I am looking to offer free web based email account similar to hotmail service.. Does anyone know any program like that??

Try Gossamer Mail at http://www.gossamer-threads.com - we've had great luck with it.

There's a ton of others out there to; that's just the only one I've actually had expirience with and could vouch for. :)

I've heard good things about Squirrel Mail, though haven't used it myself.

Greg Moore

Originally posted by T39
I am looking to offer free web based email account similar to hotmail service.. Does anyone know any program like that??
If you have no experience at this type of thing, your best bet might be to use a third-party system like everyone.net or bigmailbox.com. Programs like SquirrelMail are good for offering Web-based e-mail to people who have accounts on a server, but it's not a full "sign up users on the fly" e-mail system like Hotmail.

I havnt used this my self but have a look at http://www.smartmax.com/mailmaxweb.asp
I believe you need the MailMAx web server to run with it though.

try alias mail

http://www.solutionscripts.com
about $300-$400

Originally posted by T39
I am looking to offer free web based email account similar to hotmail service.. Does anyone know any program like that??
Unless you have a lot of diskspace running your own service will eat up resources fast.
I've been using everyone.net for over a year and am very happy. There are a number of features that can be a little annoying - such as the intersitial adverts, but apart from that it's very good.
If you have control over your DNS records all you have to do is change the MX record to point to their server. Customisation of the pages is child's play and you can get a lot of information from the help pages and FAQs on their site.

Check out www.hotscripts.com

I've been using bigmailbox on and off since they were founded.
I like them. Advise people to avoid everyone.net like the plague.
If you're looking for a program to do it, there are dozens of open source progs out there to do it.
A good place to get started would be sourceforge.net
Then check out cgi-resources.com
good luck

Does everyone.net still offer the free email service though ??

I can't seem to find it on their webpage anywhere..

Try IMP - http://www.horde.org/imp/

Originally posted by bored
Does everyone.net still offer the free email service though ??

I can't seem to find it on their webpage anywhere..

They used to.
I think they discontinued it because it was second rate, and they were facing the all too common problem of budget cuts.

You know how it goes.
Personally, I'm amazed that they are still around at all. But there they are.

Everyone net did have it's problems in the beginning I agree, but I have used them for over a year now going on two ,and have no problems with them at all. I would not say they were second rate for what they offer.
Not that I have ever needed to contact them , like I said no problems. ( you do get one pop up, but that is the price you pay for free )
But I don't think they take on any new accounts (free ).
As mentioned e-mail takes up alot of your resouces , try bigmailbox . I think they are pretty good from what I've heard.
rinnando

The one thing i don't like about bigmailbox is that there is a big delay in the mail. So if I sent an email now it might take a few hours to reach the person I'm sending it to.

I actually wouldn't mind paying a small fee or have the advertisements though. Just that there's nowhere to get storage room for hundreds or thousands of users for a "small fee".

I think I might just have to go to BMB.

Hi,

I have had a site using everyone.net for over a year and they have been excellent, mind you, never had to contact them for anything, but I would not be surprised if they have stopped the free service, I have about 600 customers with free email and not one of them has paid the small fee to upgrade their accounts. So, obviously people don't mind popups and popunders enough to pay a very small fee to remove them.

It might be worth dropping them an email if you are interested in the service, the only downside is the ads, I've never really experienced any delay with the mail being forwarded, I think the service was called, plug in email.


Phil

Yeh the plug in email was the thing i wanted. It's still listed in the help section but not available as an option anymore.