10 Free POP3 Email Services

A 'Best of Miscellaneous Ramblings' Column

Charles Moore - 2002.04.08 - Tip Jar

Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 and writing for Mac websites since May 1998. His The Road Warrior column is a regular feature on MacOpinion, and he is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com.

Recent Miscellaneous Ramblings

• Only Leopard Runs Routine Maintenance Tasks after Startup or Waking from Sleep, 09.04. Mac OS X 10.5 runs routine system maintenance scripts as soon as possible after starting up or waking up your Mac. Earlier versions of OS X do not do this.
• Another Free POP3 Provider, Recharging a Dead PRAM Battery, Current Kanga Value, and More, 09.03. GMX email now available in US, Panasonic UJ-841S drive won't burn discs, restoring a dead PRAM battery in a Pismo, and thoughts on Kanga value today.
• Resurrecting a Dead Pismo, Spotlight Search Tip, and EasyFind a Good File Finder, 08.27. Lots of tips on bringing a comatose Pismo back to life, a Spotlight file name search tip, and EasyFind as an alternative to Spotlight.
• Does Running OS X System Maintenance Routines Really Do Any Good?, 08.26. Mac OS X is designed to run certain maintenance routines daily, weekly, and monthly - but can't if your Mac is off or asleep.
• More in the Miscellaneous Ramblings index.

Links for the Day

• Mac of the Day: Centris 650, Feb. 1993 - The replacement for the Quadra 700 has room for an internal CD-ROM.
• List of the Day: Old Mac MP covers 604-based multiprocessor Macs and clones.
  
• September 7 in LEM history: 98: Banner exchanges - 00: Tips from the Mac manager - Getting a Mac job - 01: Apple and the gray market - Repositioning the 'Books - 04: Tray loading iMac a good choice for OS X? - Pismo CPU upgrades - 06: Mac mini value equation - Setting up a Mac Classic II - Putting the Intel transition in perspective - 07: Region free DVD viewing, - My Newton - Solving Mac disk and hardware problems - 2 apps every MacBook should have

Recent Content on Low End Mac

• Anticipation: New iPods Now, New Macs Later, Kev Kitchens, Kitchens Sync, 09.05. The season of new iPods is at hand, but new Macs may wait until 2009.
• Buy a MacBook Now or Wait?, MacBook touch Patents, Samsung X360 Takes on MBA, and More, The 'Book Review, 09.05. Also 20 years of portable Macs, data backup and preservation, universal U-Charge battery charger for Mac 'Books, bargain 'Books from $150 to $2,699, and more.
• Listen to Just the Music with the V-Moda Vibe Earbuds, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 09.05. Well built, the noise canceling earbuds will let you hear all the nuances of your music without letting through background noise.
• Source of iPhone 3G Problems, Army Uses iPods as Field Translators, Gains with Business, and More, iNews Review, 09.05. Also UK bans iPhone ad as 'misleading', iPhone password easy to bypass, GM to offer radios with USB in 2009 models, weather tracking software, and more.
• Macs Gain Ground in August, Consumers Most Likely to Buy Macs, LaCie USB Speakers, and More, Mac News Review, 09.05. Also migrating Time Machine to a new drive and two new keyboards from Logitech.
• Best iPod touch Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05. Refurb 8 GB, $199; new, $284; refurb 16 GB, $299; new, $370; refurb 32 GB, $399; new, $453.
• Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05. Used 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $999; 2.16, $1,125; new, 2.2, $1,450 after rebate; refurb 2.4, $1,699; 2.5, $1,999; 2.6 Santa Rosa, $1,849; rebates on new.
• Best iMac G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.05. Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $279; 800 Combo, $300; 1 GHz $390; 17" 800 MHz SD, $439; 1.25 GHz, $449; 20", $569.
• Overclocking a Mac mini Got Me Hooked on Souping Up Macs, Adam Geller, My First Mac, 09.04. Stories of hot rodding iBooks, G3 iMacs, and PCI Power Macs on the cheap.
• Apple Will Not Abandon Optical Drives, the Mac Drought, Purposeful Mac Acquisition, and More, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 09.04. Also Mac OS X 10.5 on a G4-upgraded Blue & White G3 and problems using a flat panel display with a Quadra 700.
• Tomorrow's Solid State Drives and Notebooks, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 09.04. Flash drives are great but have some shortcomings. Some thoughts on building better SSDs and notebooks to use them.
• Best Mac mini Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04. Used 1.25 GHz G4 SD, $549; 1.42 Combo, $409; new 1.83 Core2 Combo, $569 after rebate; 2.0 SD, $769 after rebate.
• Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04. Used 867 MHz Combo, no APX, $490; 1 GHz, $550; SuperDrive, $625; 1.5 GHz w/o APX, $660; w/APX, $675.
• Best 17" PowerBook G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04. Used 1 GHz, $779; 1.33 GHz, $799; 1.5 GHz, $859; 1.67 GHz, $910.
• 11 Mac Browsers Compared, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 09.03. The latest versions of Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Shiira, iCab, Radon, Firefox, Netscape Navigator, SeaMonkey, Flock, and Camino tested in Leopard.
• Save Internet Radio, USB and Hard Drives, Hardware Manufacturers vs. Linux, and More, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 09.03. Also Mac won't book after cleaning, newer versions of OS X improve wake from sleep, downgrading to OS 8.6, unreadable pages on Low End Mac, and more.
• Best eMac Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03. Used 700 MHz Combo, $120; 1.25 GHz SuperDrive, $150; 1.42 GHz, $349.
• Best Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03. Mac OS X 10.5, single user, $99; 5 users, $140; 10.5 Server, 10 users, $395; unlimited, $850.
• Best MacBook Air Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03. Refurb 1.6 HD, $1,499; new, $1,690 after rebate; refurb 1.8, $1,699; new, $1,919 a/r; refurb 1.6 SSD, $2,099; new, $2,294 a/r; refurb 1.8, $2,299; new, $2,400 a/r.
• Psystar Strikes Back, Countersues Apple, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 09.03. Psystar is trying to paint Apple as a monopoly and force it to license the Mac OS.
• More links in our archive.

There are many advantages to having extra email accounts to separate, say, business mail from private correspondence, or to maintain a permanent personal email address not associated with your employment or present Internet provider. If you have kids, it's convenient for each to have his/her own email address.

I simply couldn't get along efficiently with just one email account. I have about 20, which is probably excessive, but it does help me keep my electronic correspondence organized - and if one particular email server goes down temporarily, it only affects a relatively small proportion of my email traffic.

Why POP3 Instead of Webmail?

There are still gazillions of free email services on the Internet, but the vast majority of them are Web-based, which means that you must access your mail with a browser. Web-based email can be convenient if you travel a lot or need to access your mail from computers you don't own, because you can use any computer, anywhere in the world, with Internet access. However, for most of us, POP3 email is more convenient.

POP3 email is the type of email account you access with client software like Eudora or Netscape Messenger or a wide selection of others. Incoming messages are received by a remote server and stay there until you download them to your own computer. With POP3, you can do all your email work offline except for actual sending and receiving of messages, which cuts down immensely on online time used, and since both outgoing and incoming messages are stored on your own hard drive, it's always easy and convenient to access your archives.

I use a variety free POP3 email services. The following short reviews are based mostly on personal experience.

Apple iTools

Apple's iTools service is the premier free email service for Mac users. I've been using iTools for email since the service inaugurated last year and have found it both quick and dependable. I also like the short domain name (mac.com) when typing my email address. iTools also offers a wide variety of other Web-based services when a sign up for an account.

In order to sign up, you need to download the iTools installer software from Apple's site and run it. The sign up procedure is reasonably straightforward, and I've found the service excellent. There have been a few server down incidents over the past two years, but they have always been brief. iTools also provides SMTP access for sending mail through Apple's server - so long as you have an email client that supports SMTP authentication.

mac.com is great, and a big thank you to Apple for providing this excellent service to Mac users.

MyRealBox

I've been using MyRealBox for over a year, and except for a few hiccups it has proved quite dependable and fast. MyRealBox (MRB) also offers SMTP support for outgoing mail.

MRB does not allow advertising and supports any standards based email client. Novell hosts this service to showcase its NIMS product and to test NIMS in a real world environment. There are currently over 150,000 users despite the fact that Novell has never advertised the existence of the site. MRB currently runs on three NetWare servers. NIMS also supports the Linux and Solaris operating systems.

Features:

• a free email service with no advertising
• up to 10 MB of email storage.

MRB No Spam Policy

Spam is no good.

Don't do it.

It causes bad karma and cancer (and perhaps some other diseases).

Yes, this is true.

No, it's not a joke.

Oh, and spammers rot in hell.

Not much else to say about this one. It works.

HotPOP

HotPOP LLC is a privately held company based in Newton, Massachusetts. Founded in 1998, HotPOP offers email accounts from various domains with a combination of features not found with other providers.

Features:

• POP Access: Use almost any mail client you wish
• SMTP Access: Send mail through the HotPOP server (you have to check your email first). You may include up to 50 recipients on a single message.
• Mail Forwarding: Have your mail resent to up to three addresses.
• 10 MB Quota: Store thousands of messages
• Server-Side Filtering: Block mail and spam before it hits your inbox
• For fee ad-free opt-out option.

Signup is easy. Just fill out the form and survey, and you are ready to go. An email will be sent to your old address with your password and some helpful information. If you are using a POP account, you can log in right after you configure your client.

HotPOP currently has seven domains to choose from and says they constantly searching for new ones. Memo: Keep looking, guys - most of these are pretty lame.

• HotPOP.com
• ToughGuy.net
• PunkAss.com
• BonBon.net
• Phreaker.net
• SexMagnet.com
• GameBox.net

I've had a HotPOP account for several months, and it has been completely reliable so far.

SubDimension

SubDimension freemail accounts are for personal use only; commercial use of the service is prohibited. There is a zero-tolerance policy regarding spam of any type.

SubDimension is a collaboration of professional Web developers, content contributors, and users from around the world whose goal is to form a community based on the ideas of its constituency with the website being a collection of tools for its users to communicate and interact - not just on SubDimension, but on the Internet at large.

I signed up for a SubDimension account a few weeks ago and so far it works great. No problems.

E-OmniNet

E-OmniNet offers free email accounts supporting POP servers, folders, and attachments. You can send and check email anywhere using a browser.

E-OmniNet is based in the Far East. They have very fast servers, and this is a high quality service. They also have SMTP support for sending mail (you have to authenticate by checking you inbox first).

I've had an E-OmniNet account for about six months, and it has been entirely reliable.

GMX

GMX is a German-based free email service, and, like most things technical and German, it is very well done.

You can get free POP3 and webmail access (GMX FreeMail Classic) with 10 MB of server storage space and anti-spam protection.

Features:

• 2 email addresses within an account
• 10 MB mailbox storage capacity
• POP3/SMTP (SMTP after POP)
• Attachments to 5 MB
• 30 days retention time for your emails

If you don't speak German, you will find the following free Web translation services extremely helpful for the signup procedure:

http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate?
http://www.FreeTranslation.com/

I do know some German, but I still found these a great help.

I just signed up this week, and this looks like a good email service that's well worth the trouble.

ZapZone

The ZapZone Web-based email service allows you to pick from a wide variety of available domain names - or make up one of your own.

You can check your mail at your own domain's Web page or sign up for free POP3 if you agree to have one advertisement per month sent to your email address. Seems fair to me.

I just signed up, so can't report on reliability yet.

FreyasLand

FreyasLand is another service of Zapzone, but with a less complex signup procedure.

I signed up here, too, but no reliability report yet.

HowlerMonkey

HowlerMonkey is a bit different in that you are required to provide your valid home address and wait for HowlerMonkey to send you your login and password info by snail mail. This is an anti-spam strategy, and I suspect it works well. I've never received any spam I can recall from the howlermonkey domain.

Both POP3 and outgoing SMTP services are offered (POP before SMTP authentication) and you get 3 MB of disk space for storing messages. The service places a text ad on the bottom of every message passing through the system. If it's interesting, read it, there is usually a link in it to click on if you want to visit a Web page to learn more. No interest? Drive on. Beats paying bills.

There is a limit of 10 recipients per email.

HowlerMonkey spam policy:

"We AGRESSIVELY fight spam, and will do anything in our power to make a spammer's life unhappy. if you are looking for someone to help you to spam, you best look someplace else, we crave your gonads as a neck tie. You are a parasite, and a public nuisance, and usually refuse to pay the fees of a "legitimate' mass mailing firm."

SoftHome

SoftHome is a dedicated email service. I've had an account with them for several years. There is also an upgraded for-fee professional service available. 

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Be sure to read Free POP3 Email Update published on May 13.