Gmail as main mail server

[TromboneAl]

I need to change my email, and I have to decide between

1. Using my local provider
2. Using Gmail

I've experimented, and have gotten Eudora to work with both. I figure Gmail will likely be more reliable, and is easier to access via the web.

Anybody use Gmail as their primary email address, and use the POP server?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm using it as a secondary, and using the pop client. About twice a week outlook has some issue with it. Which goes away a minute or two later. My mother in laws ISP (largest local area ISP around) has a glitch in this area about once a week when she uses it. Comcast does it to me about once a month.

With that anecdotal evidence in hand for a machine on a pretty reliable broadband connection, where the computer is on most of the time and goes for email every 5 minutes, I'd guess you'll see about 4x the problems with gmail as you would with a large commercial provider like comcast and 2x what you'd get with a local.

For what its worth, the one outlook service I have the most trouble with is hotmail.

The mailbox that garners the least spam is gmail. The worst is comcast, even with 'spam filters', hotmail is a close second to gmail in low spam.

Note that you can get a 'plug in' that allows you to use a portion of your gmail mailbox as a 'file system' (ie, it'll look like a g: drive to your pc), so you can store common files like important photos, documents and whatnot for worldwide access and offsite backup. I have no idea how secure this is, but imagine its not bad.

 

[Jeb-NY]

My last choice would be to use the current ISP your signed up with. It has change to often for me in the past and they currently only give me 10MB of space.

I have a more convoluted approach that works for me. I have a vanity eMail that cost me around $25/year that is my FirstName@LastName.com Easy to tell people and I can forward it anywhere I want. I use a company called NetIdentity.com but there are lots of these kind of companies, this one happen to have my surname already registered. They were a lot cheaper when I signed up 8+ years ago but I figure it is still a good deal because they do a first cut at spam filtering and my eMail address never changes. I could download directly from them or read with an web interface, I don't. I use to forward to my ISP but changed about 6 months ago. I now forward to my gMail account, which by the way can have an extra dot in it so I registered with FirstName.LastName@gMail.com also easy to remember. I now can download from gMail when I have my computer and use the web interface when I'm on vacation or need to pop in and check from any web browser. You can have gMail setup to have multiple address to chose from for where it was sent from so the person I sent to see my vanity eMail address. Google does a second level of spam filtering and then my mail program does a 3rd level. With this approach I average less than one spam message a day on average and I get a lot of eMail. My address is on numerous web sites that I maintain and I do lots of buying on the web so I have lots of exposure for spammers to harvest my address.

I would say Google Mail is as reliable as any other service I have used over the years maybe better. Most mail delays I have seen were web related not gMails problem.

If you don't want to go to the expense of a vanity eMail I would go with Google and use my FirstName.LastName@gMail.com approach. If you want to use your local ISP you can have gMail forward to your local and still use your gMail address as your primary address to hand out, you loose the ability to get to your mail from the web, but what ever work.

Boy that got long winded.

Jeb

 

[Martha]

I have used gmail for some time to send and receive email. I liked it because I could both send and receive from anywhere when on the road. I could do like Jeb and forward other emails to Gmail. No problems, though my mailbox is now 18% full. Too much email! It is free too, which can't be beat.

We now are using Outlook at work so I can use it as well to send and receive. No long term test, but I am finding Outlook to be a bit faster downloading messages.

 

[nuisance]

Maybe it's my paranoia, but personally I'm not comfortable relying on a free service for something that's important to me. There's no contract between you and the provider, so if Google decides this afternoon to pull the plug on gmail, then there's no guarantee you'll ever see those e-mails again. And of course you'll lose the address.

Tim

 

[Jeb-NY]

Maybe it's my paranoia, but personally I'm not comfortable relying on a free service for something that's important to me. There's no contract between you and the provider, so if Google decides this afternoon to pull the plug on gmail, then there's no guarantee you'll ever see those e-mails again. And of course you'll lose the address.

Tim

Yes you would loose the address but I actually download my messages, keeping what I want and deleting the rest from my computer. I use the huge space on Google as a backup for my mail.

I guess there is a good reason for my extra jump with my vanity eMail address, assuming that company doesn't go under, I keep my address that I use.

Of course you can register your own domain and have an address you own, prices vary but you can usually get a fair amount of space and the domain for under $50/year. Most allow eMail forwarding and you own the address then (it can be moved to different hosting companies). I have 3 registered domains for assorted other things I do, like eBay sales and such.

Jeb...

 

[Cut-Throat]

I use Gmail and I love it. I used to use AOL which I paid for and hated it. I like the free 2 Gig free that Google gives you. I believe it will increase as disk space gets cheaper and cheaper.

Just because you pay for something does not mean that it won't go away or be any good to begin with.

 

[Texas Proud]

I use excite and yahoo....

Yahoo lets you store 1 GB of mail... I do not know if you can use it as a backup, but I have emailed some files to myself to make sure I have them if something happens to my computer...

AND, do not worry about them taking it away... why would they shoot themselves in the foot? Excite went under a few years back and the company that took them over kept the service going... never lost an email...

BUT, I have lost emails when I changed ISP providers.... if you only use thier email, then you are stuck with them if they decided to raise the price as you do not want to move for a cheaper price only because of your emal address... not good.

 

[mickj]

Gmail is great, if anyone needs an invite for a new address let me know. They have over 2 gigs now. It goes up everyday.

 

[dex]

I have 2.6gb so far of gmail.
this is what I do.
Netscape mail for sites I want info from but don't do regular business. I don't get a lot of spam

Yahoo for companies I do regular business with such as cell phone; web banking; etc. I don't get a lot of spam.

Gmail for family, friends and storing contact info. - no spam

 

[MJ]

I use gmail and have a 6 or more addresses. Since I use a number of addresses, I use their forwarding feature and send my mail to my ISP main address. If I need to change my ISP, I can either stop the forwarding or establish a new forwardding address. I may try their POP feature to receive all my mail directly into Netscape.

 

[Helen]

I started using gmail a couple of months ago when I upgraded to DSL. I'll never tie my email to my ISP again. gmail is great !