Are free email services worth it?

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Email isn't sent to a site, it's sent to an email address.

But the answer to your question is "maybe". Under some conditions HotMail does seem to include the IP address of the sending computer.

Hi. I've been having problems w/my Hotmail email account for a couple of days now. It will not recognize my password. I've emailed Hotmail and they don't really seem to help much. It's as if someone possibly changed it. It won't accept my birthdate or other info either. I've sent emails to that address and know that it is still active. Is there any way to retrieve this Please help me I can give you detail un-read meail that i have this account Please help I have a lot of home work in my in box. reply to hedah@macdermid.com

Is it true Msn Hotmail is shutting down it's servers because there are only 538 names left, on the count of people making to many hotmail accounts? I'm asking because I have received this e-mail:
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:36:45 +0000
Hey it is Andy and john the directors of MSN, sorry for the interruption, but msn is closing down. This is because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the names (eg. making up lots of different accounts for just one person). We only have 578 names left.

If you
would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON. If you would like to keep your account, then SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. This is no joke, we will be shutting down the servers. Send it on, thanks. The use of msn and hotmail will cost money from summer 2006. If you send this message to 18 different people from your list your little icon will become blue and that will make it free for you. If you dont believe

me go on
(www.msn.com) and see it yourself. Dont foward this message copy paste it so people will actually read it

...End of Messege
Powerful parental controls improve your peace of mind with MSN Premium. Join now and get the first two months FREE*

That's bogus. A fraud. Ignore it.

my hotmail account was invaluable during my time in the military! Although it had glitches here and there, there was no better way to keep in touch with family and friends while traveling and living in several places in the USA and overseas. No matter where I went, the way to reach me never changed, as long as I could get internet access. Of course, Hotmail has become more glitchy as of late, and I rely more on my Yahoo account. The spam filter on Yahoo seems to work better as well. I have made specific filter rules to eliminate repeat spam in Hotmail, and the messages still get through!

What non-free email accounts would you suggest? I have just lost access to my hotmail account and want to switch to a more secure and supportive service for all my important emails. Thanks x

I lean towards those provided by ISPs. Depending on how you connect to the internet, you probably already have one, or more, available to you. What's most important is that it be a service with real customer support.

And for the record, I'm actually a fan of smaller, local ISPs. I've used one for years here in the Seattle area, and have been exceptionally pleased. When I call, a real person answers, and that real person a) knows what I'm talking about, and b) is in the area.

There are a lot of ISP Comparison sites that would be a great place to start. Just google ISP Comparison.

is this true???

(Hey it is Andy and john the directors of MSN, sorry for the interruption but msn is closing down. this is because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the name (eg making up lots
of different accounts for just one person), we only have 578
names left. If you would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON. If you would like to keep your account, then SEND
THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. This is no joke, we
will be shutting down the servers. Send it on, thanks. WHO EVER DOES
NOT SEND THIS MESSEAGE, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CLOSED AND YOU WILL COST £10.00 A MONTH TO USE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT
LIST. NOW YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS or REPLAY.
COPY THE WHOLE EMAIL. GO BACK TO YOUR INBOX AND CLICK ON NEW. AND PASTE THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION )

No. It is a hoax.

Hi! Leo,

I enjoy reading your weekly comments, even though they are mostly 'over my head'. Please bear with me on my question.

I am retired in Japan and intend to remain here for the foreseeable future. As you can see, I have a 'gmail' account. I had a local Japanese account geared for the local US military base (where I was a HS teacher for 27 years) and had an ever-increasing amount of spam. When someone suggested gmail I tried it and liked the spell-checking feature of my German messages to my German friends / relatives. I also like the search method for accessing any e-mail address, or specific name, place, date, etc. With the old account I spent a lot of time filing messages into folders --- and if I misfiled a message, it was usually a long, frustrating (and occasionally unsuccessful) process to find it again. I've dropped the local account and tried MacMail, Yahoo and Hotmail, but felt most comfortable with Gmail.

I just read your article about the advisability of not using a 'free' account such as Gmail. Do you (or a reader??) know of a Tokyo based email service which provides English support??? My Japanese is at the survival level.

Thank you in advance for any assistance and suggestions you (or a reader) is able to offer.

Sig Trautwein

PS It is only a minor point, but I initially misspelled my last name (Trautwein, not Tratuwein) when I subscribed to your weekly letter. Please correct it, if it's not too much trouble --- I can live with it.

Perhaps it was only a typo, but later and latter are not the same word.

Arigato . .

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