http mail email client?

October 5, 2005 1:07 AM

Please recommend a new mail client

My email provider (which I'm loathe to change because I don't want the hassle of making sure everyone has the right address, particularly since I get offers of work through it...) no longer has POP access. They provide a .exe which extends Outlook/Outlook Express to handle http mail and provide access to the account. It works fairly well. They also have a web interface, which doesn't...

Problem is, I'm leaving the place of work where I have a copy of Outlook that will work with it (I have an older one at home, which won't). It still works with Outlook Express, but that won't let me put groups in my address book, and I have a few things I regularly send out to lists of 30 or so people.

I've been trying Thunderbird - it has an extension that lets it deal with webmail. Works fine until I try to send an attachment - a word document I sent to one of these lists yesterday (and I send at least one a month) came out as a stream of random characters in the body of the email.

So, I need either a mail client that will do both mailing lists and http mail, or a mail account that will somehow let me aggregate mails from my old address...

posted by monkey closet to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Does your email provider allow you to forward emails to another address automatically? If so, you can change to another provider and start letting people know you have changed. Any emails that go to the old one will be redirected to your new one. Many people go through this and it does work out in the end.

Can't speak to the specifics of a mail client.
posted by qwip at 2:01 AM on October 5, 2005

I don't know all the details, but if you sign up with GMail you can change your sender address make it look like you are emailing from your old client even while you used GMail. I am pretty happy with GMail along on the web without a Outlook/Thunderbird client. The new Yahoo mail looks pretty sharp as well, but I know they used to make you pay for POP access and probably still do. Gmail doesnt.
posted by BigBrownBear at 2:30 AM on October 5, 2005

which I'm loathe to change because I don't want the hassle of making sure everyone has the right address, particularly since I get offers of work through it

I'm sorry, but this sounds to me like a situation where you need to bite the bullet and move. You shouldn't be jumping through hoops for dealing with your primary email.

Get a new account, now. Gmail is great. Keep both accounts for a bit, but tell everyone to start using your new email. As the flow to your old account slows to a trickle, remind each sender of your new address. Yes, there will be a point at which you'll have to cut and run, and yes, there's always the chance that someone who hasn't had any contact with you whatsoever in a year will try to reach you, but that's life. It's no different from physically moving and getting a new phone number.
posted by mkultra at 6:52 AM on October 5, 2005

The problem with webmail-to-mail client solutions is that they break easily when your mail provider changes its page layout.

Is your mail provider lycos.co.uk? It looks like they will give you POP access if you upgrade to LycosMax for 0.79 pounds per month. They also have a free trial.
posted by profwhat at 6:58 AM on October 5, 2005

What mkultra said - get a new account. Gmail is good, and will be around for the long term, but as an alternative: I got my own domain several years ago never looked back. You can find email-only providers for a reasonable annual fee (you don't have to worry about the full-fledged web site foofooraw if you don't want).

Once you get your own domain (monkeycloset.co.uk is available...), you'll never have to change your email address again. And you gain the benefit of being able to have a (basically) unlimited number of email addresses, so you can give different ones out to different companies so you can find out which of the bastards sold your address to someone.

If you do decide to change your address, see if your current provider provides mail forwarding. There may not be a webmail option to set up forwarding, but they may be able to do something on the back end for you.
posted by flipper at 7:56 AM on October 5, 2005

Are you sure you can't use groups in outlook express? I used to regularly send out multi-recipient emails to a named group ("volunteers," "students" that sort of thing) from my address book in OE. I switched and don't have it installed so I can't check, but if that is the main problem it might be solvable.
posted by Rumple at 8:10 AM on October 5, 2005

Another option to getting your own domain is one of the more permanent mail forwarding options. Obviously you're at the mercy of their continued existance but at least you can move around with impunity till then. Pobox.com offers it. Mine is through the ACM and part of a professional membership. There are, no doubt, plenty more.

Does your provider offer forwarding? Perhaps you can simply forward everything to the new address for a few months while notification trickles outwards.

Seriously, webmail only and some ghetto interface thing that's only provided for one app on one platform? Teh intruwub is too well developed at this point for anyone to have to put up with that kind of crap. Stop rewarding mediocrity and take your business elsewhere. A business that sucks that hard is gonna keep sucking and you may as well get the pain over with sooner rather than later.
posted by phearlez at 8:57 AM on October 5, 2005

Rumple writes "Are you sure you can't use groups in outlook express?

You can definitely do groups in Outlook Express: Choose "Tools -> Address Book" (Ctrl+Shift+B), then choose "File -> New Group..." (Ctrl+G). It will give you the option of adding people from your address book to the group, adding people to your address book and the group, or adding people only to the group. It takes a while to get used to it, but it works fine.
posted by tuxster at 1:35 PM on October 5, 2005

For a step up from something like gmail, try something like mailsnare.net (if you don't mind the domain name). I've heard generally good things from people who have used them.
posted by devilsbrigade at 4:34 PM on October 5, 2005