What Email Service Do You Use?

[glidercoach]

I am looking for a new e-mail service (to replace an old account tied to a cable service).

The most obvious choices are the free services, G-mail and Yahoo.  I would prefer to avoid these if possible because of security issues and data gathering that goes on.

My preference would be to find a commercial service that provides more security.  Price is a consideration, but I would be willing to pay something for a higher level of security.

--Does anyone know of such a commercial service? 

--Does anyone have opinions about the use of 'free' services in the motorhome world?

[kaypsmith]

Have you looked at runbox.com?

[wigginsjsr]

I have used gmail for years without security problems. It doesn't matter if you pay for a service or not, they all track usage.  

[BillAdams]

I am a big G-mail fan but there are a number of services that allow you to setup your own website for very little money.  Some can even use your name as the website, i.e.  www.billadams.com and your e-mail address would be "anything"@billadams.com

[wildebill308]

10 hours ago, GliderCoach said:

I am looking for a new e-mail service (to replace an old account tied to a cable service).

The most obvious choices are the free services, G-mail and Yahoo.  I would prefer to avoid these if possible because of security issues and data gathering that goes on.

My preference would be to find a commercial service that provides more security.  Price is a consideration, but I would be willing to pay something for a higher level of security.

--Does anyone know of such a commercial service? 

--Does anyone have opinions about the use of 'free' services in the motorhome world?

The problem with getting a more secure email account is the same as when you closed your cable account, once you stop paying it will be closed to you and any information in it.

I haven't had any problems with Yahoo or Gmail. The benefit is you will always have that email address. As you know with the cable account once you close it now you have to tell all your contacts what your new address is (kind of like moving) and most third party accounts are just a layer over top of Yahoo or Gmail.

Here is a more secure site you might want to look at.

https://www.reagan.com/?gclid=CjwKEAjwuo--BRDDws3x65LL7h8SJABEDuFRFjH4qIIntSFbGcHN0DSA1q3iaL-KYymz_Is3l3w8KRoCN-Lw_wcB

Bill

[moonwink]

GliderCoach, I've never used an email account on an ISP website because I want the flexibility of moving to a new provider whenever I want to.  For almost 15 years I used Yahoo!'s paid email service until the CEOs started changing, the slide began and "neo" came along.  If you don't know what I mean by neo, it was a change Yahoo! forced on their users several years ago that completely turned everything upside-down.  They tried to sell it as an improvement but since its inception, it has been nothing more than a death knell or precursor signalling the end of Yahoo!  Hopefully, things may change now that Verizon owns Yahoo! but that's still a work in progress and no one knows what will become of Yahoo!

I set up an email account at Gmail (when Yahoo! implemented neo) as my primary email account and haven't had any issues with doing that at all.  I don't use Chrome for a browser or Google for a search engine preferring Firefox and DuckDuckGo instead for privacy reasons.  It took me at least 3 years to get people and businesses that send me email to switch over to the new address - it's not an easy process.

I still act as owner and moderator of a couple of Yahoo! groups but I'm ready to move them either to "Google Groups" or "Groups.io" at a minute's notice depending on what happens to Yahoo. 

[wayne77590]

It doesn't matter what service one uses as they are all susceptible to hackers, viruses, malware and any new vulnerabilities in the wild. 

With that said I have been using email services since the 80's and never have I been hacked. those services were a wide variety of Internet Service Providers.  My most used was by Southwest Bell and I still use that service today, although it merged with Yahoo. I also use Apple Mail, and a hosting service that contains my web site.  I do run Norton's Internet Security on all my computers. Why Norton's?  My former Government employer had Norton's Virus prevention on all of its Government machines. Good enough then, good enough now.

One of the largest problems with hacks and viruses on email is when a person opens an email from someone they don't know or click on a link and it could be from someone they do know. 

I run all Apple products and when checking my security logs I can see where my preventative software has stopped an attempt to gain access or quarantined and deleted a possible virus.

Works for me.

p.s., I run a program in my FF Browser called Ghostery and I also run AdBlock Plus.  Ghostery runs on 5 Internet Browsers. An example of Ghostery's blocking is that on this page there is one item "Google Analytics" that is blocked.  There are web sites that have many more trackers on them. Google Analytics gathers information for marketing and business. I don't need marketing thrown at me.

[tbutler]

We've been using Earthlink for our e-mail since... forever!  I download my e-mail to my computer using Mozilla Thunderbird.  That gives me control of my e-mail.  I don't have to go on-line to read old e-mails and can archive the important ones on my computer for reference later.  Louise prefers to maintain her e-mails on-line and the storage limits are generous if you don't want to keep tons of e-mails hanging around.  I've never had a problem sending or receiving large files including photo files, other than the speed of the internet server I'm connected to.  I'm sure that there are file size limits but I've never hit them.

Earthlink has a filter system, you have an address book, e-mails in the address book are allowed through and others are put in a holding file (suspect e-mail) which you can view and route to your in box, delete or report as spam.  They have a reporting process so you can report fishing attempts and you can simply block an e-mail address entirely, never to be allowed through again.  You can always go back and unblock later if you change your mind.  They also will flag and isolate any message which contains malicious software.  You still have the option to view it if you want to live dangerously or if you are certain that it is something you need to see or have.

Service costs $4.15 per month if you pay for it for the entire year at one time.  Otherwise I believe it is $5.00 per month.

That covers 5 e-mail addresses so you can have several e-mail addresses per person or everyone in the family can have an e-mail address for that fee.  I use one of the addressees strictly for administration of the account and then we have personal accounts for each of us.

You can also use Earthlink as your internet provider.  I haven't needed that since the days of dial-up service became obsolete but they still have dial-up service in many locations if you needed that.

[wayne77590]

One entity  provides the following:

10 top email services
 

[tbutler]

That is a listing of free e-mail services.  The OP asked for commercial e-mail services.

[glidercoach]

It is good to know that 'free' services have been well received.  I had expected just the opposite.  Maybe that is a better option than I thought.

I am still considering commercial services, but the problem of losing e-mails when one leaves is troublesome.  (I may be faced with this soon on my current system).

Thanks to everyone for their comments.  It has certainly given me some ideas that I hadn't considered before...

[BillAdams]

Since you are now not turned off to the possibility of a free e-mail address I will expound a bit.

I have multiple G-Mail addresses.  Some I have not looked at in over 10 years as they are just addresses I use when a site requires me to enter an e-mail address.  All the SPAM responses just go to that address and that's where they live.

I also have a couple of G-mail addresses that I use for regular stuff (I likely really only need 1 but I'm just saying.....) and I use Outlook to download these incoming e-mails to my computer so I can read them as they come in.  None of these e-mail addresses are used for anything which requires personal information but is great for forums and similar activities.

I then have 1 Gmail address that I use for all of my banking and bill paying services.  This is also downloaded directly to my computer using Outlook and if I ever see ANYTHING not related to banking or bill pay I dump that e-mail and start another.  The good news is that this has not happened with my current Gmail address in the last 5 years (at least).

It's really quite amazing how using  disposable e-mail addresses during surfing can keep you isolated from nearly all of the "stuff" the internet tries to throw at you.

Just one other point.  Gmail has some extremely good SPAM filters so even some of the addresses I post on the 'net do get SPAMMED but I never see them as they are filtered out before anything is downloaded to my computer.  If you want to add an additional layer of protection, you don't have to download anything and you can do access all (or any part) of your e-mail online preventing any access to your computer.

[wayne77590]

Another option is to get a Hosting Service and Domain Name for less than $10 a month and have as many email addresses that you want.   I have that type of service also. I use the hosting service to share volumes of pictures with family and friends. I have had this type service for approximately 10 years and not once in that time have I had spam.  But with unlimited email addresses it is easy to swap them out. 

Here is one service Hosting24

[moonwink]

Another comment I want to share is what happens when trying to download messages from Yahoo! to Outlook on my laptop - when I'm away from home (and my high speed connection) Yahoo! would frequently "time out" before all the messages came through.  I'd have to start over - from the beginning which resulted in duplicates.  Since I switched to Gmail, I haven't had that problem.  Dealing with all those duplicates was an extreme annoyance.  I use the POP mail method of accessing my email and Outlook 2007 as my email client.  I use the web interface to check the spam folder to messages that may have wrongly gotten tagged as spam.  I also check email on my Android phone but my desktop remains my preferred method of reading email.  Even though I read some messages online or on my phone, Outlook will still download them unless I delete them beforehand.

My recommendation is to give Gmail a try before spending anything on paid email.

[F225027]

We use the same thing we use at home...  Mediacom cable ISP.  It downloads into outlook and I also use a netzero.net account along with my business email account.  They all download into Outlook and I can see them all on my computer without going to any of the [real website accounts]. 

[gnewhall]

I use Gmail and a VPN. The VPN costs me about $5 a month. It is supposed to secure your internet connection to guarantee that all of the data you are sending and receiving is encrypted and secured.

[tzeile]

G-mail

[kingfr]

We have our own domain, hosted by AT&T. $10 per month. My email is me@ourplace.com, hers is her@ourplace.com. (Not the real addresses) Works very well!

[BJPaterson]

Look up Mozila Thunderbird.