I have always liked Outlook and always used it... thinking about switching. what do you use.
I used Eudora and loved it but ditched it because it didn't have spell check support then I moved to Netscape mail and like it until one day the store got corrupt and I lost everything. I switched to OE and then to Outlook and haven't looked back
After moving several times, I went to all web-based email, accessing it from IE (and now Firefox). I lost a password to something, and when they could only send the new password to the email address I no longer had, that was the end of ISP email accounts for me.
Gmail seems pretty good, but some ppl avoid it on principle, due to some privacy issues. I'm sure you've heard all about them. I don't have any other suggestions, other than I'd throw my computer away and go back to pen and paper before using Hotmail.
This is a funny subject because right now I am dealing with transitioning people to use something other than Outlook when I can.
Most people here started out with VT100 based Email. Over time a few used Eudora but I slowly moved a lot of people to Outlook, well ever since Office 2003 as I hated outlook before that from a security standpoint.
Well the few that used Eudora are now off of it as it is basically dead.
We have some common problems here of people wanting to access Email from home or when they go to other computers etc... Then you sometimes have quota issues etc...
We started recently to move people to Gmail. I am now "encouraging" people to use Gmail for various reasons.
-It is Google so will not be going anywhere anytime soon. -Quotas are basically gone with almost 3 GB of storage. So all of the Email pack rats can save everything. -It is web based to obviously can be access from any computer easily keeping everything in one location, especially contacts which are not saved up on an Imap server. -It is no longer on the main server so YOU have control. As it is now they can read or do anything with the Email they want to and they control you too much. *I doubt Google really cares 🙂
*Some worry about Google looking into your Emails but we figure who cares. It is not like people are looking at it, only advertising scripts, and we view it as we are just a drop in the ocean. My boss talked to someone that works for Google and they said that Google is very strict with their data. Even employees are restricted in what they can do and see.
I am now 100% Gmail myself. I have two main Gmaila cts. One for personal use and one for work.
The work one I forward any work Email to it and have Gmail set up so it looks like it comes from work when I send.
For my personal ones, I have various Gmail acts. Now I have my main Gmail act pulling in my other Gmail acts and automatically label them. So everything is basically on the one Gmail act.
Labels are virtual folders and the system works really well once you understand and get used to it. The filters are wonderful as I am on several mailing lists so now I just add a filter that basically takes them, puts them in a label and archives it so I do not even see them in my Inbox. So I can look at them when i want to but they never get in my way. Like rules in Outlook butt hey work 🙂
I am becoming a Gmail expert. 🙂
I HIGHLY recommend you just go with a Gmail account man. All your mail is secure, in one place and there is even a nice FireFox add on called "Better Gmail" that I use with it as well.
I hated having to set up Outlook on every machine I wanted to access my mail., BTW Thunderbird kind of sucks and still has to be set up on every computer.
I like the idea of not having to configure anything and keeping everything up on a remote server period. I have not had any forwarding problems yet.
With anything like Outlook or Thunderbird, all you contacts are local, all your folders are local unless specially configured. You cannot easily go to a friends house and get your Email etc...
That is the one reason I always liked using the old VT100 terminal. I still have a lot of users that use PCPine. It handles attachments better than a normal telnet. Also everything is stored on the server so they can telnet in and at least get their email from anywhere. The negative of VT100 based Email is it is not html based at all but the good thing is everything is always there. Web based Email is the next step up.
I am really liking the flexibility of full time web based Email. Gmail also has a notifying program you can run that alerts you when new mail arrives like Outlook.
Gmail also will also open/edit Word and Excel files right in the browser using Googles versions of Word... Works okay all in all. If you need a word processor no need to install Word anymore. You even save your files on Google.
The more I use it, the more I like it.
The only problem we need to solve is copying/importing Imap folders into Gmail and automatically creating labels for them all. there are tools but are only available 3rd party or through Gmails premium service, so far at least.
Unfortunatly I will not host my mail on someone elses server. I have my own mail server I host half my mail with and the rest in in a local pst. This is the ONLY way to insure it is not lost. So thanks for the suggestion of gmail just it ain't gonna work for what I want.
Mail I need to access remotly can be stored on my server for webaccess. Also bear in mind more and more of the free email sources are now blocking spam before it gets to you, and without user choice. Now that is fine if you don't rely on email for anything important. But it's a real pain once they start blocking emails from legit sources. Have you guys noticed this at all?? I know hotmail started blocking email from my office this week wholesale. And AOL has a policy of possibly blocking people who don't pay them for over a year now.
I know Thunderbird isn't netscape mail, but they come from the same seed. The fact so much time has passed since the netscape kernel is the only reason I will consider it again.
Like Atomm, I haven't seen many options and was just wondering what others use... I might try Thunbderbird for a while.
FYI, if anyone wants a better email address for their GMail account, I have MyOtherEmail.net set up as a GMail for your domain account. It's pretty much wide open, so you could get your first name if you like.
Bubbaspanky wrote: Unfortunatly I will not host my mail on someone elses server. I have my own mail server I host half my mail with and the rest in in a local pst. This is the ONLY way to insure it is not lost. So thanks for the suggestion of gmail just it ain't gonna work for what I want.
Mail I need to access remotly can be stored on my server for webaccess. Also bear in mind more and more of the free email sources are now blocking spam before it gets to you, and without user choice. Now that is fine if you don't rely on email for anything important. But it's a real pain once they start blocking emails from legit sources. Have you guys noticed this at all?? I know hotmail started blocking email from my office this week wholesale. And AOL has a policy of possibly blocking people who don't pay them for over a year now.
I know Thunderbird isn't netscape mail, but they come from the same seed. The fact so much time has passed since the netscape kernel is the only reason I will consider it again.
Like Atomm, I haven't seen many options and was just wondering what others use... I might try Thunbderbird for a while.
I understand Bubba. I would say use Outlook then. I cannot really comment on Thunderbird since it has been awhile since I used it and it is supposed to be better now.
My work Email is very important BTW. If I do not get my emails then I will have problems believe me 🙂
I also understand the spam worries but so far I have not had any problems with anything not being sent to me that I was ever aware of. Usually they only filter items from a blacklist that is generated with X amount of users reporting it. That allows them to block it without the issues you talk about since it is not just blocking random ones.
Paladin wrote: I understand Bubba. I would say use Outlook then. I cannot really comment on Thunderbird since it has been awhile since I used it and it is supposed to be better now.
My work Email is very important BTW. If I do not get my emails then I will have problems believe me 🙂
I also understand the spam worries but so far I have not had any problems with anything not being sent to me that I was ever aware of. Usually they only filter items from a blacklist that is generated with X amount of users reporting it. That allows them to block it without the issues you talk about since it is not just blocking random ones.
I'll tell you there are some very hokey blacklists out there. I actually have been researching spamassassin ruleset for the past 2 days for my server, and there are alot of server admins who run and write very bad rules. such as I was just reading a post from a guy who wrote a rule that would block any email with the following anywhere in the email, header or subject "pdf" so if you sent him an email saying "hey send me that pdf" it would be blocked... I will tell the IT field can be very scary from time to time.
Bubbaspanky wrote: I'll tell you there are some very hokey blacklists out there. I actually have been researching spamassassin ruleset for the past 2 days for my server, and there are alot of server admins who run and write very bad rules. such as I was just reading a post from a guy who wrote a rule that would block any email with the following anywhere in the email, header or subject "pdf" so if you sent him an email saying "hey send me that pdf" it would be blocked... I will tell the IT field can be very scary from time to time.
You are correct there man. I do not believe that Google just uses any old spam blacklist and I did not mean that they did. Google is HUGE and I am sure they are very careful in what they block believe me. If not they would have a LOT of cranky users 🙂
I view it this way, my boss changed to Gmail and he is a VERY intelligent guy. He maintains our Unix web servers as well as the schools Emails server and spam control. So he forwards his own mail over to Gmail now even though he maintains our server. 🙂
He just wants to get his mail out of the university. Politics etc... The main point is he is very good at that stuff and is very well read on email servers and protocols. If he is using Gmail and recommending it to others, it must be okay.
No I understand why people would use gmail... just I need more control..
So being a fellow public agency person, I wonder how forwarding all email to gmail would fall under the new email retention policies. I will be the first to admit I don't know the laws well enough. But I do know as a public agency, I can be asked to supply emails of an employee under the right-to-know laws.
By forwarding it would you be in violation of such acts? Woudl that be removing them from the public server, would that be considered disposal of the email or would it be considered hiding the information?
Lastly I haven't heard any complaints about gmail filtering too much so most likly they have done it right, but I would not ever make the mistake to say "Google is HUGE and I am sure they are very careful in what they block". I am sure they are careful, but everyone makes mistakes. Size of the corporation involved often doesn't matter or in fact sometimes make perpetuate those mistakes.
Bubbaspanky wrote: Lastly I haven't heard any complaints about gmail filtering too much so most likly they have done it right, but I would not ever make the mistake to say "Google is HUGE and I am sure they are very careful in what they block". I am sure they are careful, but everyone makes mistakes. Size of the corporation involved often doesn't matter or in fact sometimes make perpetuate those mistakes.
I feel safe in saying this because Google is pushing their Google Apps and wants to do corporate Email.
If they are to compete with exchange servers and the like, I feel safe in saying that they are more careful than most. That is what I meant.
Sure they can make mistakes but they seem much faster in fixing them than a lot of other companies and have huge pockets and resources. If they want to handle corporate mail, they better not be removing good emails 🙂