Mortages, fake emails from Deutsche-Bank and tons of other junk. No one knows my email address, I dont submit it to anything. How in the heck do they manage to spam me so much?


So should I change? I've heard a lot of good stuff about gmail.com, but I'm kind of weary about going with gmail because it's google.. and Google seems to be the next microsoft, which is subsequently why I've never had an email address with hotmail... EVER!





What are your experiences?

 

[Haggis McBagpipe]

Good for you, Andem, for scorning all things Microsoft!

One emailer that seems pretty good is mailblocks.com . I have a rarely-used account there, but it is definitely better than the average browser emailer. You might want to give it a try.

 

[LadyC]

I use both a hotmail and a telus e-mail. My hotmail address gets little to no spam, and I filter my other account through mailwasher, which enables me to "bounce" unwanted spam back to the sender. (this makes it appear that they've reached an invalid address).

As for gmail - aren't you pretty much asking for spam with them? I thought targetted e-mail was the whole point. I don't feel comfortable with allowing anyone access to my e-mail just so they can send me relevant ads.
8O

 

[Andem]

Well, really. Even when hotmail wasn't owned by Microsoft, I still didn't like it. Now that is it own by Microsoft, I still don't like it.. and I like it even less now!

I'm only using MSN messenger because most of my friends also use it. It's become a main form of communication for me, sometimes I use it more than my mobile phone!



I'll check out mailblocks.com. Does anybody have experience with GMail by Google? I have to be honest, though, Google has a certain place in my heart

 

[Andem]

LadyC: That's also another part of it. That's the whole point: to show you relevant ads. They say it's a computer doing it, but who knows these days. I heard there was a big thing going on about their privacy policy, I have not read it myself... but I know some people were unhappy with it.

 

[LadyC]

I've never had a problem with hotmail. It does an excellent job of filtering the spam. For example, when I first registered here, all the e-mail notifications went directly to the junk folder. 8) I had to identify it as okay befre it would allow it into my in-box!

I highly recommend mailwasher, though, either the free version or the one you pay for.

 

[Isengard]

Don't know if we should consider this but it's worth reading.

http://gmail-is-too-creepy.com/

 

[JDream]

Hmm well.. I use hotmail emails.. And yahoo and everything.. But also webmail .. I get all the emails for free so, never had any problems with it.. sometimes hotmail doesn't really work well.. then I just use my other emails..

 

[Diamond Sun]

I am the queen of the emails. I have a hotmail account (not too much spam there and it does filter it really well), I have a yahoo account (actually, I think I have two, but I can't remember my other username), and I get zero spam there, plus they just upped their storage to 100 MB, so that's cool. (Hotmail is only 2MB). I also have a shaw account where i get an absolutely ridiculous amount of spam mail. I rarely, if ever, use that email anymore. Basically I use it if I have to punch my email into something, because I already get lots of spam, so who cares if I get more.

Hmm. I also have an emails @perpetuality.ca that I never use. It's my brothers website and I post on there occasionally, so he hooked me up with an email.


Plus 2 work emails...that of course I use only for work..

I've been pretty happy with Yahoo and have mostly switched over to that account now.

 

[=Alexander=]

I use both a hotmail and a telus e-mail. My hotmail address gets little to no spam, and I filter my other account through mailwasher

Try new antispam tool - Antispam Scanner

[Edit by Administration]

Why would an anti-spam company be spamming? You just hit talkon too!

[/Edit by Administration]

 

[snooker]

Hi ... I like using this email company

http://www.9y.com/

Its very easy to sign in and use

 

[sj007]

i donno why but ive been using hotmail for ages and for some reson they upgrade one of my accounts storage to 250 mb its wierd it istn on my other account at hotmail. im guessing its a a reward for using it so long any ideas?

 

[fubbleskag]

no, it's part of their attempt to balance out against gmail's 1Gig limit

 

[HeatSink]

Re: RE: Free email services

.. snip ..

I'll check out mailblocks.com. Does anybody have experience with GMail by Google? I have to be honest, though, Google has a certain place in my heart

I don't have any experience with GMail, but I must admit I'm rather mystified about the hype surrounding it. Google has done a hell of a job taking something as boring as IMAP Web mail and turning it into the 'must have' service of the year. The invitation system is largely responsible for the mystique - everyone wants what only certain people have. Ingenious really.

But when you get down to brass tacks, the simple fact is that Google wants you to store all your email for the rest of your life on their servers. For that privilege, they get to rifle through it (computer, human, whatever) at will and deliberately spam you with 'targeted' ads.

Personally I'd rather have my email safe and sound on my own computer. It spends a little time on my ISPs mail server (well, not really - I have my own server, but most of us don't) until I download it, then it's nice and safe on my own computer. I love Google for searching, but their constant new products seem to be getting more invasive. They're starting to get the Microsoft stench. :scratch:

Just my 2¢ worth