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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Brussels, Belgium
    Posts
    1,325

    Email suggestions

    So far I've been a very satisfied user of Gmail, but lately I'm considering to create an additional account elsewhere. I will keep my Gmail account for sure due to the many stored mails, but for the more personal email traffic I am considering going with a different provider who is not data mining for commercial reasons and who is not integrating email with social networking, chatboxes etc.

    I am very much against Facebook, MySpace etc ... That doesn't mean I am bothered by Google+ existing, as long as they don't force me to use it. It seems the new rules are set to integrate all Google products a bit, and I don't really feel to end up at a social network again. Also, while data mining is common practise and has been for ages, to create profiles of users for selling it to advertisers is not exactly something I like.

    So I've been thinking lately what my ideal email provider would be like, and basically you could describe it as back-to-basics: solid email but without chatboxes, social networks, ... Just email, but very solid in it.
    Demands would be:
    - HTTPS throughout the session
    - storing the date of the previous session
    - not cancelling the account upon a period of inactivity lower than at minimum 6 months
    - enough storage space (between the 200 or 300 MB to one or more GB)
    - reachable support/helpdesk

    Free or paid? Well, I already have a lot of paid accounts online so if it can be free it's a bonus. I don't exclude the option of paying for it though, as long as it's not much more than what you'd pay for a domain per year (let's say 10 to maximum 20 euro). I'm quite convinced there's good free providers out there, but there's so many email hosts that comparing them all would be too time consuming, so if I stumble upon a really good one and it happens to not be free... As long as we don't talk 30 or 40 euro per year it's OK by me.

    So any suggestions of providers I should check out or which you'd recommend?

    PS: I use webmail since I travel a lot and am often away from my own computer. Hence IMAP or POP3 are nice bonus but no necessarity. The necessarities are listed above.

  2. #2
    If I were you I would go for your own domain email and not worry about going through a third party provider. That being said any shared hosting provider will provide what you are looking for in terms of features. Let me know if you need any more help finding something to fit your needs.
    http://www.graywebhost.com Colin [at] GrayWebHost.com
    Affordable, reliable shared hosting for personal, small, and medium sized hosting accounts.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Brussels, Belgium
    Posts
    1,325
    But with own domain you have to still have the webmail provider, even if you use your own domain. The third party thus is inevittable. Regardless if you use Google Apps, Polarismail, Hushmail, Runbox, ... You're using their mail servers and interface.

    Basically I've always been satisfied with Gmail but the more integrated approach is not my style. If I can use Gmail without having a profile and without using Google+ and such, then fine by me (the lack of human support is the one downside, other than that Gmail is solid for email if I can abstain from the other products)

    What I want is just solid and secure email but without all the other jazz like social networks, profiles, chatboxes etc...

    As said:
    - HTTPS throughout the whole session
    - no inactivity limits or at least (if free provider) minimum 6 months of inactivity permitted
    - storage of a few hundred MB at least
    - date of last session (no matter how short/long ago) mentioned upon signing in

    So far I've come across 2 providers matching the criteria but on the expensive side and the free version's storage is too limited. So I keep on looking for now.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Kalamazoo
    Posts
    33,412
    Quote Originally Posted by Gerrit View Post
    ... If I can use Gmail without having a profile and without using Google+ and such, then fine by me ....
    I believe you can (in theory). And I only say theory because I have no need to delete Goggle+. So I haven't tried.

    Just go to your account settings and click the "Delete profile and remove associated Google+ features" link.
    There is no best host. There is only the host that's best for you.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Amidst several dimensions
    Posts
    4,324
    the main problem with email is, spam filtering issues.

    gmail is the most trusted provider. even the most bastardly providers (like hotmail) will not filter emails coming from gmail, because they trust gmail.

    on the other hand you may find hotmail filtering your reliable, very clean and properly set up (spf domain key etc) owned-domain email address and not telling anyone about it.

  6. #6
    I use 'mutt'. I like it, a lot because it works over an SSH connection which is nice. It works with my LDAP address book, and I never have to worry about some company harvesting/mangling/changing it on me.

    I like the way I can write my own custom filters and use tools that aren't part of mutt.

    Though, I do wish I had a tool that accepting, on stdin, a complete email message, with attachments, and cranked out an HTML-ified version, with attachment download links in a user specified directory... the cool thing about mutt is that if such a tool were ever made available, mutt would have support for it right off the bat, no configuration or plugins or upgrades or anything would be needed.

    I also run spamassassin.

    Spam filtering, (on out-bound) is a serious problem though. I'm not really up to installing domain keys.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Brussels, Belgium
    Posts
    1,325
    I realise own domain is always best, however it has to be hosted somewhere. I don't like the idea of my private communications being used for commercial purposes, hence Google Apps and Hotmail's option to host own domain are not really a big option.

    I did hear a lot of praise about Zoho.com (who have the option to host your own domain too apparently) ; I am not sure if it meets my criteria though as described in the first post.

    Idem dito with Bluebottle and Polarismail. Lots of good comments about them but not sure if they meet the criteria.

    I heard many other providers being named, however the likes of COTSE seem way too complex for one not savvy with the technical side of things.




    In the end it's about finding the right host, then point your own domain to that host. Finding that right host is the key. Using my webhost's webmail ... rather not, I try to keep hosting, domain registrations and email separated. If you ever experience issues, at least your whole internet presence will not be down. Getting all combined at the same provider providing you with webspace, domains, email etc also means that with the slightest problem your entire internet presence is offline and unreachable. Hence I try to keep things a bit separated.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    3,816
    Why not use google apps paid verison?

    Disable ads in the paid verison > they won't scan your email or whatever
    As apps admin from the manage interface you can disable everything but mail

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