Comments for Are free email services worth it?

Comment from amanda on 2009-01-05

2009-01-05T15:46:30Z

is incredimail any good

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Comment from Pavel on 2008-12-24

2008-12-24T08:24:34Z

I have live mail and Yahoo mail. While I don't have any "important" e-mails so far I have had no problems and almost no spam. Windows live mail have wonderful feature that allows you to not only block spam but bounce it back to sender. As to support, no problem with Yahoo and live mail might take longer but so far they always helped eventually. I would recommend both.

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Comment from Nugget on 2008-12-07

2008-12-08T03:40:19Z

SO WORTH IT, IN FACT, THERE IS A WEB SITE YOU CAN GO TO, www.bugmenot.com IT IS SO COOL, GET USERNAME AND PASSWORDS(only by those who have submitted them)AND SCROLL DOWN AND YOU WILL FIND BUGMENOT DISPOSABLE EMAIL, SO COOL

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Comment from David on 2008-11-23

2008-11-24T00:10:48Z

Hi, Leo.

Despite my aversion to Microsoft, I set up my first free e-mail account with Hotmail in February 2002 after learning that the 100-person local office of a now-defunct software company (acquired by HP in 2005) would be shut down and its operations outsourced to a firm in India.

(I got a 30-day notice that I would be losing my job as senior technical writer -- and permission to go to interviews during work hours -- but after being assured for the previous 30 days that the documentation department would not be affected by the lay-offs and would relocate to a smaller office space.)

Had I not been numb with shock, I would have created a separate "job-hunting" e-mail address with my ISP, which offers 5 e-mail addresses per account -- including the primary address.

An e-mail address on one's resume from a free e-mail service is considered unprofessional, and -- at least for a while -- many companies inundated with resumes actually screen out resumes that have e-mail addresses with free services (a "snobbery-based" filtering system).

At the time, Gmail was nonexistent. Initially, Gmail accounts were "limited" and by invitation only. It was simple to overcome this marketing-based "limitation," however, simply by signing up for an account and having Google send an activation code via SMS to one's cell phone: I had a Gmail account three months before Google notified me that I was "off the waiting list" and could sign up for a free Gmail account (of which I now have a few, each for a specific purpose).

(I will digress further by mentioning unscrupulous early Gmail account recipients selling or auctioning accounts, abusing the 50 invitations that one gets after using an account, which are solely marketing ploys now that Gmail accounts are readily available.)

Although I do still use that first Hotmail account to apply for jobs and update on-line resumes, I stay in touch with legitimate recruiters and employers via telephone, although initial contacts were made via this Hotmail account, in response to on-line resumes and applications, or e-mail messages with my resume attached.

If I am working on a salaried or contract basis writing documentation or designing Web sites, I often forget to check that Hotmail account. If the account is not accessed for 30 days, Microsoft (in a draconian effort to sell paid Web-mail subscriptions) purges ALL new, unread, or saved messages!

One positive aspect of that Hotmail account is that "spam bots" crawl on-line job and resume listing sites/databases, from Monster.com to Dice.com. The result is a Hotmail account that receives literally hundreds of "spam" messages per day now. There are also IT recruiting "farms" that use 'bots to search sites such as Dice.com for key words, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses: I am inundated daily with automated e-mail inquiries from recruiters from cities all over India.

These messages are not about positions doing technical writing or Web design, but are the result of an automated "hit" on a keyword in my resume, such as "Oracle" or "Perl." Every few months, I go through about a week of receiving phone calls from these very firms about short-term contract positions (sometimes two weeks or less) anywhere in the United States (often 2,000 or more miles away) based upon key words in such automated searches. I cannot understand the callers and they do not understand why I am not interested in relocating thousands of miles for a five-day contract position that would not pay enough for one-way airfare and for which I am not qualified. (Just because I administered a database server for documentation from 2000-2002 (with no demand in 2008 for skills specific to MS SQL Server 2000 and Oracle 8i) hardly qualifies me to administer Oracle 11g EE!

"Private" or "restricted" on-line resumes do not get responses, but "open" resumes (especially on non-specialized job sites) definitely generated spam, clueless inquiries, and unwanted phone calls.

For job-hunting purposes, I suggest Gmail if a person is determined to use a free e-mail service. Gmail's spam filtering is quite decent, the 'gmail.com' domain does not suffer from the professional stigma of most other free e-mail services, storage is vast, one can access Gmail via POP3/SMTP and IMAP, and Gmail accounts are not purged.

Setting up a Web-based account is also advantageous for travelers who cannot access their corporate or personal ISP's SMTP servers, but -- as several people have stated -- especially if one is a consultant or does contract work, in addition to salaried work, registering one's own domain -- with a professional Web site, and e-mail address using one's own domain, is a reasonable career enhancement. Fortunately, Network Solutions is no longer the only legitimate domain registrar that most people can recall, although so-called "free domains" are not true TLDs and should be avoided at all costs for professional use!

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Comment from Don on 2008-11-21

2008-11-21T17:28:44Z

Somehow the contents of my INBOX were completely deleted today (11/21/08). My account, which stared out at netscape [personal email address removed] years ago, is now on AIM. So the address [personal email address removed] also works for this same account. Anyhow, I am finding just about nothing online that helps. The contents of my INBOX are not in my trash folder, as I already checked. I think the problem is related to deleting the trash folder contents. Thats when the INBOX contents suddenly disappeared. Looks like a lost cause, but before I give up can you help? Email me directly please! The clock is running!

No, I'm sorry, I cannot. I cannot retrieve lost email.

- Leo
22-Nov-2008

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Comment from Kinch on 2008-10-07

2008-10-08T05:37:41Z

I do believe that with all the new technology this article pretty much has become obsolete.
You have your email client setup in your computer. It grabs mails off of the air through POP3 or IMAP or something like that. Everything is backed-up locally, including all your contacts and emails and everything you'd ever want, even a built-in spam filter.
You have your email encryption apps. If you are sending important stuff through email, encrypt it. Or you can just use attachments that are password-protected. Don't send non-encrypted sensitive information.
This article does say that it was posted in 2004, which makes me very, very happy. I shudder to think that somebody still seriously thinks that a paying email account is worth his money now... if he does, he really needs to stop wasting his money.

While yes, for many there are backup solutions and off-line approaches, I stand by this article as much today as I did four years ago. Free email services are risky when they are relied on for important information. Encryption doesn't work for the masses. Free services still, by and large, have no customer support. If you lose access to the account you lose access to the account with little recourse but to create a new account.

Backing up using POP3/IMAP is great, but it doesn't alleviate the many other reasons that free email accounts are a risky bet.

And I'll reiterate: this is a conclusion I've come to based on the problems that get reported here to Ask Leo!. Problems that persist, perhaps even in greater numbers, to this day.

Four years later.

- Leo
08-Oct-2008

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Comment from Muryat on 2008-09-04

2008-09-05T05:31:51Z

i make account hotmail in outlook express not find http:\\service msn

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Comment from Jaakko H. on 2008-08-25

2008-08-25T19:31:41Z

I'd also never recommend to use an email address for which you pay a _monthly_ (or yearly, for that matter) fee. And I'd take Gmail off the non-recommended emails list as explained below.

While your comments are valid the thing is that in by 2008 people should understand that email _address_ doesn't really cost anything to provide.

But your identity does. It's awfully valuable. And that's why Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL -- and all those services that you _pay_ for for service don't want to let you 'own' i.e. have full control over your email address (i.e. allow you to forward your emails to your preferred service or access them w/ POP/IMAP for free).

So you say, ok: but I'm fine paying. And I say that the biggest reason that people don't change their email service provider, free or paid for, when someone else provides a better service is that they've given the address to so many. The email address is essentially your online identity and most of the providers keep you hostage because of that.

And here's where Gmail is very different. They offer free email forwarding - and POP & IMAP access. And it has by far the best spam filters of the tens that I've tested. But that's beside the point. The point is that others -- including those comcasts, verizons, etc -- keep your email and/or your online identity hostage while Gmail doesn't. Ok, some would say that they're still in beta and we _still_ don't know what it will become. I say, possible, but the company has committed quite strongly to these free-as-in-speech elements of Gmail.
So, I think Gmail is definitely good. (.. But not really all paid for emails are.)

You get the same freedom by buying your own domain. Cost: less than $10/_year_. And with that you own the whole address space of that domain.
And most domain hosts provide free email forwarding. And Google Apps even more. With them you can provide email accounts for your domain to hundreds of your friends. For free - and so that you and your friends have full control.

My choices: Gmail, own domain, Google Apps.

Don't let them keep you hostage - make you pay for "nothing".

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Comment from lovin thomas on 2008-07-31

2008-07-31T12:45:49Z

Even if you keep your email for your friends only, there is still risk of the replicas and viagra sellers to get your email, don't be fooled by false security given by paid account, anyone who you give your email, however trustable he/she is may leak your email even without their knowledge. Their computer may be infected with an email harvesting spyware (especially for those who use Outlook or any other mail program). Once your email is registered to a spammer, it stays, and spammer have the tendency to share email list

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Comment from Lie on 2008-06-19

2008-06-19T14:20:22Z

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Comment from Aileen on 2008-04-26

2008-04-26T18:21:37Z

I am using hotmail because my service provider account had NO spam filter, and contrary to other reports, got more spam on that account than on yahoo or hotmail, which provided methods for handling junk.I would like to use my nac.net account since we pay for it but it is too difficult. How can I find a dial-up server in my area code?

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Comment from OLIVIA HILL on 2008-04-05

2008-04-06T06:25:19Z

I had never really made a decision about having a reliable email. When Yahoo made the Space available to store lots of contact information, I went for it. I thought now I can throw away every hard copy and access my contact information from anywhere in the world. Then one day all of my contacts with email and snail mail addresses and phone numbers and private information disappeared suddenly from Yahoo. Even the categories became blank. Boy, how I wished I had thought about a more reliable email service then and done something about it sooner.

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Comment from Matt on 2008-02-11

2008-02-12T06:34:54Z

I hope this article was written in 2005. I have used free google apps to provide email to a very large company. I havent experienced any problems servicing my many users. As far as spam, please learn about SPF and open relay servers. I cant justify the cost of Microsoft exchange for the very extra value my users experience. This perceived value will only dissapear as google and yahoo make Office and Exchange obsolete in the next 5 years.

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Comment from oduro on 2008-02-08

2008-02-08T10:14:13Z

when my laptop boot i get this message c:window\system32\ne0ks.exe. how do i remove this error from my laptop . i am using windows home edition

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Comment from Dave Markley on 2008-01-26

2008-01-27T03:51:46Z

I have been using Google's Gmail for quite some time now, in addition to my ISP's E-mail service, and have so far been very pleased. I do see alot more spam in Gmail, but it has been blocked 100%. The amount of storage is just unbelievable, although I am a little leary about security, but I have not been let down by any 'free' Google service yet! I for the most part agree that "nothing's really free", but I honestly think there are exceptions such as AVG Free Anti-virus, A-squared Free, Ccleaner, Comodo Firewall, etc. Of course you must be very careful, but I've found these programs far better than the services I'd been paying for (I prefer not to mention their names in all fairness, but they are some of the better rated}.

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Comment from husam on 2008-01-06

2008-01-06T13:32:09Z

My email got hacked and i dont know the password!
I can't remember my secret answer to my secret question. What can i do about that?
help me please!
my stolen email is husam-36@hotmail.com
thank you

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-12-10

2007-12-10T20:39:09Z

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Hash: SHA1

GMail accounts, for example, can be configured to be downloaded into Outlook.
Just be careful that when you reply or send email that you're sending using the
email account you think you are.

Leo

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Comment from Wally on 2007-12-09

2007-12-09T17:35:47Z

I use Outlook (the full blown program) and have a cable broadband ISP main account I want to protect. Can I add any one of the free email service accounts just to get one of those 'throw-away' email addresses, AND still use my full blown Outlook program to access both, or several email accounts, simultaneously? I have been using Craigslist and other services to buy and sell household items and want to protect my identity when I respond to inquiries w/o having to sign-in to each individual email service to see if I have mail.

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Comment from Ron on 2007-11-16

2007-11-16T19:21:18Z

Leo is right....web-based e-mails are great"THROW-AWAY" programs.

Does anyone ever want their precious ISP URL known by anybody except their friends and family?

Can you imagine some of those replica watch or viagra websites getting to know your ISP address?

I like Yahoo because it has a nice spam device and other features that keep it simple and effective, especially the "Answers FORUM".

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Comment from Ravi Agrawal on 2007-11-11

2007-11-12T05:42:49Z

I agree with the comments about Gmail. Its a great service. Well gmail has also enabled directly downloading of email messages via their POP server. Gradually they a are planning for upgrade to IMAP which will even better out their User experience.
Gmail is great alongwith its powerful search features & the ability to group a particular set of email messages into one single conversation which simply allows us to keep track of the emails exchanged with a particular person with regard to a particular subject.
Ravi.

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Comment from Gina on 2007-11-10

2007-11-10T13:44:34Z

Several years ago I had free email accounts from Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL--and got rid of them all because the amount of spam was incredible!

However, I have had a GMail account now for over a year and I am very happy with it (although I still use my ISP email account for more important mail as Leo suggests). GMail has been more reliable than the other free accounts and I do not get anywhere near the amount of spam that I got with the others--and what little spam I do get is normally delivered into my spam folder and not in my inbox. And because there is so much less spam in the spam folder, it is quick and easy to look through it (to make sure there is nothing I want to keep) before I delete them permanently.

Having used many of the other free services, I would definitely recommend GMail for anyone who would like to have a free mail account along with their ISP's account.

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Comment from mary on 2007-10-05

2007-10-06T04:11:32Z

this is not true, and this is the website to prove that it is not true, stating that AIM does not read your private AIM conversations, which they rightfully shouldn't ...

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/aim.asp

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-10-01

2007-10-01T23:57:13Z

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That's this article:
http://ask-leo.com/what_forpay_email_providers_do_you_recommend.html

Leo

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=kH/+
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Comment from Helen Erdman on 2007-10-01

2007-10-01T16:20:34Z

Leo,
You are exactly right! I HATE the new windows classic hotmail they made me change to--and did not even ask if I wanted to!
So, what email ervices do you recommend that are NOT free---I don't even care if I pay for them, if I can get some service when I need it.

thanks for your help---

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Comment from Anne on 2007-09-09

2007-09-10T01:36:41Z

I'm new to e-mail. Please explain what is spam mail??

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Comment from John on 2007-09-01

2007-09-01T10:59:09Z

Thanks for helpful information.

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Comment from Mike on 2007-05-14

2007-05-15T01:09:38Z

If anyone is in need of a free email account that does not have intrusive ads, check out http://mail.tripdiscussion.com . You can get a free email account there without ads. Has virus protection, spam blocking tools, and much more. It is great for someone who just wants a free simple reliable email account.

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Comment from George Arauz on 2007-05-10

2007-05-10T12:05:39Z

Most free emails all work the same. But so far Gmail helps rid my spam mail best.

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Comment from Nancy Schaub on 2007-04-27

2007-04-27T22:22:15Z

I agree with you completely re free email accounts. For 6 years I dutifully paid for my AOL each month but also never, ever had a problem. The minute I switched to their free AOL, I had all sorts of problems, not related to my high speed internet provider, and the AOL people got plain ugly about the whole thing and would not answer a question even when the problem originated in their server. I am desperate for a new email account with someone else.

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-04-04

2007-04-04T21:21:54Z

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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It is a hoax.

Leo
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=h6bb
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Comment from Jen on 2007-04-02

2007-04-03T05:55:49Z

Hi I was told that you can recovers ur password on hotmail but sending and email too
recover_pswd@hotmail.com now I have been looking for it all over hotmail I am thinking maybe this is a hoax as the person I got it from said to put my currrent password down for the account I am sending it from. Is this a hoax or does it have any truth to it?

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Comment from john on 2007-03-07

2007-03-08T00:35:42Z

please show the posting date of when the article was created, so people can easily see if the information is current or out of date.

Gmail's spam filter is 10x better than hotmail's. Hardly any spam actually gets through to me

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Comment from umberto on 2007-02-03

2007-02-03T14:44:19Z

I currently and routinely use Gmail with Firefox and remove the spam. Every 2 or 3 days I download the mail into IE (gmail let you do) and so the REAL mail is stored in my PC even when no internet connection is available. By the way I also use an alias address supplied by the IEEE so that my address is always the same in these years: before using Gmail the mail was routed to other free addresses, a couple of which disappeared or became unavailable overnight (C4com and CTOnet, just for examples). Nothing is perfect but now I am relatively satified and unworried.
Umberto

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Comment from Leo Notenboom on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T15:54:53Z

No. That's this article: http://ask-leo.com/messages_deleted_on_hotmail_can_i_get_them_back_somehow.html

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Comment from Jerry on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T14:23:25Z

My account in hotmail has been reactivated, since then I can't access to my old messages, can I recover them?

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Comment from Pondit Moshai on 2007-01-13

2007-01-13T10:39:16Z

Thank you very much. Really it's an excellent informative article. I think it is rare in today's web market.

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Comment from Matty781 on 2006-12-28

2006-12-29T07:57:24Z

I have had a GMail for 2 years now with no problems, its true i do get spam, but all of it is filtered into the 'Junk' folder, I think GMail is the best web based email available.

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Comment from Joyce on 2006-11-18

2006-11-18T13:19:04Z

I don't get spam in my Yahoo! account. If I do, it might be once every 3-6 months - in my Bulk mailbox.

As for hotmail, yeah - it seems to have an affinity to junk. About one every month.

- Then again, the reason I don't get much junk is possibly because I sign up for few newsletters - that is under hotmail.

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Comment from Sarah on 2006-10-13

2006-10-13T23:09:26Z

This is a REALLY REALLY helpful artical and website u no everything and i appreciate that you have took the time to do this for everyone. Excellent Job!

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2006-09-18

2006-09-18T17:20:29Z

Usually too many login attempts with a bad password, or abuse by the account.

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Comment from Dennis Asante Baah on 2006-09-18

2006-09-18T11:01:13Z

my account say its lockedout what does this mean, but the other users on hotmail account in my household theirs are working normal i would like to know the cause that my one is lockout??

thanks for your co operation

Dennis

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Comment from Nick on 2006-09-01

2006-09-01T18:11:39Z

Yahoo is consistently rated as the #1 free email service. Spam is VERY low, you'll get maybe a sponsored message a week or so. If you have more, it's probably because you gave your email to the wrong site.

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Comment from kurrshing on 2006-08-08

2006-08-08T17:36:30Z

Hmm...you're perfectly right. My Gmail account disappeared, went nonexistant for some odd reason... What a PAIN. I also used that email to sign on to myspace and youtube etc. etc...

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Comment from elevan on 2006-07-14

2006-07-14T12:18:50Z

hi, i love your site btw; you're amazing and helpful with alot of info i would never think of... ... oh yeah, but i've used yahoo mail for awhile, ever since i had problems at hotmail... yahoo works fine i guess, but im hesitant to give them valid personal info, like name, zip code, etc.. they have the right to delete my account due to this eh? ... and have you ever heard of mail.com? im considering tryin out their service based upon your analysis... thanks so much for everything leo, i will buy you so many latte's someday when i have the funds!!!

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Comment from Ian on 2006-07-11

2006-07-11T09:22:01Z

You'll be spammed even if you're a PAID account or an ISP account, or even if you have your own MX server with Spam Assasin.

Bottomline: DON'T BE STUPID.

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Comment from Nate on 2006-06-04

2006-06-05T06:28:31Z

Actually, if you want a _real_ throwaway e-mail for spam or something, just use an instant e-mail address at mailinator.com, spambob.com, or pookmail.com. You can't send mail with them, but they're easy on-the-fly if you want to get one. For example, just go to pookmail.com, and login with "mop" and you'll see all mail sent to mop@pookmail.com within the last 24 hours.

But I digress. Free e-mail accounts generally suck. They're generally choppy, limited in features, and full of ads. Even some big name ones, such as yahoo or msn have ads. You're right about that, Leo.

The golden exception is gmail. Gmail gives about 2.8 gb of e-mail space. And they're very flexible with settings, sorting, searching e-mail etc. You can download the files to a POP3 mailbox. And they have built-in spam filters. But you can see all the e-mail labeled as spam, just in case you think something that's not junk might've been put there (rarely happens). Also, they only allow legit people to send e-mail from there. C'mon, it's google. They're the pros of search. And if someone says that the mail coming from that address is spam (there's a button to do this in gmail, to label a piece of mail as 'spam' so gmail will know in the future, if it gets labeled 'spam' enough, to label it 'spam' for every user and not put it in the inbox), then that gmail account will be shut down.

Now far from it for me to advertise for gmail. On the contrary, gmail has its downsides. If you're looking to protect your privacy, think again. Every piece of mail that you voluntarily keep on your gmail account for more than thirty days is fair game for them to keep on their servers for years based on US data storage law and the agreement necessary to sign up to gmail. I honestly don't care if google is reading my e-mail, and I know google goes to great lengths to defend a citizen's privacy against the governmnet, but it's just not something I comfortable.

But the same holds true for ISPs, they'll certainly keep your information for as long as they damn well please, too. Of course, it's not like they always have the means to, with all the internet traffic that goes on, of course, they run out of storage space pretty fast. Either way though, someone else has access to your e-mails for quite a long time, and the government is perfectly able to get your e-mails from that someone else through, say, monitoring the site or ISP through the National Security Agency or the Patriot Act.

Oh, sure, who cares about privacy, right? We've got to protect the nation from terrorists, right! Obsessions with security have recently ruined a good deal of civil liberties for the American people, including our right to privacy.

That's why it's gotten to the point where people have to take their right to privacy into their own hands if they want it at all, and it begins to seem like too much trouble to have privacy, even though it was something that was free originally. Nowadays if you want your e-mail to be private you've got to encrypt it. You can't even _use_ the phone because you know someone will be tapping it. And don't even think about going inside a store or busied traffic corner to talk. And if you put your personal information online? You might as well have screamed, 'hey, world, look at me!'

It shouldn't be this hard to keep one's personal information secret, but with the advent of technology without ethical limitations, through the creation of an untamed power, both the people and the government have a power to break the rights and liberties of others.

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Comment from Sig on 2006-05-06

2006-05-07T00:38:41Z

Hi! Leo,

I enjoy reading your weekly comments, even though they are mostly 'over my head'. Please bear with me on my question.

I am retired in Japan and intend to remain here for the foreseeable future. As you can see, I have a 'gmail' account. I had a local Japanese account geared for the local US military base (where I was a HS teacher for 27 years) and had an ever-increasing amount of spam. When someone suggested gmail I tried it and liked the spell-checking feature of my German messages to my German friends / relatives. I also like the search method for accessing any e-mail address, or specific name, place, date, etc. With the old account I spent a lot of time filing messages into folders --- and if I misfiled a message, it was usually a long, frustrating (and occasionally unsuccessful) process to find it again. I've dropped the local account and tried MacMail, Yahoo and Hotmail, but felt most comfortable with Gmail.

I just read your article about the advisability of not using a 'free' account such as Gmail. Do you (or a reader??) know of a Tokyo based email service which provides English support??? My Japanese is at the survival level.

Thank you in advance for any assistance and suggestions you (or a reader) is able to offer.

Sig Trautwein

PS It is only a minor point, but I initially misspelled my last name (Trautwein, not Tratuwein) when I subscribed to your weekly letter. Please correct it, if it's not too much trouble --- I can live with it.

Perhaps it was only a typo, but later and latter are not the same word.

Arigato . .

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Comment from Leo on 2006-04-06

2006-04-06T13:47:46Z

No. It is a hoax.

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Comment from om_bu7 on 2006-04-06

2006-04-06T09:13:37Z

is this true???

(Hey it is Andy and john the directors of MSN, sorry for the interruption but msn is closing down. this is because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the name (eg making up lots
of different accounts for just one person), we only have 578
names left. If you would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON. If you would like to keep your account, then SEND
THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. This is no joke, we
will be shutting down the servers. Send it on, thanks. WHO EVER DOES
NOT SEND THIS MESSEAGE, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CLOSED AND YOU WILL COST £10.00 A MONTH TO USE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT
LIST. NOW YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS or REPLAY.
COPY THE WHOLE EMAIL. GO BACK TO YOUR INBOX AND CLICK ON NEW. AND PASTE THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION )

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Comment from Leo on 2006-03-28

2006-03-28T17:47:23Z

I lean towards those provided by ISPs. Depending on how you connect to the internet, you probably already have one, or more, available to you. What's most important is that it be a service with real customer support.

And for the record, I'm actually a fan of smaller, local ISPs. I've used one for years here in the Seattle area, and have been exceptionally pleased. When I call, a real person answers, and that real person a) knows what I'm talking about, and b) is in the area.

There are a lot of ISP Comparison sites that would be a great place to start. Just google ISP Comparison.

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Comment from Laura on 2006-03-28

2006-03-28T09:19:07Z

What non-free email accounts would you suggest? I have just lost access to my hotmail account and want to switch to a more secure and supportive service for all my important emails. Thanks x

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Comment from Scott TN on 2006-03-11

2006-03-11T15:26:27Z

my hotmail account was invaluable during my time in the military! Although it had glitches here and there, there was no better way to keep in touch with family and friends while traveling and living in several places in the USA and overseas. No matter where I went, the way to reach me never changed, as long as I could get internet access. Of course, Hotmail has become more glitchy as of late, and I rely more on my Yahoo account. The spam filter on Yahoo seems to work better as well. I have made specific filter rules to eliminate repeat spam in Hotmail, and the messages still get through!

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Comment from Leo on 2006-03-10

2006-03-10T21:44:30Z

That's bogus. A fraud. Ignore it.

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Comment from Ness on 2006-03-10

2006-03-10T20:58:22Z

Is it true Msn Hotmail is shutting down it's servers because there are only 538 names left, on the count of people making to many hotmail accounts? I'm asking because I have received this e-mail:
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:36:45 +0000
Hey it is Andy and john the directors of MSN, sorry for the interruption, but msn is closing down. This is because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the names (eg. making up lots of different accounts for just one person). We only have 578 names left.

If you
would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON. If you would like to keep your account, then SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. This is no joke, we will be shutting down the servers. Send it on, thanks. The use of msn and hotmail will cost money from summer 2006. If you send this message to 18 different people from your list your little icon will become blue and that will make it free for you. If you dont believe

me go on
(www.msn.com) and see it yourself. Dont foward this message copy paste it so people will actually read it

...End of Messege
Powerful parental controls improve your peace of mind with MSN Premium. Join now and get the first two months FREE*

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Comment from HAZEL on 2006-01-17

2006-01-17T09:33:56Z

Hi. I've been having problems w/my Hotmail email account for a couple of days now. It will not recognize my password. I've emailed Hotmail and they don't really seem to help much. It's as if someone possibly changed it. It won't accept my birthdate or other info either. I've sent emails to that address and know that it is still active. Is there any way to retrieve this Please help me I can give you detail un-read meail that i have this account Please help I have a lot of home work in my in box. reply to hedah@macdermid.com

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Comment from Leo on 2005-12-15

2005-12-16T05:38:35Z

Email isn't sent to a site, it's sent to an email address.

But the answer to your question is "maybe". Under some conditions HotMail does seem to include the IP address of the sending computer.

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Comment from Jo on 2005-12-11

2005-12-12T06:22:55Z

If I send mail to a site using my hotmail account , will they be able to see a IP -Or ISP address from my machine?

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Comment from sadie on 2005-12-07

2005-12-07T17:59:21Z

Hi. I've been having problems w/my yahoo email account for a couple of months now. It will not recognize my password. I've emailed yahoo and they don't really seem to help much. It's as if someone possibly changed it. It won't accept my birthdate or other info either. I've sent emails to that address and know that it is still active. Is there any way to retrieve this??

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Comment from claudia on 2005-12-07

2005-12-07T17:16:22Z

hi leo,
i'm sure this question has been touched on before, but for the life of me, i can't find its thread on your forum.
i have just deleted my yahoo mail account & would like people who write me there to actually SEE that it no longer exists (ie, bounced mail), rather than their mssgs just sitting there, unseen, and them assuming that i've read it.
as far as i can see as per yahoo's info, my account will remain inactive for 90 days...(no one can claim that ID during that time), but how long until mail sent there is bounced back to the sender? (i've sent a cpl of test emails and nothing has been bounced back)
just seems ridiculous that a deleted email account wouldn't automatically/immediately bounce emails!
thanks....

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Comment from Don Davidson on 2005-11-18

2005-11-19T01:32:41Z

Almost everything I see on your site is outstanding, as is this offering on free email service. Thanks Col Don Davidson

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Comment from oli on 2005-11-14

2005-11-14T17:38:13Z

Has anyone tried Gmail - everyone is beginning to switch. There are many advantages over Hotmail - fully free, "conversation view", labelling not folders, free POP etc., no picture ads only RELEVANT TEXT ads, a 2.7gb inbox (until altered to 250mb, Hotmail only had 10mb!), a brilliant spam filter, a mail search and other great features.

I would recommend this service to anyone.

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Comment from Robynt on 2005-07-03

2005-07-03T08:24:33Z

This is related to msn messenger and hotmail... just to let everyone know...my hotmail and msn contacts were deleted not once but twice so far..all of them. for anyone that doesnt want to lose their contacts...keep them safe and save them!

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Comment from Chelsie Browder on 2005-06-02

2005-06-02T22:53:39Z

I use https://insarnia.ca/mail and it pops my yahoo.ca mail, my hotmail, and my isp mail, but it wont pop my msn mail why?

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Comment from Leo on 2005-05-14

2005-05-15T03:40:46Z

You want this article: http://ask-leo.com/ive_lost_my_hotmail_password_can_you_help_get_it_back.html

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Comment from kahin on 2005-05-14

2005-05-14T23:59:08Z

i for gote my password [Email Address Removed]

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Comment from Leo on 2005-05-13

2005-05-13T20:54:24Z

Please read this article:
http://ask-leo.com/ive_lost_my_hotmail_password_can_you_help_get_it_back.html

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Comment from fadi on 2005-05-13

2005-05-13T20:47:00Z

hi my name is fadi , and someone hacked my email.. [Email Address Removed] and changed the secret question and answer... this email is very important to me and i have everything from school-to-work papers and eveything... plz help me and reply me to this email. [Email Address Removed] in openning [Email Address Removed] and hope as soon as possible to hear from u guyz

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Comment from Leo on 2005-05-04

2005-05-04T14:35:01Z

Even though this article talks about Hotmail, it applies to Yahoo as well: http://ask-leo.com/ive_lost_my_hotmail_password_can_you_help_get_it_back.html

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Comment from claudia on 2005-05-04

2005-05-04T14:32:31Z

I lost password for this e-mail [Email Address Removed]
Please help me!

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Comment from Leo on 2005-04-24

2005-04-25T02:38:51Z

As stated in the article, free email accounts have no customer support.

GMail is still in Beta. Whether you get invitations to hand out is fairly random and not under your control. Simply be patient.

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Comment from bodld rajesh on 2005-04-24

2005-04-24T19:11:34Z

i want to ask a ques in the service to the provider of gamil but i dont know how to conatact them.

my problem is " some of my friends got the 50 invitations.. so they can invite their friends to open the gmail service but i am not able t get the invitations how can i get that. please reply me and send the ans via mail to me

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Comment from Brennan Cook on 2005-03-23

2005-03-23T12:40:30Z

Even more weird, other people's messages show up in my sent file and then the respondent's messages come to me. This only happens when the sender uses a public computer network that I used years ago. This happens about once a week.

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Comment from Leo on 2005-03-02

2005-03-02T16:52:31Z

Yes. It's apparently happening to a number of people.

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Comment from Wendy on 2005-03-02

2005-03-02T15:46:33Z

Is anyone out there getting the same problem as I am? I keep getting pop-up boxes that say Match The Picture, when I put in the password for my Hotmail account. I havn't had access for a couple of days. Even my tech says he's not heard this before (although he hasn't been able to come to look at it as yet). He said he knows about the boxes - but normally when you decipher the 'code characters' - you get in. Does anyone know how to get around this problem or even where it originates? I've changed my password - it doesn't help. Intriguing to say the least. I emailed you yesterday but haven't yet had a response.

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