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General discussion

What are the pros and cons of Web-based e-mail systems?

Jun 22, 2012 9:11AM PDT
Question:

What are the pros and cons of Web-based e-mail systems?


Hi Lee & friends, I really appreciate the advice and opinions that you
share with us in the Topic of the Week. Here's a question on which I'd
appreciate some advice: What are the pros and cons of using a
Web-based e-mail system such as Gmail instead of a system where I use a
mail client such as Outlook and my e-mails are stored on my computer?

I currently use Outlook, but find that the Webmail app provided by my
ISP is very unreliable and slow. So accessing my mail when I'm away
from home is not easy. (I'm not into iPhones, iPads, etc.) Presumably,
using a Web-based system would mean I don't have to worry about
backing up my e-mails any more.

The wisdom of community members on this issue would be very welcome. Thanks.

--Submitted by: Rob B. of Sydney, Australia

Discussion is locked

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Hotmail at Home, Outlook at Work
Jun 24, 2012 3:00AM PDT

I have used a Hotmail account for all personal email for over 10 years. I never get spam in the Inbox, just the Junl Mail folder because I try to keep the Inbox a pure "whitelist" of newsletters, friends, and selected advertisers (Staples, etc.) that I do business with. I now access it (at home) through Windows Live Mail, which also allows me to access other webmail accounts in a single interface. Live Mail saves local copies of the emails for searching purposes, so I am completely satidfied with this solution.

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I also never check my Yahoo or Gmail...
Jun 30, 2012 2:22PM PDT

but have never received a warning from them. I may look at it every six months or so, but always everything is still the same. I never use them because I just like to keep them for back up. Too many of my friends and clients say they get junk mail on the other alternatives to hotmail. One of them is dropping Yahoo this week.

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Hotmail paid is the way to go.
Jul 4, 2012 6:19AM PDT

The Hotmail paid service for around $20 bucks a year is excellent have been using it since before Microsoft took it over. Have only good things to say about it I use it for my main email account and storage is not a problem and sending files up to 20megs is allowed. I don't use that large file send much though but Hotmail has excellent filtering and management capabilities. Give it a try and for $20 bucks for a year of service you can't go wrong.

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Unchanging email address
Jun 22, 2012 4:47PM PDT

One thing that bugs me is when people send out an email to everyone in their address book saying, "I've changed ISPs, so here's my new email address." It seems I'm always busy when I see those, so often they never end up getting updated in my address book. Then, months later when I want to send something to them, I get a bounce.

Now, whenever someone sends one of those announcements I reply back and recommend that they get a Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc account. Chances are, those email addresses will be around essentially forever. Switching to one of those would trigger their final, "My email has changed." announcement.

As others have pointed out, Gmail provides free POP3 access, so you can still grab any emails that come in there.

Another alternative is to buy your own domain name. There are some services that will give you a mailbox for just a few dollars a year. They'll provide both web access and POP3 and IMAP access.

Personally, I have my own website on a reasonably low-cost shared server. I plan on keeping my domain name forever, so it will never change. I do 99% of my email through web access. Since I have an Android phone, I keep my address book and calender on Google/Gmail, but rarely use the actual Gmail service to send or receive messages. The webmail program I have running on my site has a plugin that periodically pulls those address from Gmail into its own internal address book, so I can easily get at them.

So, for me, coming from the other direction, I greatly appreciate it when people choose an email address that they will stick with forever. For me, that's the biggest Pro vote for the big-name webmail services.

Drake Christensen

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change of internet provider
Jun 29, 2012 11:45AM PDT

Correct... when you change isp's you have to tell everyone the new isp address

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Change internet provider
Jun 30, 2012 6:14AM PDT

--Correct... when you change isp's you have to tell everyone the new isp address --

Not true when you have your own domain

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Some good some bad
Jun 22, 2012 6:02PM PDT

The main good thing about web email is that is available from anywhere, work, travel, home, anywhere.

The main thing that I really hate about it is that it is unencrypted data just waiting to be hacked. I suppose that if there's nothing personal in your email, it doesn't matter, but I don't like to think of my email sitting out there on some server, waiting to be hacked.

You can download web mail. For example, Google gmail supplies both POP and IMAP servers, which allow you to download your mail and remove it from their servers. However, until you download your email, it is just sitting there on some server, waiting to get hacked. I'd feel a lot better about it if web email providers used some strong encryption algorithm, like Carbonite or Mozy, etc.do to at least try and keep your backup data safe.

So it goes.

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same for both...
Jun 30, 2012 6:28AM PDT

Actually, if you think about it, that's true for all e-mail, not just web-based e-mail. Until you download it, it's sitting in some server just waiting to be hacked.

By the way, nearly every web-based e-mail service allows you to download and delete it from the server. Nearly every non-web based e-mail provider also gives you web-based access to your e-mail, prior to or instead of downloading. So, if you think about it, there's really no difference between the two. Pretty much every service gives you both options. It's up to you how you access and manage it.

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Web-based e-mails are quite safe
Jun 22, 2012 7:57PM PDT

In my experience, I find that web-based e-mail services are more reliable than the service provided by ISPs. There are no space restriction about storage. To share my experience, I am of the view that after using Gmail for over eight to nine years, I cannot imagine any web-based e-mail service coming as close to it when it comes to ease of use and convenient features. Firstly, e-mails don't clutter your hard-disc on account of downloads. Secondly, the servers of other e-mail service providers frequently break down and one is unable to download or see the mail. Such failure has almost never occurred on Gmail. In terms of security, it is quite safe, though I take the precaution of deleting finance related and personal mails from Gmail, or store them on my computer for future reference. Only on one occasion, I found that my mail had been read before I did. By changing the password frequently, I have overcome this problem also.

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One service for all
Jun 22, 2012 10:21PM PDT

I have multiple email accounts and use them for different purposes; however, I found that not only is gmail the best at catching spam but it is easily accessible on all my mobile devices, my android phone, tablet, and the iPad I use for business. So I have all my mail from each account channeled through my gmail account. The mail comes up with the name of the account it was sent to so I know if it's business or personal and if I should attend to it right away or let it go until I'm ready to answer it at a better time.

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Bt yahoo
Jun 29, 2012 4:50PM PDT

I've used these as a web based email for about 8 years now. I have one for my business and one for personal use, the business one is accessed by my employee at another location which is really handy as we aren't confined to a particular place.
It did have a lot of spam a year or so ago ,it filters out most rubbish mail anyway , the ones that got through I kept marking as spam and found if I let them build up in the spam folder rather than deleting them entirely the filter worked better.
The yahoo account has a calendar ( yahoo are always "upgrading " and fiddling with it ) which we find very useful, we put appointments etc on it and it emails reminders to our blackberries
I have a gmail account but don't like the way it scans your mails and puts adverts "customised" for me .

I have zimbra desktop and occasionally use it to back up the accounts

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I agree,
Jun 30, 2012 2:35PM PDT

and Gmail is really advanced for multi-device users; but I find hotmail has the best anti-spam; but then - like you say - I mark anything unwanted as spam and delete the junk folder often.

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Personal info is the price you pay
Jun 23, 2012 4:58AM PDT

I am a "keep it to myself' sort of person. Read the terms of service and Privacy statements from the web-based provider. If you're OK with them, fine you get all the benefits mentioned in other replies.

However most have reciprocal agreements with one another (Facebook being the big dog) and share among themselves. This enables them to access your FB, Yahoo and other sites you use. They can also track your movements from those places where you check-in; or your GPS (if equipped).

Other privacy issues are numerous and of concern - at least to me. I've been shopping for both a new computer and phone recently; within a day or so, all the ads on web pages I visited (that accept advertising) were for various computers and/or cell phones (including FB). In fact the ads for computers stopped when I made a purchase from Dell. Coincidence? Nah, this is one way they make money and I don't fault them for it - I've done it myself (below).

A friend's daughter works for a company that sells these services (and makes VERY good money at it), "We track usage Mr. Marketing Guy-from-big-company and can put that usage to work for you. For instance, if we see that a user at ISP X is visiting cell phone or computer or convertible-automobile sites/pages, or checking ratings on tech review sites (ahem, sorry Lee), we'll match your ads to that ISP." Nothing wrong with it, because however inadvertent, you've given them permission.

Another way some sites make money is by selling information about you (or your ISP address). Ever notice that you can "easily" log-in to a site using FB, Yahoo etc? That's because, by doing so, you give them permission to pass along certain information about potential customers in their demographic target. I'm retired now, but my company sold very narrow lists of potential listeners for radio station direct mail campaigns using all sorts of data we'd purchase on our clients' behalf - and they were amazingly accurate. We could narrow potential listeners right down to block code and neighborhood levels. Some of this info was available from the USPS.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this, including the site you are currently viewing (I should say especially this site... ;&ltWink it just depends on how much information you're willing to have available to most anyone who wants to buy it. We're surrounded by advertising, that's why we get free TV/Radio and certain websites. The choice is yours: convenience vs. privacy.

BTW TO ClissaT (if this hasn't already been answered): Outlook is a part of MS Office. Older versions, and open source look-a-likes, may be available for download. They may work, they may not. I recently switched to W7 and find LiveMail perfectly acceptable. Outlook Express which I used for years, has been discontinued.

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Web based e-mail system
Jul 9, 2012 1:54AM PDT

If you're worried about being tracked then sign up with 'Do not track'.
It shows and blocks all trackers. I love it.
HP

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Secure Mail Setting in Google
Jun 23, 2012 1:07PM PDT

One thing I haven't noticed anyone mention yet, is the fact that Google Mail have an option for you to choose to always use a "secure" connection - HTTPS. Using HTTPS, all data going to and from your browser to gmail is encrypted. That way, no one can read your emails with you, from the next table or across the room, on a shared internet connection.

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Yes but...
Jun 30, 2012 2:46PM PDT

Google admits that traffic between some of their servers is not encrypted; but still - not a bad deal. Also be aware that both parties have to be using Gmail with SSL to have a good chance of secure communications. I am tickled that our ISP is now using Gmail for our server based email, and the setup is a little more complicated because of the SSL connections for POP 3. This gives me a little more peace of mind for my local email, though. Happy

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Pros and Cons of Web-based e-mail
Jun 28, 2012 9:37AM PDT

Rob B. said ...........quote ."..........Presumably, using a Web-based system would mean I don't have to worry about backing up my e-mails any more........"

Please can someone tell me how to back up e-mails ? I've tried, fpllowing the few tips I've previously been given, but so far nothing has worked for me.

Not only backing up, but if transferred to another medium, like a CD or Flash drive, they could be read offline, which is one of the disadvantages of using a web-based system, especially when travelling and an Internet connection might not be readily available - a frequent occurrence just when one wants to refer to a recent e-mail !

Any advice - in simple terms (!) apprciated.

Thanks,

Alan M.
N.Zealand.
Windows Vista and W.7

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Depends on which system you're using
Jun 28, 2012 5:35PM PDT

Most webmail systems provide POP3 and/or IMAP access to the accounts. With those, you can use any email program, such as Outlook Express, Livemail, Thunderbird, etc to download the emails.

If you're using one of the major webmail systems then search on the name of the system and POP3 or IMAP. That will usually bring up the page with the server info you need, including whether it needs to be a secure connection, etc. Just create a new account in the mail program of your choice and fill out the form with what you find.

Drake

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If I just have to have...
Jun 30, 2012 2:51PM PDT

a local backup of an email on my PC. I just send the particular email from my web account to my server based email account, which downloads to my hard drive anyway. Then I can use Outlook to back it up - but Windows Mail can probably do the same thing, and it is built into Win7 as well.

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Email
Jun 29, 2012 6:14AM PDT

First let me say that if your emails are important to you, do not ever assume that you do not need to worry about backups even if you are using web based mail. And by the way, if you are using Outlook don't forget to backup your NK2 file as well as your Outlook PST file so you don't lose your Auto-Fill Address book. There are plenty of reports of people losing emails with web based email accounts such as gmail, yahoo, MSN or AOL. And as far as email service through your ISP goes, trust them even less.

Just to give you a little story that happened to me a few years ago: I woke up one morning to my username and password being rejected when I tried to sign into my online email with my ISP. I tried several times thinking it was a typo or I had caps lock on. But nothing, I kept getting username or password was incorrect. After many attempts I finally called my ISP and much to my surprise they said they had no record of my email address. Ok, wait a second here, am I going crazy? I explained to them that I have been signing in and receiving email on this account for over 6 years now and you are telling me that it suddenly does not exist or I guess I suddenly did not exist? They proceeded to take my information and said that someone would get back to me within 72 hours. Well to make a long story even longer, it took 2 weeks of my faxing and emailing them copies of old emails containing my email address to convince them that they were wrong. I finally received my email address back but without any of the old data and the explanation was it must have been a small hiccup during a server change. Fortunately, this was not my primary email account and I had all of the mail duplicated in Outlook anyway, but what a pain in the neck and it certainly taught me that anything is possible.

Anyway, back to your question. There are numerous types of email accounts as well as many methods to retrieve and read your email. Each has a set of pros and cons and much of what works out best for you will depend on your exact email needs.

TYPES OF EMAIL

ISP BASED

This is an email account provided to you by your Internet Service Providers such as Comcast, Verizon, RCN or Time Warner. Mail can be accessed either by logging into the ISP website directly or setting up some form of email client such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird to read the mail.

CONS -
You lose your email address if you change Internet service providers
Web Based mail can be slow and clumsy
You cannot access emails if your Internet connection is down
Mailbox storage size is less than paid email accounts
Attachment size is limited to their specs

PROS -
Full 24/7 Telephone Support
Can be used with Email Client (Usually POP only)
Free with Internet service


FREE EMAIL - These email accounts Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and MSN are mail accounts that generally reside outside your computer and are accessed either through special software or via the internet. In most case you can also set them up to be access with an email client such as Outlook but this is normally the exception and not the rule. Some of the services may require a small fee to upgrade the account to be able to use these additional features.

CONS -
Usually No Phone support for Free accounts
Web based interface can be slow and clumsy
Some services require paid upgrade to use with email client
Attachment size is usually limited to 10GB or less.
Cannot get to email if the internet is down

PROS -
Mail box size is generally larger than ISP based email
Mail Service is generally Free.
No need to change email addresses if you move or change Internet Service Providers


WORK EMAIL - Most companies have their own email system which you may have been assigned an email address such as "your name"@your company.com. Depending on the size of your company they may have their own Exchange server or other types of systems that require you to use special software to log into your company system to get mail. Others may simply let you use an email client such as Outlook to receive your email.

CONS -
Other than the higher cost associated with maintaining a server or paying someone to host your email, there are really no other cons.

PROS -
You can access your email from anywhere.
View and work with Shared calendars and Documents
Mail is being backed up by the server
Attachment size is usually adjustable up to 50MB

PERSONAL URL - This type of email is where you have your own URL (like many companies). For example: your first name @ your last name.com. These types of accounts are not free and are usually hosted by some company such as Network Solutions or Godaddy where you have the option to use their web mail interface to read your email or you can setup an email client such as Outlook to read your email. You have the most options with these types of accounts and you can even pay to have a hosted Exchange account. The options are almost unlimited depending on how much you want to pay.


PROS and CONS
The same as the business Email above, but depends on how much you want to pay.


METHODS OF READING EMAIL

WEB BASED - Web based email is where you use your Internet Browser to go to a website to log into your email account to read your email. This is handy for when you are away from your computer or need to access your email from Work or while on vacation. Typical examples of web based email would be Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL.

COMPUTER EMAIL CLIENT "POP" - An email client is a program that resides on your computer such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail and Mac Mail that fetches your email from your provider at predetermined times and stores it on your computer to be read. The advantage of this is that you don't have to log in every time you want to read your email and it is generally faster and easier to use. Also you have access to your old mail whether or not you are connected to the internet or not.

COMPUTER EMAIL CLIENT "IMAP" - This type of setup is also client based and similar to POP mail but is more of a synchronizing connection rather than just fetching in mail like the POP account. The advantage of this type of connection is your mail is the same on both your computer and when you log into the web based version. IMAP is not available from all providers and usually not included with ISP based email. For example Comcast and Verizon do not offer this type of connection and I think you have to pay extra with Yahoo if you want IMAP. Note: This only will sync mail and will not sync contacts, calendars or task lists.

COMPUTER EMAIL CLIENT "EXCHANGE" - Microsoft Exchange is sophisticated email system that is normally used by companies and large corporations that require more features than your typical email system. You normally use this type of email with an Email Client software such as Microsoft Outlook but you can often log into the company email system to read your email with an internet based version of Outlook(OWA) as well. The main advantage of this type of system is that all your email, calendars, task lists and contacts are the same regardless of whether you are using your computer, your smart phone or the accessing your email via the web. Normally a local copy of the data resides on your computer as well as a server somewhere so you really do not need to worry about backup. You also have the ability to share your calendar and contacts with other users or have shared group calendars. In some cases you may also have some form of a shared or corporate document folders. Incoming and outgoing mail is usually scanned by the server for viruses and spam. In the past, you needed to have your own Exchange email server but in recent years it has become very popular to pay someone else to host your Exchange server. For Example: You can host(Exchange) a single email address on Godaddy for less than $9 per month and have all the email features of a fortune 500 company.

Sorry, I got side tracked again... The bottom line for you if you do not like your ISP's web based email and you need to read your email while traveling is you have one of 4 options:

1. Get yourself a laptop, Netbook, smart phone or tablet to read mail while away from home.

2. Change your email to Gmail or some other email system that has a better web interface.

3. Setup a Gmail account to read in your ISP email and use that instead of your ISP interface. This assumes that you don't mind the Gmail interface or at least prefer it to your ISPs own interface but this way you can keep your original email address.

4. Create a new email account with any other provider that you do like their email interface and simply forward all your email to that account. This could be AOL, Gmail, Yahoo or whatever.


Dana
Wayland Computer

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RE: Email
Jun 29, 2012 12:00PM PDT

You make some good points, but there's always some things people don't really understand.
I run several mailservers as an administrator, so I pretty much have to deal with email issues on a daily basis. There are several different types of email accounts like you state, and size is definitely an issue. The size determines how many emails you can see on all devices including the website. So if you are checking with your phone, tablet, laptop and desktop, you should be able to see all of those emails on the server that the space allows.

If you however are using this for business emails, there may be legal reasons that you must keep emails for a certain time period on the server and also limit access to those emails. (I mainly deal with US issues, since that is where I work.) There are several ways to keep emails for a certain time period, but the most legitimate way is to use some sort of archiving before a spam filter, so that all emails are captured. By simply forwarding to a gmail account, you are not usually capturing spam filtered emails, and thus not complaint to US laws. Other issues also arise, such that AOL, Hotmail, Comcast, and others will send emails marked as SPAM by the recipients back to the address space owners as warnings, and this could invalid various NDAs and security clearances. You also need a discovery option should the government or police decide to knock on your door, given that most providers such as Google, AOL, etc will accommodate this with a search warrant, you are still legally liable for those employees actions and I would suggest having the option beforehand if this should ever occur.

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What am I doing wrong?
Jun 29, 2012 2:17PM PDT

Hi Dana -

I use Outlook along with my ISP based email. However, when AT&T bought BellSouth, they moved the email services from their servers over to Yahoo. Yahoo captures about 10 spam messages a day, and Outlook finds another one or two. Usually, the Outlook spams are not, in fact, spam email.

However, I also have a Gmail account (5 years) and receive around 25 spams a day, all neatly tucked in the Spam folder.

Is the Outlook/ISP duplication secure enough?

Why am I receiving so much more spam in Gmail that others who have posted here?

I have become much more diligent in backing up my Outlook folder since the changeover.

Thanks,

Windell

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Reply to Windell
Jun 29, 2012 10:07PM PDT

Hi Windell,

I am not sure I understand your question? " Is Outlook/ISP duplication secure enough?"

As far as spam goes, I did not touch on this topic above because I just don't have the data to prove one way or the other as to which service has more spam. I Have email accounts with pretty much every provider that I use only to be able to help clients when they are having problems with a specific email service. I checked all my accounts while I was writing the above and none of the accounts had more spam than the other with the exception of my AOL account and all of the spam was actually from AOL (if you can count that). Keep in mind that all of these account are at least 5 or more years old and I never use them for anything other than to recieve or send a test message to a client.

If you are recieving a lot of spam on one account and not another it is just a matter of chance and some bad luck. You somehow got on a list somewhere when you purchased something or maybe a friend of yours who had your name in his or her address book had their account compromised or maybe someone you know had a virus. There are so many possible reasons, it is really impossible to know why.

One thing to keep in mind with the Outlook spam filter is you need to update Microsoft Office occasionally to get the latest Spam filter updates.

Dana

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First my condolences...
Jun 30, 2012 3:04PM PDT

for being an AT&T customer - I can't tell you how many nightmares my clients have with them! Fortunately you have Gmail so you can at least quit them at any time without much loss. Be advised you could lose your email though - chances are they talked you into the proprietary Yahoo email, and they can take that away from you if you switch providers. If you ever plan on changing ISPs, be sure to send all you important archives to another email address under your control so you will at least have them.

This would be a tedious task to say the least. If your Outlook is set to download to your PC, I am surprised, as many of my AT&T Yahoo! clients were not allowed to do that. At least they were lead to believe that, anyway. The end result was the same, when they jumped ship(hallelujah!).

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RE: Email
Jun 29, 2012 2:18PM PDT

All of the web based email providers you mention can be set up in an email client such as Outlook or Thunderbird. MSN/Hotmail is the only one that doesn't offer an IMAP solution and Yahoo IMAP is free now.

You don't need any special software or to pay any fees.

And I don't know why people keep saying you can't get your email while the internet is down for the web based services...you can't get email when the internet is down from ANY service unless you're using a client that saves the mail on your computer for you for offline reading. And even then it's only old email that has already been cached.

Also, a con of work email is that it's WORK email. Great for work but bad things can happen to you if you use it for personal use in some companies.

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Good post...
Jun 30, 2012 3:10PM PDT

actually did what the questioner was asking. Thanks Waytron.

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Hotmail rules !!
Jun 29, 2012 11:37AM PDT

Have been using Hotmail since 1999. In all that time there have only been one or two times when I couldn't access my email there and the service was fixed within an hour or two. Email messages I saved from way back then are still there and accessible. Hotmail's junk mail filter is pretty effective compared to others I've tried along the way. You can add any email address to your "safe sender" list or to your "block sender" list to make sure you receive or don't receive mail from that source. With the recent addition of "Skydrive" you can send large photos, multiple photos, videos, etc. with no problem. The person you send it to can either see it in the body of the email or click on a link provided to see it where it's stored on Skydrive.

Also have a couple other email accounts at other free email services for newsletters and tech forum memberships in case they get "harvested" and an avalanche of junk mail follows. That's exactly what happened on Yahoo, but they have also improved so the avalanche has slowed to a manageable trickle, so to speak.

Regarding privacy, well, there's no such thing on the internet. Once you subscribe for internet service and go online your privacy is gone. Simple as that. To think otherwise is naive. You can be cautious and sensible but, even so, there's a ton of information about you out there whether you realise it or not. So either go live in a cabin in the woods or accept that big brother is watching ... or at least listening !!

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What are the pros and cons of Web-based e-mail systems?
Jun 29, 2012 12:08PM PDT

I use Outlook. My understanding is that using web-based email programs like Hotmail or even Yahoo will increase the amount of spam you receive. When I want to access my email and am not at home, I go to mail2web.com. This is a free service and just requires you to put in your username and password that you use for your email program. It can be very slow. However, you can get around this by clicking on "advanced login." The additional piece of information you will have to provide is your server name or IP address. Check for this sometime when you are on your home computer by looking in "tools" and "options."

I hope this is a clear explanation. I am hardly a computer tech person but I try. . .

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minor clarification
Jun 29, 2012 12:10PM PDT

I meant look in "tools" and "options" in your email program!

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I get way more spam...
Jun 30, 2012 3:12PM PDT

in my server based ISP mail, but then Postini is a sorry excuse for a filter. I and my clients get less spam from hotmail than anyone else, and we use them all.