This article has been superceded by 8 free POP3 email options
published 2008.08.25.
It's been a while since Miscellaneous Ramblings reviewed what's
available in free POP3 email
services. In the interval, there have been some departures and new
arrivals. Notably, FireMail and Bonnag.com are gone - and say hello
to Bluebottle and MailShack.
There are dozens of free email services on the Internet - the
vast majority of them 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 that
has Internet access.
Google's new Gmail Webmail service (still
in beta) offers a gigabyte of free storage. Even though it's not
open to the public yet, it has spurred some of the other big
webmail services, including Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, to increase
their storage limits.
However, for regular home or office purposes, POP3 email, the
type of email account you access with client software like Eudora, the OS X Mail app,
Mozilla Thunderbird,
or a wide selection of others, is more convenient, especially if
you are among the two-thirds of Internet users who don't have
broadband service.
Incoming messages are received by a remote serve, and stay there
until you download them to your own computer. With POP3, you can do
all your email work offline except for actually sending and
downloading 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, even when you're not online.
Free POP3 email services (in alphabetical order):
- Bluebottle Email
- Cashette
- Christian.net
- Cwazy Email
- EZrs.com
- Gawab.com
- HotPOP
- Inbox.lv
- MacMail
- MailShack
- Postmark.net
- SAFe-mail.net
- SoftHome
- Spymac
- Tmicha.net
- Virus Free Email
Bluebottle Email
Bluebottle's
open-source technology claims to be 100% effective in blocking
unwanted email and to effectively protect a user from spam while
ensuring all legitimate email is received.
When Bluebottle receives an email from an address or domain not
on your "allowed" list, a verification request is sent asking the
sender to verify themselves in one of two ways. The required
response to these verification requests automatically places the
sender's address on your allowed list, and the email is delivered
to you without delay.
Once the sender's address is on your list, they can email you as
they would normally. The advantage is that you only receive email
from allowed senders.
To avoid identification, spammers commonly use forged or fake
addresses. Consequently, the verification request is never seen or
responded to, so spammers can't infiltrate your allowed list. That
means you'll no longer receive annoying, unwanted email.
Simply add your known contacts to your "allowed" list so they
can avoid verifying themselves. And even if legitimate senders do
need to verify themselves, it's quick and easy to do so.
If you're sending an email, Bluebottle automatically adds the
recipient's address to your allowed list to avoid a request being
sent when they reply.
Features:
- Free lifetime email address with 10 MB storage
- Spam protection for 3 existing accounts
- Webmail, POP, or IMAP access
- SMTP for sending mail
- 250 MB mail storage
Bluebottle applies the verification process to your existing
email, including Hotmail, by checking your accounts through its
servers. Email from known senders is delivered to your account
without delay. Unknown email is placed in the pending queue to
await verification. You can access your spam-free email through
Bluebottle's webmail interface or via POP3 using any email
client.
Allowed Senders
This is your list of addresses and domains from which you will
receive email. Addresses can be either added manually, by automatic
addition when sending outgoing mail, or by the sender successfully
responding to a verification request. Addresses can be easily
removed from your allowed list.
Blocked Senders
This is your list of addresses and domains from which you will
not receive email. Senders can only be added to this list manually.
Emails received from addresses on this list are deleted instantly
without a verification request being sent. Addresses can be easily
removed from your blocked list.
Pending Verification
This is a list of email that has been sent to you but is from a
sender not on your allowed list. It is currently being held
awaiting successful verification by the original sender. You can
also allow these email through manually, which adds the sender's
address to your allowed list, and the email is delivered to your
inbox. Pending email messages which aren't successfully verified or
allowed through manually will be removed after seven (7) days.
Verification Method
Bluebottle offers two methods by which a sender can verify
themselves. The first of these methods is "Reply Only," whereby all
that a sender needs to do to successfully respond to a verification
request is click on a link within the email. The second of these
methods is "Full Name," which requires a sender to provide your
full name to fulfill the requirements of the verification request
successfully.
Protecting Existing Accounts
Bluebottle checks your external email accounts through its
servers and then applies it to the email verification process. You
are then able to access your spam free email through Bluebottle's
site using any web browser, or you can use any POP/IMAP email
client such as Outlook or Eudora by making a simple change to your
email settings.
Bluebottle provides access to your email via the web. Simply
visit www.bluebottle.com and login with your full address
(xxxxx@bluebottle.com) and your password.
Bluebottle's signup page was quick and efficient with instant
activation. I can't give a long-term reliability report, but so far
the service works well.
Cashette
Too much spam? Cashette
is a spam-control service. You can use Cashette to stop spam and
get paid if you receive advertising email.
How does it work? You set a price for spam. You get paid for
each spam you receive. If they don't pay, you won't receive
spam.
You can use Cashette to:
- Stop spam 100% for your email accounts.
- Make money if you do receive ad mail.
- Access multiple email accounts at one place.
Gone are the frustrations of spam. No more annoying spam in your
Inbox. No need to be afraid to give out your email address.
If you receive 3 ad mails a day at 5¢ apiece, it will add
up to $55 a year.
Works for your Yahoo, Hotmail, Cashette, and any POP3 email
- Your Cashette account includes a full-featured email
account.
- 10 MB of storage.
- Consolidate your email accounts. You can access your multiple
email accounts at one place.
- Web-based. You can access your email anywhere you have access
to the Internet.
- Use POP3 mail software to access all of your consolidated email
accounts including even Yahoo mail.
- Importing your address book is as easy as sending an email
using Cashette's Quick Import method.
- No banner ads or popup ads.
Unlike other spam solutions, Cashette is attacking the root of
the problem. The fundamental reason that spam is flooding the email
system is that, unlike traditional advertising, it costs virtually
nothing to send spam. There is a strong economic incentive for
spammers to abuse email. Cashette takes away that incentive by
making the spammers pay.
Your Cashette account includes a full-featured email account
that is automatically spam-controlled when you sign up. You can set
up spam control for your other email accounts such as Yahoo,
Hotmail, or POP3 email.
Any price above zero will stop spam. Cashette recommends a price
between 1¢ and 5¢. A price of 0¢ disables spam
control. Your price for spam is preset to 5¢ when you sign up
for an account, and you can change your price at any time.
An advertiser who sends paid ad mail must have a Cashette
account. The money is transferred from the sender's account to your
account at the time the email is sent. You can withdraw money from
your account by requesting a check at any time.
Your Cashette account is free. When you receive paid ad mail,
Cashette charges the advertiser a 20% commission with a minimum of
one cent.
Christian.net
Christian.net is
a free, nonprofit, and nondenominational online community for
Christians. Based in Vancouver, Canada, Christian.net features
email @christian.net (via POP3 and a custom webmail program),
website hosting (including PHP and MySQL), forums, chat rooms,
online Bibles, and much more.
Some features are available to everyone, while others require
membership. Membership is quick and free.
The web server software is Apache, running on the FreeBSD
operating system. The site itself is written in PHP and uses MySQL
for the database backend.
Email features?
- POP3
- Webmail
- Folders
- Address book with import/export functions
- Send/receive attachments
- Optional inline image decoding
- Optional viewing of HTML attachments
- Spell Checker with 20+ language dictionaries
- Virus scanning
- Powerful, customizable spam filtering
- Mail forwarding
Currently you are allowed to use 10 MB of disk space for files
and email combined. This is a "soft" limit, though, meaning you can
go over it temporarily if you need to.
Christian.net works well but has no SMTP access for sending mail
from your POP3 client.
Cwazy Email
Cwazy provides
email, hosting, and consulting services to individual and corporate
clients. Cwazy began by offering free email services to individuals
and has expanded to offering business services as well.
Cwazy offers free email services similar to Hotmail and Yahoo
Mail to individual clients. Cwazy's individual email service offers
a distinct advantage over traditional mail services: POP3 and IMAP
support allowing clients to access and manage their email through
Outlook, Eudora, and Mulberry at no extra cost.
Cwazy is powered by world-class software and is hosted on
cutting edge server technology employing multiple redundancies to
ensure the reliability and stability our clients need.
Cwazy is headquartered in the United Kingdom and currently
provides email and hosting services to clients in over 25
countries. The Cwazy service currently serves over 300,000 web
requests on a monthly base while utilizing only 3% of their overall
capacity.
Cwazy was founded in September 2001 to provide free email
services to frustrated friends and family. Many of Cwazy's initial
clients echoed the same complaint of unreliable email that was
frustratingly slow.
Around January 2002, after quite a number of "friends of
friends" requested accounts, the founders of Cwazy decided to start
a service for the public relying upon their combined years of
technology experience. By March 2003, Cwazy had grown to over one
thousand users in over 20 countries. As of July 2003, Cwazy has
over 4,000 clients and serves more than 300,000 web requests per
month.
In July of 2003, the founders of Cwazy began offering a new
suite of services to small and large businesses. These services
complement the free individual email service currently offered to
their clients. The new service package includes commercial email
service and hosting, outsourced email servers, and strategic
consulting focused on infrastructure and security.
Companies utilizing the new service package will benefit by
having world class email and related services without burdening
themselves with the high costs of building and maintaining such a
system. Cwazy plans to offer this service at a compelling price
compared to the current commercial offerings in the
marketplace.
Services
- 10 MB mailbox
- Unlimited outgoing mail
- Advanced spam protection
- Filtering/sorting capabilities
- Message Highlighting
- POP3 support
- Multilingual translation
Signup is very simple and quick. The account
is created and access details sent to the contact email address you
have provided.
This service seems to work well so far, but there is no SMTP
support for sending mail, so you have to use your ISP's SMTP server
for sending (if they allow it for third party email accounts - mine
doesn't).
Great cat mascot logo. ;-)
EZrs.com
EZrs.com is a free
email service provider. EZ stands for easy; r stands for receive; s
stands for send. This free email system is managed by a group of
Linux maniacs who pursue the avocation of network application.
All users can get their email through web-based, IMAP, and POP3
clients. All users can send outgoing mails through the SMTP server
once they have authenticated through the WEB/IMAP/POP3 clients. The
default quota is 20 MB.
SSL/TLS is installed. If you are using EZrs web client, enter
the following URL in your browser: https://www.ezrs.com. By adding
the "s" to http, you are telling your browser to use the secure
sockets layer supported by EZrs.
There is a virus scanner installed on the server. Every mail in
or out will be scanned on the server side to ensure no virus on it.
They also have installed SpamAssassin and
TMDA to reduce the amount of
spam you may receive.
You need to enable authentication if you want to send mail
through the EZrs.com SMTP server.
Gawab.com
Gawab.com
is based in Alexandria, Egypt and offers:
- POP/SMTP support
- Protection from spam, viruses, and pornographic emails
- More than 50+ features (some for a fee, but the basic service
is free)
- 15 MB storage space
- Message filters & rules
- Also supports Webmail so you can check your inbox with a
browser from any computer on the Internet
Signup is a bit time consuming and demands a lot of information,
but once the signup process is complete, the new account is created
instantly.
I use Gawab a lot, and it has been fast and slick - and reliable
both for checking and sending mail. When I had a technical support
question, the Gawab folks got back to me promptly with the
information I needed. Impressive.
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.
There is also Web access to your HotPOP account. There is a
limit of 500 KB per message, and a maximum of 1,000 incoming email
messages per day.
Signup is easy. Just fill out the form and survey, and you are
ready to go. An email will be sent to your existing email 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 more than three years. Once in a
while the server is a bit sluggish about answering, but it always
comes up, There is SMTP support for outgoing mail, which requires
checking your inbox before sending, and I've found that aspect to
be a bit cranky at times, requiring two or three checks before the
SMTP server will respond.
HotPOP offers a combined POP3/forwarding and Web-based email
service. At the free level, HotPOP includes 10 MB of storage for
email messages and the ability to specify up to 3 destination
addresses to forward messages to.
Another one that has proved to have staying power, and it's been
reliable.
Inbox.lv
Inbox.lv is the
largest provider of free Web-based email in Latvia and also
supports POP3 access with 8 MB of storage space. The service
also includes Kapersky antivirus scanning, which scans all incoming
and outgoing emails. There is a limit of 1 MB of attachments
per message.
If you do not sign in to your @inbox.lv account for 60 days, or
if you do not sign-in within the first 10 days, your account will
be marked inactive. Stored email and addresses will be deleted, and
inbound mail will be refused. If your account stays inactive for
over 90 days, it may be permanently deleted.
Inbox.lv can be viewed in a variety of languages. You can make
the language of a Inbox.lv session match the language of the sign
in page used to begin that session. You currently have your choice
of English, Latvian, and Russian.
I've had an Inbox.lv account for several years, and while I've
occasionally had trouble getting the server to answer (crowded
lines between North America and Latvia?), I've found it generally
good. No SMTP support, though. You have to send mail through your
ISP's server.
MacMail
MacMail offers
free-of-charge POP3 email accounts that you can access via a Web
browser or your preferred email client. It's based in the UK but
offers a worldwide service. I should mention also that the system
is not based on an off-the-shelf engine but has been
custom-programmed to deliver a range of features that most other
such services won't match, including:
- customizable filters and user-defined spam blocking
- online mail management, custom folders, and address book
- powerful search functions
I've had a MacMail account for some time, and it's proved a good
service. The signup procedure was painless, and configuration a
breeze. The downside is that there is no SMTP support, so you have
to use your ISP's outgoing email server.
I'm an almost total POP3 user, and MacMail works fine with
Eudora and Nisus Email, the two email clients I use most.
As with all webmail services, you can access your MacMail
account to send and receive messages and attachments from any
computer, anywhere in the world, so long as it has a working
connection to the Internet and browser software. All you need is
your MacMail User name and password.
MacMail basic services are free of charge. Additional MacMail
services or "Premium Services" cost a small monthly fee. You get
5 MB total server space with the free service, and if you need
more you can increase this by subscribing to MacMail Premium
Services.
MailShack
MailShack from
Nerdshack offers free anonymous POP3 email accounts.
A nerdshack.com email account comes with a pledge to protect
your privacy and respect your time. Nerdshack.com will not
surrender your email address to anyone and will actively attempt to
keep spam out of your inbox. Nerdshack promises to never scan your
email or allow anyone to access it without a court order.
Currently, MailShack offers the general public free POP3 email
accounts with a 100 MB quota, and the service supports both
incoming and outgoing messages. Users are limited to sending one
hundred messages per day. You may send and receive attachments up
to 10 MB in size.
MailShack supports encrypted authentication using CRAM-MD5 and
DIGEST-MD5 for outgoing messages, and APOP authentication for
downloading your incoming mail, and also supports encrypted
sessions for outgoing mail over ports 25 and 3535, and encrypted
sessions for incoming mail over port 110 using STLS, and over port
995 using an alternate port configuration.
You may also check your email using nerdshack.com's webmail
beta.
MailShack pledges to always offer a free level of service that
meets or exceeds what you get today. In the future they may choose
to offer premium service levels above what the free service level
provides.
They will never attach tag lines or advertisements to your
outgoing messages. Tag lines are unprofessional, and, more
importantly, annoying. Nerdshack staffers use this service and
wouldn't subject their users to anything they couldn't tolerate
themselves.
I found MailShack's signup page quick and simple to complete,
and the account activation was immediate. I've only had an account
for a couple of days, but so far the service seems to work
well.
Postmark.net
With a Postmark.net account you get
a permanent, lifetime email address that won't change when you move
from one service provider to another. You can send and receive
messages with attachments, and you can store up to 5 MB of mail in
your account.
The webmail message composer has spell checking, an address
book, and other useful features. Each message (incoming and
outgoing) may be up to 2 MB long. There is no SMTP support, so
you have to send outgoing messages through your ISP's SMTP
server
You can log in from the home page, and you can download and read
your mail using your own POP3 mail software.
If you have a message open (webmail) and you want to block all
future messages its sender sends you, click on the sender's email
address in the From: line, then press the "Filter This Address"
button. You can also add email addresses to be blocked by clicking
on the Settings link in the navigation bar, then clicking on "Set
up mail filtering."
Any mail that you receive from addresses that are blocked will
be delivered to your Filtered folder instead of your Inbox.
Postmark's signup process was quick and straightforward, but I
can't report on how the service works, because new accounts will
generally be activated within 48 hours after requests have been
manually verified - and mine hasn't been yet
SAFe-mail.net
SAFe-mail is a
secure, easy to use email system. It includes encrypted
collaboration features and document storage functions.
3 MB space is free. More space and functionality is supplied
under Premium Services. There are no advertisements, downloads, or
cookies. SAFe-mail supports most hardware platforms and any
operating system. It includes spam filters, full compatibility with
most browsers and email clients, and all relevant protocols,
including POP, SMTP, IMAP, S/MIME and PKI.
SAFe-mail is designed to provide maximum security and privacy
without any complexity.
SAFE-MAIL has developed a comprehensive, feature rich
communication system that provides a wide range of applications
including messaging, collaborative document development,
statement/invoice delivery, data distribution/access, data storage
and on-line payment. Uniquely in the current market place, every
application is robustly secured by state-of-the-art encryption
ensuring the highest level protection and privacy to users. Within
the overall system as with each application, security is not an
add-on feature but has been designed in to the fundamental
architecture of every function.
SAFE-MAIL provides the following functions, features and
benefits:
- Feature-rich secure email system including security of
attachments providing private end-to-end email communication among
SAFe-mail users and between SAFe-mail users and non-SAFe-mail
users.
- All messages are registered and tracked with read receipt so
that users know when their emails are delivered and opened by
recipients.
- Address Book with secure grouping and sharing facility so that
users' private address books may be securely exported and imported
between SAFe-mail users.
- Folders and nesting of subfolders enabling users to organize
archived data content.
- User level Authentication facility enabling users to filter
communication and data access to specific user groups.
- Scheduler with secure sharing facility enabling users'
schedulers to be securely exported and imported between SAFe-mail
users
SAFe-mail provides a high level of protection against invasion
of privacy. Using SSL (Secure Socket Layer), which is a component
of all current browsers, for all data transmissions and strong
proprietary encryption for server security, it offers the highest
possible protection for all email communications and file
attachments.
The policy is to enable free service, and if the resources
available for free are enough for you, you may use the service as
long as you wish.
Features and functions of premium accounts and free accounts are
similar. The main difference is in the quantities i.e. less names
in the address book, less folders, filters, mails per hour, disk
space, frequency of backup etc.
Free service also enables corporate senders such as banks,
lawyers, heath care firms etc., to tell their customers to open a
free account at safe-mail so that they can correspond with their
customers securely. We therefore believe that the benefit derived
from providing free accounts (3 MB) outweighs any reason to change
the current position.
The system is available at any time and from any location using
any device or operating system, be it PC or Macintosh, Windows or
Unix, Sun or i-mode enabled wireless device.
SoftHome
SoftHome is a
dedicated email service. I've had an account with them for about
six years. This one works well. There is also an upgraded for-fee
professional service available.
SoftHome pledges:
"You'll get a free email address you can use for the rest of
your life. It won't go away when you change jobs; it won't go away
when you graduate; it won't go away when you change Internet
Service Providers. No matter what happens in your life, your family
and friends will always be able to reach you at your SoftHome
address."
Note that SoftHome recently downgraded their free
Personal Email accounts from 15 MB and 500 messages to 6 MB
and 150 messages. Likewise, the transfer limit was decreased from
45 MB/month to 10 MB/month. Since the downgrade, I've found that
the server is frequently slow to respond when checking mail, but
the SMTP server continues to work well.
Messages stored in the system for a period of time may expire
and be deleted. Messages can be sent via SoftHome's SMTP service to
a maximum of 10 recipients per email. Web access is also
available.
Spymac
In response to the growing need for email storage space, Spymac
Networks Inc. has announced a capacity increase for all of its free
email accounts. One gigabyte of storage is available to all
registered Spymac Mail accounts, and a free account is available to
anyone over the age of 13.
Spymac
Mail offers several advantages over other free
Internet-based email. In addition to the storage increase to
1 GB, Spymac Mail offers both POP3 and webmail access to the
email accounts. Web-based mail works in all browsers that support
JavaScript and cookies. The web-based mail comes with banner
advertising and 100 MB of website hosting space, but a mere $20
(US) a year removes the advertising. Presently Spymac's rapidly
expanding free mail service supports almost 50,000 distinct email
accounts. For those wondering why on earth they would need one
gigabyte for POP3 mail, don't despair, because IMAP mail
capabilities are under development and will be available very
soon.
Spymac welcomes email accounts from users 13 years old and up on
any operating system. The Spymac servers are located in
Düsseldorf, Germany, in a secure, Suntone Certified facility
that utilizes biometrics, CCTV, keycards, mantraps, and 24-7
on-site-security guards. Redundancy is built into Spymac's server
cluster, allowing for fast, reliable services with virtually no
down time.
Spymac is the largest online Macintosh User Group and is
developing under the belief that community is the Internet's most
valuable resource.
I would love to give Spymac a review, but I haven't been able to
get it to work in POP3 mode (I've tried Eudora, OS X Mail, and
Nisus Email) despite repeated attempts. I haven't a clue why, but I
suspect that this is an issue particular to my setup and/or my ISP,
as I haven't seen any other complaints of this nature.
Spymac offers the same 1 GB storage capacity as Google's Gmail
with the added bonus (I'll take it on faith) of POP3 access.
Tmicha.net
A free, spam-free mailbox with 15 MB storage space run by a
bunch of computer geeks (well, actually just one geek) that got
sick and tired of spam and decided to do something about it.
Tmicha's service is
free, at least for now, but reserves the right to go commercial one
day.
Virus Free Email
Virus Free Email
provides businesses and end users a quick and convenient way to
ensure their own security when it comes to email.
VFEmail.net scans each complete email, including attachments,
for viruses (and spam, too) before it gets to your inbox. If a
virus is found, you, the originator, and our staff will be
notified. VFEmail does not share these email addresses but does
collect infection data so they can proactively stop those offenders
who may be unknowingly spreading disaster.
VFEmail also provides a convenient webmail interface intended
for corporate road warriors. The flexibility of this interface
includes HTML, MS Word, and MS Excel document viewers. They also
support individual email forwarding, domain forwarding, vacation
messages, and work with clients to constantly increase the
flexibility of their offerings.
If you are using mail.vfemail.net as your SMTP server, you have
two options:
- Check your mailbox with POP before you send an email. Quite a
few email clients support this setting. Note: Netscape 4.7x has a
bug that will cause problems in this mode, and not allow you to
send email. Upgrade to Netscape 6.1
- Use plain text to authenticate to SMTP. This is the most
popular option, all modern email clients should support this. It is
also a better choice if you are an IMAP user. VFEmail.net supports
SMTP over SSL, so even though your password is sent as plain text,
your whole connection has already been encrypted. Email the
HelpDesk if you have any questions.
I've been using Virus Free Email regularly for several months,
and so far service has been flawless, Not one piece of spam,
either.
