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[] Email - either you love it or you hate it. We love it. It's there in our list of the universe's ten best ideas, right after women ! But unlike the fairer sex, which has been leading the popularity sweepstakes since the days of King Arthur, email has only recently become the medium of choice for quick and painless communication. Consequently, free and commercial email service providers on the Web have been mushrooming faster than...well, mushrooms !
So we thought that it was about time someone took a look at all these email services and separated the wheat from the chaff so that the next time you want to open an email account online, you know exactly where to go and what to avoid !
Here, then, is our guide to the four *best* free email services on the Net.
Q. How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. None. Bill Gates will just redefine Darkness (tm) as the new
industry standard.
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1. Web-based services : These services allow you to read and send mail only through your Web browser. In other words, your browser acts as your mail client. So far as we can see, this approach has absolutely no advantage other than the fact that your mail is accessible to you from any computer with an Internet connection. While we agree that this is certainly useful, its usefulness is limited by the fact that it is much slower than a traditional mail client like Eudora, requires you to be online for as long as it takes you to read and send email and does not usually allow you to store your mail on your local PC.
Most of the online email services fall into this category.
2. POP3 services : These services allow you access to a POP3 mail server, which allows you to download your messages to the local PC and read and reply to them at your leisure. Not only is this approach flexible, because it allows you to use any email client such as Eudora, Internet Mail, Outlook, Netscape Mail et al, but it has the added advantage of allowing you to save messages on your local PC and does not require you to be online to reply to your mail. All you need to do is connect to the Net, download your mail and disconnect. Once you have composed your replies, you simply reconnect and send them all at once.
Allow us to confuse you further by informing you that POP3 is simply the Post Office Protocol version 3, one of the two standard email protocols, the other being SMTP or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
3. Mail forwarding services : These services assign you an email address but do not provide you with any interface to read and reply to your mail. All mail sent to this address is automatically forwarded to another user-specified address [Programmers, think infinite loop and giggle maliciously]. While the usefulness of such a service is certainly limited, it has the unique advantage of giving you a permanent email address; so if you change your ISP, all you need to do is update the forwarding information and your mail will automatically be redirected to your new email address. Simple and transparent, wot ?
4. Intelligent email services : These are the services which not only reply to your mail for you, but also bring you breakfast in bed, clean the dishes, cook dinner, whisper sweet nothings in your ear and wash the car every Sunday. Now for the bad news : we haven't come across even one of this breed yet !!
OK, enough of the chitchat...can we cut to the chase now ?
A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired
of thinking.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we have only one thing to say...this service is *amazing* ! We swear by it...'nuff said !
USA.NET
URL : http://netaddress.usa.net
EMAIL ADDRESS : username@usa.net
MAILBOX LIMIT : 5 MB
WEB ACCESS : Yes
POP3 ACCESS : Yes
FORWARDING : Yes
[] YAHOOMAIL : From a simple directory of Web sites to a full-featured portal offering online gaming, an online pager and calendar and a free email service, Yahoo is certainly going places. We particularly liked the YahooMail interface as well as the simple and straightforward registration process. However, Yahoo only allows you to read mail through your browser - there is neither POP3 access nor mail forwarding facilities. Other than that, Yahoo provides the same facilities as USA.NET. Now if they only allowed us access to their POP server, they would have a real winner !
It should be noted that Yahoo allows you to save your login information as a cookie on your hard drive. This may be viewed as a convenience by some and a security hole by others...we really don't have an opinion either way !
YAHOOMAIL
URL : http://www.yahoo.com
EMAIL ADDRESS : username@yahoo.com
MAILBOX LIMIT : We found no mention of this on any of Yahoo's pages !
WEB ACCESS : Yes
POP3 ACCESS : No
FORWARDING : No
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be
called research, would it? -Albert Einstein
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We thought that this was a great idea...matter of fact, we wish there were a few more services like this. And we were also impressed with the reliability of the service - so if you don't need the features of USA.NET, then this is a great alternative.
HOTPOP
URL : http://www.hotpop.com
EMAIL ADDRESS : username@hotpop.com
MAILBOX LIMIT : Once again, not mentioned; but individual messages need to be under 500 K
WEB ACCESS : No
POP3 ACCESS : Yes
FORWARDING : No
[] NETFORWARD : And last, but definitely not the least, NetForward - a truly great mail forwarding service. And what makes this one special is that it actually works on all seven days of the week. Registering for an email address is pretty simple - there are a million domains to choose from, and your account is usually activated within an hour. You can open as many accounts as you like...but be a good Netizen and delete them if you decide not to use them.
We use NetForward extensively for our website and email, and have always been extermely pleased with its performance. And it is also one of the few services fully accessible through a text-based browser such as Lynx.
NetForward also provides URL forwarding...more on this in an upcoming issue.
NETFORWARD
URL : http://www.netforward.com
EMAIL ADDRESS : Too many possibilities...compile error :). Check it out yourself !
MAILBOX LIMIT : N/A
WEB ACCESS : No
POP3 ACCESS : No
FORWARDING : Yes
calcar (KAL-kar) noun [plural calcaria]
A spur or spurlike projection, such as one found on the base of a petal or on the wing or leg of a bird.
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Allow us to enlighten you.
[] There are three very important reasons why Hotmail failed to rate a mention. One, reams have already been written about it, and we like to be...different. Two, it fails to provide POP3 access and mail forwarding services, and a revamp of its interface is long overdue. While it functions perfectly as a browser-based email reader, both Yahoo and USA.NET are far ahead in terms of features and usability. And most importantly, the third reason : we think it sucks !
We realise that you might not agree with us...but hey, that's why we live in a democracy ! ;)
[] Well, we've pretty much said all we wanted to say on this topic...so it's time to go !
We hope you found our review useful, and that it makes your online life easier. If it does, we want to hear from you...and if it doesn't, well, we want to hear from you anyway !
Till next time...stay healthy !
- V&H
You want to send a valuable object to a friend. You have a box which is more than large enough to contain the object. You have several locks with keys. The box has a locking ring which is more than large enough to have a lock attached. But your friend does not have the key to any lock that you have. How do you do it? Note that you cannot send a key in an unlocked box, since it might be copied.
Write in and tell us what *you* think the solution is. We will provide you with a correct solution in our next issue, together with the names of everyone who got it right. When you write in, do tell us how much information you would like us to disclose about you.
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