Snowbird email

[Mysto]

We have leased a cottage in Florida and starting next year we will become offical snowbirds. Because we will be using different ISP's we will need an independant email service (I don't want to have to continue paying for a provider that I'm not using.)

Does anyone have experiance doing this? Free email service or did you purchase one? Which one? Anything to watch out for? Problems?

All help invited!!!! Thanks

[Martha]

Gmail is handy because you can both send and receive and it is free.

[donheff]

I use Gmail (Google), Yahoo, and Excite. They are all reliable and free. I like Gmail the best. I switched to all web based mail when I retired.

[Sam]

I've been using gmail for 3 years now. It's wonderful.

It does have one design flaw though. I have submitted so many suggestions to google asking them to fix it. They have all fallen on deaf ears.

You have to specifically log out of GMAIL. If you don't, gmail does not time out like others (Yahoo for example). This is not a big problem if you're using it from home, but is a major concern when using public computers.

[ExtinctBird]

I agree with the other responses that gmail is a convenient and accessible option. In addition, I have registered my family name domain and setup a low cost account on freeservers.com. This allows me to setup everyone in my family with an easy-to-remember email account that we can keep forever, even if I change hosts or ISPs.

[megacorp-firee]

I use hotmail.com, which I believe MSN Messenger is the over name of the service. I chose this not due to a lot of research, but because it was convenient and available and I had heard of hotmail.
It works and having no reference point, seems to be fairly useable. I get my mail and am able to send mail. I also have access to a blog service.

[chinaco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mysto We have leased a cottage in Florida and starting next year we will become offical snowbirds. Because we will be using different ISP's we will need an independant email service (I don't want to have to continue paying for a provider that I'm not using.) Does anyone have experiance doing this? Free email service or did you purchase one? Which one? Anything to watch out for? Problems? All help invited!!!! Thanks

This is the problem with broadband providers today. They are fragmented. DSL and Cable tends to be regionalized in many cases.

One alternative might be to get an internet provider that piggy backs on the local broadband providers like earthlink. That way you could use the ISP email account at both locations. You will probably just be plagued with a feed for turning the broadband service on and off when you come and go.

Another option is that some ISPs offer both broadband and dial-up access. You could use the same ISP at you home with broadband and dial-up with you are snowbirding it. Of course, I am hooked on broadband... it would be tough to downgrade!

[Rustic23]

I have two GMail accounts, one hotmail, one yahoo, and I maintain three websites each with a couple of email addresses. My DS & DIL use Yahoo. He is a Marine and they have had the account for several years and used it throughout the world. You could also go to Go Daddy and get an email account for I think $9.99 for two years. Gmail and Yahoo allow you to get your email using either the web or an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird. Hotmail is web only because Microsoft wants you to read the ads. You can get an add free Hotmail, but you have to pay for it.

The advantage of someone like https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/email.asp?ci=8893 , is you can get your own domain name. Like Jim@Mysto.org. By the way, I checked, mysto.net and just about all mysto addresses are taken.

Of the web based providers GMail, IMHO, is the best. Why? It seems to have the best spam filter.

[HobbyDave]

I just wanted to add in my vote for gmail as well, it works really well for me.

[JonnyM]

We've used and continue to use many different freebie anywhere email services.

I started a zillion years ago with Netcape mail (long before they were swalloed up by AOL, A company I turely detest)

Excite.com, Email.com (now defunct, but still useable for old folk that grandfathered in to just plain Mail.com), and a few others.

We have as a family used Yahoo.com for more than a decade without serious fault, for both business and pleasure.