We just reviewed the free POP3 email scene a month ago, but the
landscape has shifted enough to warrant an update already.
Back in early March, we introduced eOrders, a promising new free
email service with POP3 and SMTP support plus Web-based access and
5 MB of storage space.
Unhappily, the spammers descended, and eOrders quickly lost heart,
explaining:
"We regret to inform you that we have discontinued our
Free Email Account Service. Much of our time, money and effort has been
directed to the prevention of reoccurring abuse. We would love to keep
our free system running for everyone to use, unfortunately the majority
of new email accounts registered daily abuse our system. We are sorry
for any inconvenience this has caused."
Another of the services I reviewed last time, subDimension, has also
bitten the dust in the past month. The termination notice on their
Website read:
Our ISP (DSL.net) cut our line on 3/3/03 due to a
"violation of contract" or more to the point a violation of their
"acceptable use policy."
There were too many spam complaints about the
subDimension.com domain for them to handle. We were not the originating
party in any of the spam complaints (aside from a brief open relay
problem), but I gather we are still ultimately responsible for your
behavior with the email accounts that you obtain from us. How the hell
do people like Yahoo, Hotmail, and any other free email provider deal
with spammer complaints from their ISP's? Do they own their own ISP?
How do they govern their user community? How deep do your pockets have
to be to offer a free-email service?
subDimension will be reborn somewhere else in the near
future . . . as soon as we can find a place to put it
. . . please stay tuned . . . and check back often
. . . we hope to have something available shortly.
subDimension will NOT be offering FREE or PAY email
accounts anymore . . . thanks to the spammers who brought us
to this point . . . and our apologies to anyone that has mail
still residing on our servers . . . BUT . . . the
mail servers have been TURNED OFF as an attempt to be in compliance
with the "acceptable use policy."
subDimension will be offering a prorated refund to our
premium pay and pro-hosting users.
Make sure you read your contracts . . . and
then read them sideways.
Happily, two more free email services offering POP3 access have come
to my attention, so we're breaking even. The newcomers are:
New Free POP3 Email Services
This new email service, which has a very slick, simple, and
instantly activated signup procedure, offers (note that many of the
features outlined below apply only to the Web access interface):
- 10 MB of storage space
- IMAP & POP3 access
- Web-based access
- Available in 30 different languages
- More than 30 different themes
- NO banner ads
- Personal address books
- Multiple email attachments
- Priority setting
- SPAM Filters - Detect junk email in your INBOX
- Easy to remember email address
- Fast & simple web interface
- Message filtering - removes unwanted messages
- Message Highlighting - Incoming messages can have different
background colors in the message list
- POP3 retrieval from other email accounts
- Spell Checker
- NewMail Alert - playing sounds and/or showing popup windows when
new mail arrives.
- Calendar - Set your event
There is also SMTP access from POP3 clients
21box say their prime aim is providing a top quality, yet free email
service. Let's hope they have staying power and can successfully battle
the spammers. I found the 21box account simple to configure in Eudora,
and so far it's been working well.
Note that the 21box system will delete accounts as inactive if you
have not logged into the webmail at least once in 45 days. That means
you must log in the webmail every 45 days,even if you access your mail
box through POP3 every day.
Each subscriber can only hold 1 account. The system will delete
extra accounts from the same user.
Instructions on how to configure POP3 clients for 21box email can be
found at <http://www.21box.com/outlook.html>
Another new free email service is bonnag.com email. bonnag.com
features include:
- no quota (within reason)
- no advertisements in a footer
- email can be accessed online
- email can be retrieved using POP3
- email can forward to another account if you choose
Note that there is a 24 to 48 hour interval after you sign up on the
bonnag.com website while your application is processed.
There are, of course, 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.
However, for regular home or office purposes, POP3 email is more
convenient, especially if you are among the three-quarters plus
proportion of Internet users who don't have broadband service.
POP3 email is the type of email account you access with client
software like Eudora or OS X Mail app. or Netscape Mail or a wide
selection of others. For a roundup of what's available in POP3 email
clients for the Mac, see Moore's
Omnibus Mac Email Client Roundup.
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 downloading 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.
Older Free POP3 Email Services
Besides the new services outlined above, free POP3 email services
include:
This 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, 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
- directory
- anti-Spam protection
- numerous files and filter functions
GMX is an excellent email service - fast and reliable.
Unfortunately, GMX has recently restricted new user signups to a
handful of German-speaking countries in Europe. :-(
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 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 well over a year now, and I've been
impressed with the service. 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.
This one 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. Only 10
recipients per email.
HowlerMonkey SPAM policy:
"We AGGRESSIVELY 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."
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 b e
marked "inactive." Stored email and addresses will be deleted, and
inbound mail will be refused. If your account stays "inactive" for over
a period of 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 been using Inbox/lv for about a year now, and while I've
occasionally had trouble getting the server to answer (crowded phone
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.
Apple has discontinued their erstwhile free mac.com email service,
but you can still have a free POP3 email account with "mac" in it - to
wit: xxxxxxx@macmail.com.
Alex Summersby of UK -based MacMail.com says:
"Thought your readers might like to know about another alternative
to Apple's .Mac if all you need is a Mac-friendly email service that
gives you an address that proclaims your allegiances: MacMail.com.
"MacMail offers free-of-charge POP3 email accounts which you can
access via a Web browser or your preferred email client software. 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 about six months, and it's proved a
good service - fast and reliable. The signup procedure was painless and
configuration a breeze. The downside is that there is no SMTP support,
so you have to use your ISPs' 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, but the MacMail
Webmail interface is about as slick as I've seen - clean, intuitive,
and fast, and it's nice to have as a backup.
As with all Webmail services, you can access your MacMail account,
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 the MacMail Premium
Services.
I've been using MyRealBox for several years, and except for a few
timeouts (Novell offers this service as a product testbed, and warns
that this will happen from time to time) it has proved quite dependable
and fast. MyRealBox also offers SMTP support for outgoing mail.
MyRealBox 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. However, MyRealBox will not accept any Yahoo! Groups email
messages.
MyRealBox offers free email with 10 MB of storage space and both
POP3 and IMAP-based access. Outgoing SMTP is also available, with a
maximum of 15 recipients per outgoing email sent through the MyRealBox
system. You can set up the service so that it automatically forwards
all email to an external email account. Note that the service is
ad-free since it is in permanent beta test (see below), but it comes
with certain restrictions. For example, MyRealBox automatically refuses
to accept any Yahoo! Groups email messages.
Not much else to say about this one. It works well, but there is
that occasional downtime. MyRealBox has been around for a while and is
likely to stick around.
SoftHome is a dedicated email service. I've had an account with them
for about five 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."
Let's hope they are more sincere about this than Apple was.
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 you're checking mail, but the SMTP server
continues to work well. Messages stored in the system for a period of
time may also 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.
Low Cost POP3 Email Services
Two other services available at reasonable prices
TheMail.com offers free Webmail, but for 5¢ a day you can add
an additional 10 MB of email space and POP3 access, merge mail, file
manager, filters, and an autoresponder.
Features:
- Autoresponder
- Address Book
- WebMail CheckIt! (check and send email right from your
desktop)
- Mail Filters (unlimited filters)
- Auto Forward (forward your mail)
- Extra 10 Meg disk space
- File Manager (store files)
- Calendar/Reminder Service
- POP3 access (for use with Outlook, Netscape Mail, etc.)
- Vacation Messages
- POP3 retrieval (to get your email from other server(s))
- WAP access (access your email from your cell phone)
- Merge Mail (send personalized email to a list)
Select Mail offers free email with features that Yahoo! and Hotmail
charge extra for, plus you can choose your own custom email address
(e.g., you@yourchoice.com) so long as you select one special offer
(e.g., a $6.95 Video Professor trial).
Features include:
- Free custom email address (e.g. you@yourchoice.com)
- Free Web Mail interface with no annoying advertising
- Free POP3 and SMTP access that works with Eudora, Netscape,
etc.
- Free 6 MB of storage space with large file attachment support
- Free SpamShield that filters out junk email
- Free support
Select Mail says that by selecting just one special offer, you
generate enough support for an entire year of ad-free Select Mail. They
also claim that Select Mail is more reliable than AOL, Hotmail or
Yahoo! Mail because it's powered by the email experts at Everyone.net,
a reputable email service provider incorporated in the State of
California.
Regarding the custom domain name, you will be what is known as the
domain registrant, the possessor of the domain name. Additional fees
apply to transfer your domain name to a different registrar and/or
modify your domain name record. Your own custom .com, .net, or .org
email address. .biz and .info are available for an additional $9.99.
You can use Select Mail with a domain name that you already own.
To renew your account after the first year, you'll receive a
reminder before your anniversary to select another special offer (if
available). At that time, you will also have the option to pay for
Select Mail ($24.99 a year). Failure to renew Select Mail either way
will result in the loss of your domain name and email service
interruption. If you would subscribe to Select Mail without fulfilling
a special offer, Everyone.net has premium email services starting at
$34.99 a year.
Select Mail includes a single email address (e.g.
you@yourchoice.com). Additional email addresses (with 6 MB of
storage each) can be purchased in groups of 5 for $19.99 (US) a
year.
You can receive any size file attachment (up to 6 MB) so long
as it does not exceed the amount of unused space available. You may
upgrade to 25 MB of total storage space and 10 MB file attachment
handling for $19.99 (US) a year.
