Many Mac owners have used Apple's .mac online service for years,
although the teething problems that have afflicted .mac's replacement,
MobileMe, probably have many thinking about jumping ship.
Presumably, Apple will get the kinks ironed out of MobileMe
eventually, and if you can make good use of the package of other
features included with MobileMe, a case can be made for it being a
reasonable (albeit not spectacular) value. However, if an email service
is what you're mainly looking for, the annual MobileMe subscription fee
is pretty steep.
If you've been around the Mac community for a few years, you
probably remember that Apple used to offer free mac.com "lifetime" POP3
email accounts, but it proved a short life. Introduced in 1999, mac.com
ended with the launch of .mac at Macworld Expo in 2000. That was around
the time things were looking pretty bleak for free POP3 services, and
several others went down the tubes as well.
There are still dozens of free email services on the Internet - the
vast majority of them Web-based, which means that you must access your
email 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 - or even
an assortment of ones you do - because you can use any computer with
Internet access to check your mail.
However, for regular home or office purposes, POP3 email is more
convenient, especially if you are among the two-thirds or so of
Internet users who don't have broadband service.
POP3 email is the type of email account you access with client
software like Eudora, OS X Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, or a gaggle
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 actually sending and downloading
messages, which cuts down immensely on online time used if you're a
dialup user, and since both outgoing and incoming messages are stored
on your own hard drive, it's easy and convenient to access your
archives.
One problem with third-party POP3 email services, free or otherwise,
is that your Internet Service Provider may be blocking Port 25 for all
SMTP transmissions other than ones that go through its own SMTP server,
which in turn may not accept messages with return addresses other than
for your ISP email account. Some third-party email services work around
this by supporting Port 587 with their SMTP servers for outgoing
mail.
There have been a lot of casualties since my last survey of what's available in the
category - several longtime free email providers have gone fee only
with their POP3 service, and some others have disappeared completely.
My guess is that this is fallout from Google's Gmail service, which offers
both Web and POP3 access with 2.5 GB of online free storage space.
However there are still a bunch of smaller free POP3 services as
well, some with unique features that may appeal. I don't claim that the
listing below is exhaustive, but I think it covers most of the bases.
Apologies in advance for any inadvertent omissions, and if you know of
any free POP3 email services I haven't included, please let me
know.
Free POP3 Email Services in alphabetical order
Christian.Net
The Christian.Net online community offers free Web and POP3 email to
members, and membership is free. This site is open to anyone, however,
it is centered around Christianity (defined according to the providers'
core beliefs), and they expect everyone to respect that.
You can use any email program that is POP3 compliant (Mail, Eudora,
Outlook Express, Netscape, etc.)
Note that you should not configure your mail program to check
for new mail too frequently. The POP server counts each check you make,
and it will stop letting you in if you exceed a certain amount per day.
This is an effort to help conserve bandwidth and reduce impact on the
server. This does not apply to the webmail program though. Checking
once every 5 to 10 minutes is fine; checking every few seconds is
not.
Christian.net don't currently allow you to use their SMTP server for
relaying from external mail programs. Instead, you should configure
your software to check for mail here while sending through your local
ISP's mail server.
The mail server scans all incoming and outgoing messages and deletes
those that contain viruses. The virus database is updated twice a day
so it should always be current.
Each Christian.net email address has a completely customizable spam
filter. The default spam filtering options should stop most junk mail,
but you might want to fine tune it using PEP.
Currently any single message is limited to 10 megabytes.
Your inbox is limited to 10 megabytes and email will bounce once
it's full. To avoid this, either download your mail or move it into a
different folder in the webmail program.
Gawab.com
Gawab.com has
generated a track record offering free email service for over 7 years
and currently claims 5,466,594 users and offering both POP and SMTP
service. POP/SMTP service, Gawab.com offers an extensive list of
features and for the past three years of operation, has been hosted in
what it claims to be one of the most reliable data centers in the
world, reaching an availability that has exceeded 99.9%. It is also
satisfyingly fast, even over dialup connections.
Gawab provides 2147 MB of storage space and uses multilevel mailbox
protection to enhance security measures. An
authentication/authorization mechanism exists between all software
layers involved in accessing mailboxes. All sensitive information, such
as passwords, is encrypted by the system to ensure the privacy of our
users.
Also supports webmail (and Webmail3) 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. POP3 settings info is included in the Welcome email message
from Gawab Support.
I've used Gawab, and it has been fast and slick, and reliable both
for checking and sending mail.
Gmail/Google Mail
Gmail is the biggest free
POP3 (with webmail as well) service that includes over 7062 megabytes
(and counting) of free storage. The backbone of Gmail is a powerful
Google search engine that quickly finds any message an account owner
has ever sent or received and not deleted. That means there's no need
to file messages in order to find them again.
When Gmail displays an email, it automatically shows all the replies
to that email as well, so users can view a message in the context of a
conversation. There are no popups or untargeted banner ads in Gmail,
which places relevant text ads and links to related web pages adjacent
to email messages.
I've been using Gmail for about three years and have found it
reliable and generally excellent - especially since POP3 access was
added.
Quick Facts
- Cost: Free
- Storage: 7062.491243+ megabytes (and counting)
- Superior spam protection using innovative Google technology
- Languages: Messages can be sent and read in most languages. The
Gmail interface is available in 38 languages: US and UK English,
simplified and traditional Chinese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian,
Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi,
Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak,
Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and
Vietnamese.
- Access: Free automatic forwarding and POP3 access
- JavaScript and cookies must be enabled for web access.
10 reasons to use Gmail
- You don't like spam - Gmail blocks spam before it gets to your
inbox. If an unwanted message ever finds its way through, you can fight
back by reporting it and help make the spam filters even better.
- Search your mail instantly - Use Google search within Gmail to find
the exact message you want
- Organize replies into conversations
- Chat is built in
- Labels, filters, and stars
- Get your mail on the go
- Lots of space
- Ads, but only the good kind - With Gmail, you'll never see popups
or untargeted banner ads. Instead Gmail displays text ads and related
links you might find useful and interesting.
- Save time - Take advantage of Quick Contacts and Keyboard Shortcuts
in Gmail to get through your email even faster. And don't forget that
you can quickly find messages using Gmail's search feature powered by
Google search technology.
- All this is free
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. It has proved to have staying
power, and it's been reliable.
HotPOP's owners pledge that the free service is here to stay, noting
that while many other free email providers, especially free POP email
providers, have been discontinuing their services, HotPOP has no plans
to discontinue or change new or existing free accounts.
Features:
- Free POP Mail Access - Read your mail with your favorite
program.
- Large Mailboxes - Store thousands of messages with up to 100
megabytes of space.
- Ad-Free Options - Opt-out subscriptions available for as low as
$0.99/month.
- Mail Filtering - User-defined filters can stop spam and other
undesirable mail before it ever gets to your mailbox.
- Instant Signup - You can be ready to go in a few minutes.
- Free Support - If our site can't help you, our free email support
can.
- Free Mail Forwarding - Have your mail forwarded to up to 15
addresses.
- Free SMTP Access - Send mail directly from your favorite
client.
- Cool Domains - Fun, frisky and memorable.
- No Popups - We use no popups, not even for free accounts.
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 current 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 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.
LPeMail
LPeMail provides free POP3 and
web-based email service with 10 MB of storage.
Fast, easy signup, and immediate use access.
Spam Free Email
- Free Email Account
- A Spam Filter that works. An Email Manager that Blocks SPAM from
your Inbox Stops 99.999% of SPAM and Viruses at the server
- Protect yourself from annoying SPAM
- Protect your computer from Viruses, Trojans and more and
sophisticated anti-spam protection, including whitelist, blacklist and
keyphrase options.
- Take Back all that wasted time sifting through junkmail
- Protect your Family from being subjected to pornography
- Reduce the Spread of Harmful Viruses
- Guard your friends from rerouted Spam email
- Use an Email Account that Works to Protect YOU
How can LPeMail's Spam Filter be Free?
LPeMail is supported by voluntary donations from those in the
community. If you would like to make a donation, go to <http://liveprayer.com/donations.htm>.
Note that you will receive a daily devotional email in your LPeMail
account.
LavaBit
LavaBit (formerly MailShack) is a
free POP3 service I've been using for over a year, and I've found it
both fast and reliable. LavaBit claims 90,000 users.
Incorporated in the state of Texas during the summer of 2004 as
Nerdshack LLC by a dedicated group of programmers, the company has
changed significantly since the days it operated as a single server in
the back of an advertising agency closet. To reflect that change, the
company name was officially changed in December of 2005 to Lavabit LLC.
The name change was made to reflect change from a service catering
primarily to information technology professionals into the mainstream
email service provider it is today.
Lavabit was founded as a direct reaction to the larger free email
services available. The developers felt it was possible to create an
email service that was fast, reliable, feature rich, and didn't achieve
profitability by "prostituting" its user base to marketers.
A large part of Lavabit's personality comes from its founders, a
small group of Dallas based programmers with extensive experience
building mission critical systems and high profile websites. It is with
this experience, a maniacal level of dedication, and a few smart people
that Lavabit has been built.
Today Lavabit provides email service to over 90,000 individuals, who
collectively send and receive over 200,000 electronic messages per day.
At any given moment almost 1,000 of those users will be connected to
the Lavabit network. Since the deployment of Lavabit's proprietary mail
server, the network has handled over 50 million messages. Growth
continues with an average of 100 new user accounts per day.
To economically and reliably handle the growth of its user base,
Lavabit has developed a proprietary mail server that currently supports
the SMTP and POP3 protocols. This proprietary mail server combines the
best open source libraries to provide a fast, reliable mail server that
rivals anything else available today. The mail server has been written
exclusively in C and runs across a cluster of Linux based servers.
Lavabit has been using its proprietary mail server since February of
2005.
LavaBit features include:
- Spam Filter
- Realtime Time Blacklist's (DBL)
- Greylisting
- Whitelisting
- Blacklisting
- Scatter Back Blocking
- Challenge and Response
And much more.
SAFe-mail.net
SAFe-mail™ is a
secure, easy to use email system. It includes encrypted collaboration
features and document storage functions.
3 MB of 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 and has full compatibility with most
browsers, 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 receipts 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.
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.
Virus Free Email
Virus Free Email provides
businesses and endusers a quick and convenient way to ensure their own
security when it comes to email.
VFEmail scans each complete email, including attachments, for
viruses and spam before it gets to your inbox. If a virus is found, it
is blocked at the gateway and isn't even allowed onto VFEmail.net
servers. VFEmail utilizes greylisting, public and private blacklists,
and the award-winning SpamAssassin to detect spam,
which is then discarded and will only appear in your spam folder if
it's potentially legitimate.
Virus Free Email provides POP/IMAP/SMTP interfaces with SSL
encryption, but also provides a convenient web interface (intended for
"Road Warriors") to your email, with an auto-detecting WAP interface.
The flexibility of the 'Horde' interface includes online HTML, Word,
and Excel document viewers. It will also recognize your mobile device
and automatically display a 'mobile' version of webmail when you login.
There is also a sharable calendar, addressbook, notes, and a task list.
The Roundcube interface provides a fast Web 2.0 based email client, and
an addressbook that is interchangeable with the Horde interface.
VFEmail also supports individual email forwarding, aliases, vacation
messages, domain forwarding, ftp storage, and email searches.
The free version of the service offers 50 MB storage and a limit of
50 MB monthly bandwidth.
