This article has been superceded by 8 free POP3 email options
published 2008.08.25.
My Miscellaneous Ramblings column on free POP3 email services
published last October has been one of my most popular Low End Mac
articles, but the world of free stuff on the Internet has been
evolving rapidly since then.
Of the nine free POP3 email services I reviewed in the 2001
article, six have either changed to for-fee services (Crosswinds,
Saintmail, and Yahoo), stopped accepting new free POP3 signups
(Nettaxi), or are gone altogether (Unbounded Solutions and Visual
Cities). Another new startup service, FastMail, has also dropped
free POP3 service.
Crosswinds, Saintmail, Yahoo!, and FastMail still offer free
Web-based email, but fees for continued POP3 are typically $19.95
to $29.95, or the equivalent of more than a month of full Internet
access with my ISP (which has a POP3 email account included). I had
email accounts with all of the above services, but I'm dropping
them. There are still a good selection of free services
available.
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:
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.
Be sure to read Free POP3 Email
Update published on May 13.
