We review four hand-picked free e-mail services that offer you e-mail addresses that last a lifetime.
For reasons I am sure even Bill Gates would not figure out, Internet Explorer refused to install its e-mail software. Nothing worked. It was in sheer desperation that I clicked over to www.hotmail.com and signed up for an e-mail address. To view my mail that clogs up my mailbox at the VSNL server, I had to set up the Hotmail account so it could access my VSNL internet account and collect my mail and display it on the hotmail website.
The service functioned like a dream. I bookmarked the site as MAIL so it substituted at least, psychologically for the Read Mail button in IE. Then I discovered the additional benefits. Instead of narrating the convoluted not to mention unimaginative e-mail address from VSNL, I could tell people to write to me directly at myname @hotmail.com. Soon, I found myself relying on this for everything personal.
Whoever said that there were no free lunches on the internet never bothered to look out his browser window. After shareware and freeware, its free e-mail or freemail that has them talking. No internet account required, no extra software and installation bothers, and no changing e-mail addresses when the cyberskies are thrown open to private internet service providers. And you can access your mailbox from anywhere in the world from a computer with a browser. No more are you tied up to your office of home PC to access your mail.
The catch is advertisements. They appear at the top and bottom of your screen. But for many who crave the freedom of freemail, it is a tentative step on to the infohighway. Are you one who is aware of the internet and want to use it to communicate to friends or business acquaintances abroad? And not plonk down too much cash for benefits that are still suspect for many users? Freemail is the doubting Thomass cyberian dream. Access any of the freemail websites from the only PC in the company that has a modem attached, and sign up for a free e-mail account. Go through old visiting cards for those obscure e-mail addresses of sometime friends and fire them off. The next day, type in the user name and password and there you stand converted, savouring the thrill of instant communication.
Problems? Yes, there are some. Like Freemark, a service that folded up. But the success stories look like they have a lot of spunk. Like Hotmail, for instance, which is increasingly used by many as a mailbox. Like Mailexcite, which was launched recently much to the relief of many who feared freemail was on its deathbed.
The real question, however, is why would anyone use Hotmail when they have access to freeware like Eudora? Or when you already have Netscape Messenger and Microsoft Outlook that you get free as part of their browser suites?
Computer Media Publications identify two trends as responsible for the web-based e-mail. One, oddly enough, is that of network computers. The concept is catching on, but their lack of storage and end-user customisation mean that your e-mail should reside on the network which is, in this case, the Net. That means youd have no trouble using an e-mail service that runs off of a Website.
Then you have the cybercafes. With private ISPs, we will soon see booths springing up everywhere, who offer the first-time customer a homepage at dirt cheap rates and guess what an e-mail address. And all of them would prefer to rely on a freemail service than bother with a full-fledged postoffice running on their servers. If the Internet booth becomes as common as a phone booth, youll have the freedom of being able to check your e-mail from wherever you may be.
Here, we bring you four freemail services that are the most popular. Each offers a different graphical interface, but their workings are remarkably similar. Take your pick.
RocketMail
www.rocketmail.com
Sorry about the name someone here had a bright idea, perhaps, that its gum-chewing, junkfood-eating teenagers who need freemail. How far away from the truth! Anyway, the service works, and reliably too. Though initially it sported an interface that made the aesthetically equipped want to run away, the redesigned interface looks nice enough. Though the idea of the word @rocketmail.com on my visiting card still makes me feel a little sheepish.
Not too many graphics. That makes it fast enough, even over a slow modem connection. Our trial e-mails took 10 to 15 minutes on an average to reach the site.
This service is ad-supported, as are the other free services. So if you dont like ads, stay away. Alternatively, turn off the graphics in your browser. Most users dont mind, though. For that matter, most of the other sites users dont mind either.
When your mailbox is almost full, you get warning messages alerting you to the fact. If you ignore it, the e-mails are returned to the sender and you are alerted again. The on-line spellchecker checks the whole page at a glance, and not word by word. Nice touch, but not one I cant live without.
Every e-mail service should still be capable of checking my VSNL mail too and Rocketmail does it happily. Rocketmail allows you to send files as attachments too, so thats almost everything anyone except the power e-mail user would ever want.
Rating: llll
HotMail
www.hotmail.com
Claims to be the most popular freemail service. The sites FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) also claims to be the worlds only free web-based e-mail but hey, we are all used to outdated FAQs, arent we?
It is also quite popular in India thanks to word of mouth. Those who went around looking for those services which give you fancy e-mail addresses such as you@deathsdoor.com soon discovered that they were only so good.
Then again, some of the stories that appeared in foreign magazines helped too. A result is that most of the indian user names are already taken, and if you have a name as common as Harish or Rajesh, you may end up using suggested names such as Harish_1@hotmail.com, Hish@hotmail.com etc. Not really bad, though.
The interface is intuitive enough, and you are never at a loss about how to compose a message or delete one. The spellchecker is functional, and the service features HTML-enabled e-mail capability so you can read e-mails that reach you through Netscapes Inbox Direct. True, the web-based e-mail means that you have to wait for the screen to redraw everytime you click on a button, but in ease of use, hotmail scores over everything else.
Rating: ****
NetAddress
www.netaddress.com
NetAddress works. That is the good thing. It is slow. Thats the bad thing. And it tells you that it is there for life. Thats what no one can say. Still, one can confidentially recommend it.
It works because it has been around for a while like Hotmail, and is already quite popular. It is slow and the graphic-intensive pages take a while to appear on the screen which can be quite maddening if you have a slow connection. Your address will be yourname@usa.net.
NetAddress boasts that you can use your favorite mail client to download your stored mail from NetAddress. That is not what web-based e-mail was intended for, but it is nice to know that it can be done if you feel like it.
Unlike Hotmail, you can have NetAddress forward mail to another e-mail address, store your mail without forwarding or even delete any junk e-mail before you see it. If you change Internet providers or jobs, you simply tell NetAddress to forward your mail to your new address. Otherwise, NetAddress stores your mail for you like every other service.
With NetAddress you can set up multiple e-mail filtering rules that allow you to forward your mail to more than one e-mail address. For example, if you wanted all e-mail from a specific sender to be forwarded to your business address as well as your personal address you would simply create a filter with the senders address and the two forwarding addresses. Or you could have all mail no matter who its from forwarded to a many as five addresses.
Rating: ***
MailExcite
This is the new kid on the block. The service has been up only for a month, but the freemail from the search engine men Excite (www.excite.com) features a pleasing interface. Its is colourful, and signing up takes just answering a couple of questions.
There was one thing we liked a mailbox of 4 megabytes that is big enough for most e-mail users. And something we didnt like the compose mail button didnt exist. Instead, we had a line of text with a link saying new message. Not a problem at all when you find it, but the confusion can put you off. (No rating) Verdict
Which is the best? Our simple tests showed that all the services transmitted mails within 15 minutes. That is still much slower than VSNL where your messages are transmitted in minutes or seconds, but hey, we are talking free stuff here.
Free? There are advertisers paying for all those mails, and they appear with lights flashing and blinking at the top and bottom of your screens. NetAddress offers you the option of turning off the ads, but the privilege comes at a price of almost 25 dollars.
The most pleasing and simple interface belongs to Hotmail. Mailexcite is too young to rate now. Its fatal flaw the user tends to look for a button instead of text.The three services satisfy the budget-minded or the roaming user who doesnt want an internet account of his own but wants to send and receive e-mail. And our picks, we believe, stand the greatest chance to survive and hopefully, fulfill their promise to serve you for free and forever.
Babychen Mathew
