CAPTCHA this.

April 21, 2009 2:59 AM

Swearing in church perhaps, but alternatives to Gmail?

I have been using gmail and advising my "students" to use it too.
Due to literacy issues (computer and otherwise) they often write the wrong password, userid etc, and we are in a state of permanant CAPTCHA with google. We have to, for example, enter passwords and captcha at least 5 times in a row to create a new account.

My needs are few if I can't use gmail. A simple interface, decent storage, no ads in the mail and a bland/profesional white domain.

posted by Iteki to computers & internet (12 comments total)

No ads? And free? Might be worth a cheap hosting account, and then running SquirrelMail?

Of course No ads are possible with .

I was quite surprised when I saw my girlfriends hotmail the other day (looking over her shoulder - not snooping!) and saw how much cleaner it looks. Might do the trick.
posted by daveyt at 3:45 AM on April 21

"Of course no ads are possible with your favourite adblocker here was what i meant to say.
posted by daveyt at 3:46 AM on April 21

FastMail.fm is my email provider of choice.
posted by iSeanyboy at 4:56 AM on April 21

I use an old Hotmail account for spam and contests and such. Every time I go in there are clear it out, I'm more impressed with the interface, so nthing that.

Of course, most of their improvements seem to be copied directly from Gmail, but if you're going to imitate, might as well imitate the best, no?
posted by charmcityblues at 5:56 AM on April 21

I like Inbox.com because the SPAM filters are very aggressive (maybe too aggressive sometimes, but I prefer it that way) and it has free Pop mail forwarding to my desktop email applications. I've been using it for over 2 years pretty much problem free. Highly recommended.

I like Fastmail too, but I don't know ... it's never really grown on me 'cause I think the interface is just too blah and ugly... makes me feel like I'm using Windows 3.1.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 7:24 AM on April 21

Fastmail.fm is cool. As to it's interface, it's been updated and there are several stylesheets and you can make your own. Go under Options>Accounts to pick and choose.
posted by Saturn XXIII at 7:47 AM on April 21

I don't understand how any of these are an improvement over Gmail vis-a-vis the password problems you're having. They require passwords too.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 8:02 AM on April 21 [3 favorites has favorites]

Yeah, any email service is going to require them to remember usernames and passwords. Plus, if they're really not computer literate, it'll be burdensome for them to learn a new interface. Stick with the devil you know.
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:29 AM on April 21

To clarify, you want something like an authorization key-file based login for internet email? I can't imagine that being less complicated.

Sounds like what you need is a way for them to write down their ID/PW such that they'll recognize it. Written down and in the wallet isn't so bad.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 10:44 AM on April 21

To clarify: the problem is the aggresive handling of our (non changeable) ip-addy. Especially regarding new registrations. I've tried to Contact gmail about it for about a year but no response. Our own hosting isn't really an option for various reasons, mainly due to everyone having the same addy. Will check out the proffered suggestions and welcome some more. Unfortunatly the .fm alternative is a bit of a non starter as 'strange' tlds would create even more confusion. If it paints a clearer picture, I found one of my users on the way to the post box with a letter in an envelope with an email addy on it.
posted by Iteki at 12:33 PM on April 21

If a strange TLD is the only concern with Fastmail, they offer lots of domain names and many of those are .coms.
posted by TruncatedTiller at 12:52 PM on April 21

I'm a fastmail.fm user - they've very good but they don't offer a free account with no ads in emails. The free account has ads, the next account up is ad-free but costs USD4.95/year.

I'm not sure what happens with FM if you repeatedly get the password wrong - I certainly can't remember ever having been locked out etc and I do have 'finger-trouble' days myself.
posted by southof40 at 5:22 PM on April 21