Slashdot Mirror

MailAndNews.com is also great. Free POP3, IMAP4, and web access... plus (for now, at least), 60 minutes of email over the phone (great for travelling). I've had accounts with them since '97 (although this account is from '99). They had server problems about 3 weeks ago... first downtime I've seen in 4 years (RAID problems). Other than that... highly recommended. I personally have 6 accounts with them... it's an awesome service.

It would probably be expensive, but it would give them a slight edge over the competition, or even just let them catch up with the competition ...

Yahoo makes more money than all the webmail services that allow SSL combined. If they "caught up", they'd be making far less profit. Their shareholders would probably sue them.

They have 125 million registered users. How many do you honestly think they'd gain by offering SSL? How many do places like MailandNews.com have combined? A few thousand? A million?

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I've been using mailandnews.com for about a year and am very pleased with their services. It seems to be a very down-to-earth operation (and I've never gotten spam!). However, I have had some experiences with server slowness and downtime that have caused some headaches. But I stay with them. Why? I haven't found a free service that is better...

MailVault

Disclaimer, this is hearsay, I don't actually use the service. Since I'm a little less worried about security than you sound to be, MailandNews.Com has served my needs fine. Secure connections, pop, imap...

<plug>
From our website you can download a restricted (by number of users, I believe) demo of the server, which will connect to any (reasonable) POP3 or IMAP4 server and SMTP server, with LDAP optional to make things simpler. Our WAP gateway also has a demo version.
</plug>

In the interests of balance, I should point out that a number of other companies are doing it including Infinite, which provides a service at http://www.mailandnews.com. As has been pointed out elsewhere, Nokia's gateway (the smaller version too, not just the Artus platform) also provides a similar service. Of course, I believe Peramon's offering is the best one :)

Various ISPs are now providing the service at source, such as Freeserve and Gateway.net in the UK.

WAP works *today* - I use my WAP phone for reading mail (and occasionally playing Colossal Cave Adventure or Hangman, or solving crossword clues) most days, and certainly will be using it on holiday. Yes, there's limited content at the moment but it's growing at a rate of knots.

Jon

There are tons of Hotmail alternatives. (go to yahoo, type in "free email" and you'll be amazed!) I use two that I like: excite, and mailandnews. I think now just about every portal (yahoo, altavista, netscape, etc.) gives free e-mail. excite has a nice interface, and it's easy to set up to check multiple external pop mail boxes, which is very useful when travelling. mailandnews.com is great because you get a free pop mail box, which you can check using any regular mail client. It seems fairly reliable, although about once a week or so it's inaccessible for about an hour. Not enough to make a big difference, and it is, after all, a free pop mail box!

from their homepage:
"Users of the popular Sprint PCS Wireless Web service can access their e-mail for free here at MailandNews.com. If you have a phone that is wireless Internet ready, check out how here"..

fwiw, I also use mailandnews to access my pop accounts and usenet...

cheers,

V.

https://www.mailandnews.com has been offering this service for a long time. And they do news, too.