Web-based email vs. OE/T-bird

Sonny Jenkins · From: Texas Masonic Retirement Center,,,Arlington Tx

Could someone discuss the pros and cons of web email vs. OE or T-bird? I know Wiz uses Moxilla,,not sure if he uses T-bird. Is web more/less secure? What are other factors that would indicate one over the other. I am pack rat,,,tend to keep most of my emails,,(never know when you might need something,,,LOL) and my T-bird account fills up. Just learned a while back that the various folders need to be compacted on a regular basis.

I do have a g-mail account that I am considering using as my primary account.

How about some discussion???

Bob Bowden · From: Vancouver, BC, Canada * R.I.P.

My setup is probably overkill for most people. I have two gmail-based accounts which are auto-forwarded to my home ISP account. Thunderbird is the client of choice. With this arrangement, I can easily change ISPs without having to send a new email address to everyone. The biggest advantage is the spam filtering. Gmail does a decent job of filtering out the bad stuff but not all. Almost of the the spam that slips past gmail is caught by the spam filter at my ISP. To add to all that, I also have ICQ set to check my email. With that, I can preview my email before downloading it to my computer and delete any bad stuff that might have slipped past the spam/virus filters before it gets to my machine.

Just having the two spam filters along the way makes a huge difference. At one point, I was receiving up to 300 spam messages a day. Now, it is down to one or two every couple days and those I catch with ICQ.

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

I never use my browser for email, except to reactivate Hotmail or Yahoo, after they make server changes. While I do browse the 'net with Firefox exclusively, I don't use Thunderbird as my email client. I had too many messages, folders and rules saved in Outlook Express to make changing systems impossible.

I decided to change email clients after learning that Outlook Express support for Hotmail was going to end. In fact, that end is about to arrive, on September 1, 2009. After that date you cannot access your Hotmail accounts via Outlook Express, period.

My desktop email client is now Windows Live Mail, from Microsoft. Designed as a replacement for Outlook Express, it imported all saved messages (in .eml format), accounts and custom folders from Outlook Express, when I upgraded in 2008. Aside from having to scroll down past the incoming account folders, to get to my custom filing folders, I like it very much. It has a very effective Junk filter and configurable filtering rules. Used in conjunction with my mail screening program, MailWasher Pro, which has my custom spam filters installed, very little junk makes it to my desktop client.
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Sonny Jenkins · From: Texas Masonic Retirement Center,,,Arlington Tx

Anymore input???? Jack Stoner??,,,,,,,,,,,,,

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I have my domains at Register.com and I use their email services, too. It's a secure WebMail system. They recently rewrote the client as a Java applet, and it's pretty slick. It seems to me to be as full featured as Apple Mail or Outlook Express. I can access it from any of the computers I use at home, at work or on the road. Since the storage is on Register.com's servers, I have access to my sent messages, old emails, address book, etc. from anywhere.

The same account handles all of the outgoing mail from the forum, too! Cool

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Mitch Drumm · From: Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake

Sonny:

I have a Yahoo web mail account, but rarely use it. I don't like to deal with log-ins to get email, although I think you can arrange a forwarding scheme to get web mail forwarded to a PC email application such as Thunderbird.

I used OE for 10 years, but it is not included in Vista and Windows 7, so I had to change.

I used "Windows Mail" for about 6 months in Vista and eventually got fed up with its behavior.

I tried "Live Mail" for a couple of weeks and wasn't impressed.

I went to Thunderbird about 6 weeks ago and all seems well. The interface is very much like OE and I like that.

I am not sure what you mean by your account filling up. As far as I know, you don't have an account anywhere. It's all on your hard drive.

I have at least 200 emails stored in Thunderbird with no issues. I compact folders maybe every 2 weeks and it is recommended. I do back up my email every couple of weeks.

It is good practice to keep your inbox as empty as possible because it is more prone to corruption. Just transfer any email in the inbox to another folder.

Sonny Jenkins · From: Texas Masonic Retirement Center,,,Arlington Tx

Hey Mitch,,,when I say I'm a email pack rat,,,I mean it!!! I have about 1200 in my (T-bird) inbox!! I started putting them into folders last week,,,very slow process,,,have to read each one again,,,LOL. I have enough jokes to supply Jay Leno for the rest of his life,,,,enough political info to impeach Obama several times over,,,,enough inspirational stuff to feed evangelical T.V for a year!!!!! Guess I'd better get back "cleaning",,,,,,,,LOL

Gary Richardi · From: SoCal, USA

I've been using Yahoo WebMail for well over 10 years for personal emails. My main account is a free account but I also have a number of other accounts that provide pop server access so I can use either a webmail or local email client. I also had to use Lotus Notes for many years on the job.'

I find webmail access is definitely the easiest. I can check my mail from any internet device as opposed to only being able to get my mail where my local client is installed & configured. I've got my yahoo spam filter trained pretty well and it funnels a huge amount of spam into the spam bucket. I never have to look at it. Very few spams get through to my inbox (and it's very rare that a valid email gets directed to the spam bucket - once a year maybe).

Yahoo and Gmail (probably Hotmail too) have "unlimited" online storage now so I never have to cull my email and always have access to it from anywhere. Yes, that means some yahoo admin team does too but unless you encode your email, it's an open system and you should never send sensitive info by email.

Lately, I've installed Office 2007 (which I absolutely loathe but have to be familiar with) and have directed a couple of my att/yahoo accounts to Outlook 2007 while still keeping copies online. I'm only doing that as an excersize to use Outlook. Webmail clients are SO much more convenient and I like the fact that malicious messages/attachments never reach my PC (Yahoo also scans all email for viruses).

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Sonny,

I use T-Bird as well, and have not had any storage issues or too many files.

Like Wiz, I also have Mailwasher Pro, and use it religiously everytime I go to access T-Bird. MW 1st, and then on to T-Bird. If I see anything marked or not by MW that doesn't look "good", it's deleted, bounced, and blacklisted. MW is a pretty cool program and worth considering adding to your array. For instance I have the Forum setup so that I get notified via email if a response has been posted in a specific topic.
Well, I can access the Forum directly from MW, without even bothering opening T-Bird. Also, most emails can be fully read from MW, and can really help you to decide if something is good or bad. So a lot of elimination can be handled without any viciousness getting to your PC right from MW.

I do have a Google Gmail account, but I hardly ever use it. I don't get and/or send much email. I'm small potatoes. However, one advantage, I think, of like Gmail over T-Bird is that Gmail has a larger MB sending capacity. So you might be able to send off 3 or 4 average songs (2+MBs) within 1 Gmail; where as in T-Bird I'm sure 2 songs would probably be the limit.

That's all there is to it. I don't understand 'filters', so I do not have any set up.

But, so far, I found T-Bird to be pretty close to old Eudora (my past email provider); trouble free as we speak. Smile

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Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

Chip;
Thanks for plugging MailWasher Pro. Anybody who is interested in trying it, buying it, or just learning more details, can visit my MailWasher Pro web page.

A word of advice, if I may. Please do not use the Bounce feature for spam. All of the sender addresses are forged by the same scripts that compose the messages. Bouncing spam creates useless backscatter, clogging already overloaded email servers with sometimes undeliverable messages and confusing people who don't know why they got your bounced message. Bouncing should only be done if you know the sender's address is valid, but don't wish to be bothered by them.

The bounce feature is a carryover from the original version of MailWasher, and its use is discouraged by the makers, on the official MailWasher Pro forum.
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Twitter: @Wizcrafts
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John Cipriano · From: San Francisco

I like IMAP. You get the "available and in sync everywhere" plus of webmail with the convenience and offline-reading ability of a regular mail client.

I have been using GMail for a long time and everything but my work account (which is also IMAP) forwards to it. It's pretty much ideal for me. Their spam protection is the best I have ever used, so I don't need spam filters on my client at all.

I check my email on my phone quite a bit and while GMail's mobile site is nice, turning on IMAP and hooking up the built-in client is still better for me.

Chip: just a terminology thing, but Thunderbird and Eudora are both mail clients rather than providers. Your provider is most likely your ISP. Also the client doesn't impose the message size limit, your provider does. But you are probably right about the limits being tighter than Google's. I think the GMail limit is 25 MB. Of course, not everyone can receive messages that size so you still have to be careful.

Bob: you can't discount the possibility that people will see your ISP email account. It will show up in the headers and changing the reply-to is not foolproof. So if you do change ISPs you may have to tell some people. Not a big deal but I thought I'd let you know Smile

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

John Cipriano,

Thank you, friend.

I certainly mess up with PC techno vocabulariac technologeese - thanks.

Very Happy

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Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.

John Cipriano · From: San Francisco

None of it exactly rolls off the tongue Very Happy

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

And you, too, Wizardo,

I will now cease to be a BOUNCER.

Thanks again for the little known facts. Cool

_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer.

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