Has anyone used email services provided by web hosts? I am with Cyberwings right now, and I plan on taking advantage of thier email system. I am just wondering if i should really get a seperate email provider. I am very worried about reliability.

C-YA!

Most web hosts provide reliable email services, I have never used the host in question but I have had multiple hosting accounts and email has never been an issue. I would say use it and see if it is reliable and if it doesn't work out switch to using something else.

I second that.

Most modern MTA's [mail softwares] are programmed to keep trying to send a mail for 48 - 72 hours so even if your server is down for a few hours you are unlikely to lose any mail.

Secondly, whatever other option you choose [like your ISP or yahoo or other "reputed" providers] use the same tools [well almost similar] for transferring mail and you are in no way better or worse in going for mail by your host... however if the host has not secured his server or had overloaded it that's a different story altogether!;)

Cheers
Balaji

Well, if you want reliability I would suggest you look elsewhere for this functionality.

Because of their cheap prices, Cyberwings had had quite a few episodes concerning spammers. And for a while they took away SMTP for their customers! They are back up now, pretty much as long as they don't get abused again. OK.

I don't know about you, but I didn't like that at all. I have an "unimportant" domain - it doesn't really matter to me if it's up 98 or 99,9% of the time. My plan was to sign up for one of the Cyberwings plans, but the ONE hassle I shouldn't have to think about is my mailservers disappearing overnight.

I can recommend Dixiesys (http://www.dixiesys.com) to you, fast and reliable. Can't remember any downtime since I signed up about six weeks ago. I have set up email accounts in Outlook to cehck for email every minute - no problems.