Other Sites
However, for regular home or office purposes, POP3 email, the type of email account you access with client software like Eudora or OS X Mail app. or Netscape Mail or a wide selection of others, is more convenient, especially if you are among the three-quarters plus proportion of Internet users who don't have broadband service.
Incoming messages are received by a remote server, and stay there until you download them to your own computer. With POP3, you can do all your email work offline except for actual sending and downloading of messages, which cuts down immensely on online time used, and since both outgoing and incoming messages are stored on your own hard drive, it's always easy and convenient to access your archives.
For a while there, it looked like free POP3 email might die off thanks to the depredations of bottom-feeding, scum-sucking spammers, but lately there seems to have been a renaissance of sorts with a whole raft of new services making thieir debut. IN the interest of research, I've gone through the signup process for each of the following services, and tested them to make sure that they work.
Free POP 3 Email Services in alphabetical order
bonnag.com
Cashette
Christian.net
Cwazy Email
EZrs.com
FireMail
HotPOP
Inbox.lv
MacMail
MAIL15.COM
Postmark.net
SAFe-mail.net
SoftHome[/url]• Spymac
Tmicha.net
Virus Free Email
bonnag.com
http://www.bonnag.com
A British free email service
Features include:
• no quota (within reason)
• no advertisements in a footer
• email can be accessed online
• email can be retrieved using POP3
• email can forward to another account if you choose
Note that there is a 24 to 48 hour interval after you sign up on the bonnag.com website while your application is processed.
Cashette
http://www.cashette.com/myCashette/CashetteMail/homepage.jsp
Too much spam? Cashette is a spam-control service. You can use Cashette to stop spam and get paid if you receive advertising email.
How does it work? -- You set a price for spam. You get paid foreach "spam" you receive. If they don't pay, you won't receive spam.
Name Your Price for Spam
You are paid for each "spam" you receive.
If they don't pay, you won't receive spam!
You can use Cashette to:
• Stop spam 100% for your email accounts.
• Make money if you do receive ad mail.
• Access multiple email accounts at one place.
Gone are the frustrations of spam. No more annoying spam in your Inbox. No need to be afraid to give out your email address.
If you receive 3 ad mails a day at $0.05 apiece, it will add up to $55 a year.
Works for your Yahoo, Hotmail, Cashette and any POP3 email
• Your Cashette account includes a full-featured email account.
• 10 MB of storage.
• Consolidate your email accounts. You can access your multiple email accounts at one place.
• Web-based. You can access your email anywhere you have access to the Internet.
• Use POP3 mail software to access all of your consolidated email accounts including even Yahoo mail.
• Importing your address book is as easy as sending an email using Cashette's Quick Import method.
• No banner ads or pop-up ads.
Unlike other spam solutions, Cashette is attacking the root of the problem. The fundamental reason that spam is flooding the email system is that, unlike traditional advertising, it costs almost nothing to send spam. There is a strong economic incentive for spammers to abuse email. Cashette takes away that incentive by making the spammers pay.
Your Cashette account includes a full�featured email account that is automatically spam�controlled when you sign up. You can set up spam control for your other email accounts such as Yahoo, Hotmail or POP3 email.
Any price above zero will stop spam. Cashette recommends a price between $0.01 and $0.05. A price of $0.00 disables spam control. Your price for spam is preset to $0.05 when you sign up for an account. You can change your price at any time.
Spammers send spam and do not pay. An advertiser who sends paid ad mail must have a Cashette account. The money is transferred from the sender's account to your account at the time the email is sent. You can withdraw money from your account by requesting a check at any time.
Your Cashette account is free. When you receive paid ad mail, Cashette charges the advertiser a 20% commission with a minimum of one cent.
Christian.net
http://www.christian.net/
Christian.net is a free, non-profit, and non-denominational on-line community for Christians based in Vancouver, Canada featuring email @christian.net (via POP3 and a custom webmail program), web hosting (including PHP and MySQL), forums, chat rooms, online bibles, and much more.
Some features are available to everyone, while others require membership. Membership is quick and free though.
The web server software is Apache, running on the FreeBSD operating system. The site itself is written in PHP and uses MySQL for the database backend.
Email features?
• POP3
• Webmail
• Folders
• Address book with import/export functions
• Send/receive attachments
• Optional in-line image decoding
• Optional viewing of HTML attachments
• Spell Checker with 20+ language dictionaries
• Virus scanning
• Powerful, customizable spam filtering
• Mail forwarding
Currently you are allowed to use 10 megs of disk space for files and email combined. This is a "soft" limit though, meaning you can go over it temporarily if you need to.
Works well, but no smtp access for sending mail with POP3 client.
Cwazy Email
http://www.cwazy.co.uk/
Cwazy provides email, hosting, and consulting services to individual and corporate clients. Cwazy began by offering free email services to individuals and has expanded to offering business services as well.
Cwazy offers free email services to individual clients similar to Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Cwazy's individual email service offers people a distinct advantage over traditional mail services: pop3 and imap support allowing clients to access and manage their email through Outlook, Eudora, and Mulberry at no extra cost.
Cwazy is powered by world-class software and is hosted on cutting edge server technology employing multiple redundancies to ensure the reliability and stability our clients need.
Cwazy is headquartered in the United Kingdom and currently provides email and hosting services to clients in over 25 countries. The Cwazy service currently serves over 300,000 web requests on a monthly base while utilizing only 3% of their overall capacity.
Cwazy was founded in September 2001 to provide free email services to frustrated friends and family. Many of Cwazy's initial clients echoed the same complaint of unreliable email that was frustratingly slow.
Around January 2002 after quite a number of 'friends of friends' requested accounts the founders of Cwazy decided to start a service for the public relying upon their combined years of technology experience. By March 2003 Cwazy had grown to over one thousand individual users in over 20 countries. As of July 2003 Cwazy has over 4,000 individual clients and serves more than 300,000 web requests per month.
In July of 2003 the founders of Cwazy began offering a new suite of services to small and large businesses. These services will complement the free individual email service currently offered to our clients.
The new service package includes commercial email service and hosting, outsourced email servers, and strategic consulting focused on infrastructure and security.
Companies utilizing our new service package will benefit by having world class email and related services without burdening themselves with the high costs of building and maintaining such a system. Cwazy plans to offer this service at a compelling price compared to the current commercial offerings in the marketplace.
Services
• 10Mb mailbox
• Unlimited outgoing mail
• Advanced spam protection
• Filtering / sorting capabilities
• Message Highlighting
• POP3 support
• Multilingual translation
Signup is very simple and quick. The account is created and access details sent to the contact email address you have provided.
This service seems to work well so far, but there is no SMTP support for sending mail, so you have to use your ISP’s SMTP serverfor sending (if they allow it for third party email accounts-- mine doesn’t).
Great cat mascot logo.
EZrs.com
http://www.ezrs.com/
EZrs.com is a free email service provider. EZ stands for Easy ; r stands for receive ; s stands for send. This free e-mail system is managed by a group of Linux maniacs who pursue the avocation of network application.
All users can get their email through web-based, IMAP, and POP3 clients. All users can send outgoing mails through the SMTP server once they have authenticated through the WEB/IMAP/POP3 clients. The default quota is 20MB.
SSL/TLS is installed. If you are using EZrs web client, enter the following URL in your browser: https://www.ezrs.com By adding the "s" to http you are indicating your browser to use the secure sockets layer supported by EZrs.
There is a virus scanner installed on the server. Every mail in or out will be scanned on the server side to ensure no virus on it. They also have installed SPAMASSASSIN and TMDA to reduce the amount of spam (Internet junk-mail) you may receive.
You need to enable authentication if you want to send mail through the SMTP server.
FireMail
http://mail.firemail.de
While the excellent German GMX email service has stopped accepting new signups outside Europe, FireMail is another very professional free email service from Germany that North Americans can still get an account on.
Features:
15 MB storage
SMTP and POP3 support
Spam Filtering
Webmail support
Contacts stored with import and export in vcf
The signup information and procedure is entirely in German. I have a little German, and was able to sigh up with little difficulty, but you might want to enlist the aid of one of the online translation services.
Note: before you can use Firemail with a POP3 mail program, you must activate your post-office box over a login under http://mail.firemail.de
I’ve had a FireMail account for nearly a year, and it’s been quick and reliable.
Gawab.com
http://www.gawab.com/enindex.html
This email service based in Alexandria, Egypt, offers:
• POP/SMTP Support
• Protection from spam, viruses and pornographic emails
• More than 50+ features (some for fee, ut the basic service is free)
• 15 Megabytes Storage Space.
• Message Filters & Rules
• Also supports Webmail so you can check your inbox with a browser from any computer on the Internet
Signup is a bit time consuming and demands a lot of information, but once the signup process is complete, the new accouunt is created instantly.
I use Gawab a lot, and it has been fast and slick, and reliable both for checking and sending mail. When I had a technical support question, the Gawab folks got back to me promptly with the information I needed. Impressive.
HotPOP
http://www.hotpop.com/
HotPOP LLC is a privately held company based in Newton, Massachusetts. Founded in 1998, HotPOP offers email accounts, from various domains, with a combination of features not found with other providers.
• Features:
• POP Access - Use almost any mail client you wish
• SMTP Access - Send mail through the HotPOP server (you have to check your email first). You may include up to 50 recipients on a single message.
• Mail Forwarding - Have your mail resent to up to three addresses.
• 10 MB Quota - Store thousands of messages
• Server-Side Filtering - Block mail and spam before it hits your inbox
• For fee ad-free opt-out option.
There is also Web access to your HotPOP account. There is a limit of 500 KB per message, and a maximum of 1,000 incoming email messages per day.
Signup is easy. Just fill out the form and survey and you are ready to go. An email will be sent to your old address with your password and some helpful information. If you are using a POP account, you can log in right after you configure your client.
HotPOP currently has seven domains to choose from and says they constantly searching for new ones. Memo: keep looking, guys -- most of these are pretty lame.
• HotPOP.com
• ToughGuy.net
• PunkAss.com
• BonBon.net
• Phreaker.net
• SexMagnet.com
• GameBox.net
I've had a HotPOP account for a couple of years. Once in a while the server is a bit sluggish about answering, but it always comes up, There is SMTP support for outgoing mail, which requires checking your inbox before sending, and I've found that aspect to be a bit cranky at times, requiring two or three checks before the SMTP server will respond.
HotPOP offers a combined POP3/forwarding and web-based email service. At the free level, HotPOP includes 10 MB of storage for email messages, and the ability to specify up to 3 destination addresses to forward messages to.
Another one that has proved to have staying power, and it's been reliable.
Inbox.lv
http://www.inbox.lv
Inbox.lv is the largest provider of free Web-based email in Latvia, and also supports POP3 access with 8 MB of storage space. The service also includes Kapersky antivirus scanning, which scans all incoming and outgoing emails. There is a limit of 1 MB of attachments per message.
If you do not sign in to your @inbox.lv account for 60 days, or if you do not sign-in within the first 10 days, your account will b e marked "inactive." Stored email and addresses will be deleted, and inbound mail will be refused. If your account stays "inactive" for over a period of 90 days, it may be permanently deleted.
Inbox.lv can be viewed in a variety of languages. You can make the language of a Inbox.lv session match the language of the Sign In page used to begin that session. You currently have your choice of: English, Latvian and Russian.
I've been using Inbox/lv for about a year now, and while I've occasionally had trouble getting the server to answer (crowded phone lines between North America and Latvia?) I've found it generally good. No SMTP support, though. You have to send mail through your ISP's server.
MacMail
http://www.macmail.com
Apple has discontinued their erstwhile free mac.com email service, but you can still have a free POP3 email account with "mac" in it -- to wit:
Alex Summersby of UK -based MacMail.com says:
"Thought your readers might like to know about another alternative to Apple's .Mac if all you need is a Mac-friendly email service that gives you an address that proclaims your allegiances: MacMail.com.
"MacMail offers free-of-charge POP3 email accounts which you can access via a Web browser or your preferred email client software. It's based in the UK but offers a worldwide service. I should mention also that the system is not based on an off-the-shelf engine but has been custom-programmed to deliver a range of features that most other such services won't match, including:
• customizable filters and user-defined spam blocking
• online mail management, custom folders and Address Book
• powerful search functions
I've had a MacMail account for about six months, and it's proved a good service -- fast and reliable, although the seem to be experiencing some problems with their POP server at this writing.. The signup procedure was painless and configuration a breeze. The downside is that there is no SMTP support, so you have to use your ISPs' outgoing email server.
I'm an almost total POP3 user, and MacMail works fine with Eudora and Nisus Email -- the two email clients I use most, but the MacMail Webmail interface is about as slick as I've seen -- clean, intuitive, and fast, and it's nice to have as a backup.
As with all Webmail services, you can access your MacMail account, send and receive messages and attachments, from any computer, anywhere in the world, so long as it has a working connection to the Internet and browser software. All you need is your MacMail User name and password.
MacMail basic services are free of charge. Additional MacMail services or "Premium Services" cost a small monthly fee. You get 5 MB total server space with the free service, and if you need more you can increase this by subscribing to the MacMail Premium Services.
MAIL15.COM
http://www.mail15.com/
Features:
• free mailbox, up to 15 Mb
• absolute privacy and high reliability
• antivirus and antispam control
• access from anywhere, anytime
The maximum size of a message in 15 megabyte, the maximum size of attachments in 10 megabytes. The number of attached files is limited by their total size (from 10 to 15 megabytes). We doubt if you would require more than that. We are giving the size range, because web-based e-mail may increase the size of your file by approximately 30% if this file contains pictures, sounds, i.e. if it does not contain text. The file size does not change if you are sending text.
There are no limitations on the number of outgoing message. If you use SMTP protocol, you can send not more than 5 message each 10 minute. If you are using web-based e-mail, there are no limitations at all. As for the number of addresses in one message, SMTP protocol can send it to not more than five addresses, whereas web-based e-mail sends it to not more than 10 addresses.
Works well.
Postmark.net
http://www.postmark.net/
Postmark.net is a web-based email service. With your Postmark.net account you get a free email address that you can check from anywhere using a web browser.
Postmark.net is supported by advertising
You may store up to 5 MB of mail in your account. Each message (incoming and outgoing) may be up to 2 MB long.
You can log in from our home page at http://www.postmark.net, and you can download and read your mail using a POP3 email client.
There is currently no outgoing (SMTP) mail server available
SAFe-mail.net
http://www.safe-mail.net/
SAFe-mail is a secure, easy to use email system. It includes encrypted collaboration features and document storage functions.
3 Mb space is free. More space and functionality is supplied under Premium Services. There are no advertisements, downloads or cookies. SAFe-mail supports most hardware platforms and any operating system. Includes spam filters. Full compatibility with most browsers, email clients and all relevant protocols including POP, SMTP, IMAP, S/MIME and PKI.
SAFe-mail is designed to provide maximum security and privacy without any complexity.
SAFE-MAIL has developed a comprehensive, feature rich communication system that provides a wide range of applications including messaging, collaborative document development, statement/invoice delivery, data distribution/access, data storage and on-line payment. Uniquely in the current market place, every application is robustly secured by state-of-the-art encryption ensuring the highest level protection and privacy to users. Within the overall system as with each application, security is not an add-on feature but has been designed in to the fundamental architecture of every function.
SAFE-MAIL provides the following functions, features and benefits:
• Feature-rich secure e-mail system including security of attachments providing private end-to-end email communication among SAFe-mail users and between SAFe-mail users and non-SAFe-mail users.
• All messages are registered and tracked with read receipt so that users know when their emails are delivered and opened by recipients.
• Address Book with secure grouping and sharing facility so that users' private address books may be securely exported and imported between SAFe-mail users.
• Folders and nesting of sub-folders enabling users to organize archived data content.
• User level Authentication facility enabling users to filter communication and data access to specific user groups.
• Scheduler with secure sharing facility enabling users' schedulers to be securely exported and imported between SAFe-mail users
SAFe-mailTM provides a high level of protection against invasion of privacy. Using SSL (Secure Socket Layer), which is a component of all current browsers, for all data transmissions and strong proprietary encryption for server security, it offers the highest possible protection for all e-mail communications and file attachments.
The policy is to enable free service and if the resources available for free are enough for you, you may use the service as long as you wish.
Features and functions of premium accounts and free accounts are similar. The main difference is in the quantities i.e. less names in the address book, less folders, filters, mails per hour, disk space, frequency of backup etc.
Free service also enables corporate senders such as banks, lawyers, heath care firms etc, to tell their customers to open a free account at safe-mail so that they can correspond with their customers securely.
We therefore believe that the benefit derived from providing free accounts (3Mb) outweighs any reason to change the current position.
The system is available at any time and from any location using any device or Operating System be it PC or Macintosh, Windows or Unix, Sun or i-mode enabled wireless device.
SoftHome
http://www.softhome.net/
SoftHome is a dedicated email service. I've had an account with them for about five years. This one works well. There is also an upgraded for-fee Professional service available.
SoftHome pledges:
"You'll get a free email address you can use for the rest of your life. It won't go away when you change jobs; it won't go away when you graduate; it won't go away when you change Internet Service Providers. No matter what happens in your life, your family and friends will always be able to reach you at your SoftHome address."
Let's hope they are more sincere about this than Apple was.
Note that SoftHome recently downgraded their free Personal Email accounts from 15 MB and 500 messages to 6 MB and 150 messages. Likewise, the transfer limit was decreased from 45 MB/month to 10 MB/month. Since the downgrade, I've found that the server is frequently slow to respond when you're checking mail, but the SMTP server continues to work well. Messages stored in the system for a period of time may also expire and be deleted. Messages can be sent via SoftHome's SMTP service to a maximum of 10 recipients per email. Web access is also available.
Spymac
http://www.spymac.com/index.php
Remember iTools? Spymac offers free 25 MB e-mail account, 350 MB combined storage, free blogging services, 250MB of free space in the Spymac Gallery, and more
According to Spymac,
Before there was the $99-per-year .Mac, Apple offered a free suite of Internet services known as iTools. From web-hosting to iCal publishing, iTools offered easy, Mac-centric access to some of the coolest aspects of Internet life. Even though multiple iTools replacements eventually popped up, not a single one managed to gain the following and generate the excitement that iTools did. Why? They did not offer the features Mac users expected. They did not offer the integration that was first experienced with iTools. And perhaps most importantly, they were not completely free.
Enter Spymac 3
Each member gets 100MB of free web space, complete with WebDAV access for easy uploading and sharing. Additionally, there is offering free iCal hosting (both private, password protected and public publishing), free e-mail (25MB of space, web-mail and external access), free blogging services, and 250MB of free space in the Spymac Gallery.
Tmicha.net
http://www.tmicha.net/
Free mailbox with 15Mb storage space, spam-free run by a bunch of computer geeks (well, actually just one geek) that got seek and tired of SPAM and decided to do something about it.
Tmicha's service is free least for now, but reserves the right to go commercial one day.
Virus Free Email
http://www.vfemail.net/
Virus Free Email provides businesses and end-users a quick and convenient way to ensure their own security when it comes to email.
VFEmail.net scans each complete email, including attachments, for viruses (AND SPAM TOO) BEFORE it gets to your INBOX. If a virus is found, you, the originator, and our staff will be notified. We do not share these email addresses, but we collect infection data, so we can pro-actively stop those offenders who may be unknowingly spreading disaster.
VFEmail also provides a convenient web-mail interface intended for corporate "Road Warriors". The flexibility of this interface includes HTML, MS Word, and MS Excel document viewers. We also support individual Email forwarding, domain forwarding, vacation messages, and work with our clients to constantly increase the flexibility of our offerings.
If you are using mail.vfemail.net as your SMTP server, you have two options:
1. Check your mailbox with POP BEFORE you send an email.
Quite a few email clients support this setting. Note: Netscape 4.7x has a bug that will cause problems in this mode, and not allow you to send email. Upgrade to Netscape 6.1
2. Use plain text to authenticate to SMTP.
This is the most popular option, all modern email clients should support this. It is also a better choice if you are an IMAP user. VFEmail.net supports SMTP over SSL, so even though your password is 'plain-text', your whole connection has already been encrypted. Email the HelpDesk if you have any questions.
Charles W. Moore
Tags: Reviews ï Internet Reviews ï
Hi Charles!
Is there any updated information about this kind of email service? Of the ones I’ve checked for from here, very few appear to still exist.
Would seem as fast as things change, there may be more somewhere offering a similar service.
Thanks for posting this back in March ‘04!
~ Curious