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Phil Phelps
08-24-2003, 6:23 PM
With all the viruses and junk out there, do you use mail2web.com?
I use it all the time. I'm on a dial up ( don't start in callin' me cheap, Salisbury!!) and I check my mail using the "back door". It shows me whats on the server, and I can delete all the trash without downloading any of it on Outlook Express. Really helpful, to me, on a long file I don't want to wait and download at home. You can also view your mail from any computer anywhere. For those of you who haven't used this service, give it a try. I think you'll like it.

Jason Roehl
08-24-2003, 6:31 PM
Phil, I use Eudora--it's less attacked by worms and viruses, it's free, and I've had nearly zero lock-up problems with it, unlike Outlook or Outlook Express, which used to lock up on me all the time (and lose all messages at times!!). My ISP also gives me the option of using a mail viewer on the web, so I, too, can read my e-mail from any i-net connected computer. I also use a "disposable" Yahoo account for filling in webforms--turns that account into a SPAM "flytrap", keeping the garbage away from the account that I use with friends and family.

Michael Cody
08-24-2003, 6:56 PM
With all the viruses and junk out there, do you use mail2web.com?
I use it all the time. I'm on a dial up ( don't start in callin' me cheap, Salisbury!!) and I check my mail using the "back door". It shows me whats on the server, and I can delete all the trash without downloading any of it on Outlook Express. Really helpful, to me, on a long file I don't want to wait and download at home. You can also view your mail from any computer anywhere. For those of you who haven't used this service, give it a try. I think you'll like it.


All my mail comes in via Yahoo Mail .. web based mail services are a great defense against most viruses and almost all offer spam blocking too. In addition you can check them from just about anywhere, even on the road if you can get web access.

I even have 2-3 of smaller customers using them as a main business email for 20-30 people.. no mail server to maintain, virus scanner upkeep is avoided (for mail anyway), etc... it's a great thing for small company with no tech staff.

I am a Lotus CP, install Notes, etc.. I do Win2k, Novell and IBM As400 networks too.. as well as being an X-Network manager for a 70+ node Exchange network. I was there when Melissa hit in 1998 and shut us down worldwide in under 30 minutes.. We deleted over 2 million emails that weekend -- in our exchange system all the top address book entries were mailing lists, we started them with an "*" to make them sort to the top.. so Melissa didn't just send 50 emails, it sent 50 emails to addresses that were lists of up to 7000 people and each of those folks sent 50 emails to those same lists and so on....

We ended up taking the code for Melissa and re-wrote it to go into the mail box of each user and delete emails w/Melissa subject ... anyway, even with all this experience, up-to-date virus scanners, using Lotus Notes now which is not as big a target as Outlook, I still recommend folks start using a bigger web based email system... like Yahoo or HotMail.. it's got it's advantages and very few disadvantages in my humble opinion.. Even if you need more space you can get 100mb from Yahoo for somelike 20$ a year... that's cheap insurance to avoid a lot of headaches.

Steven Wilson
08-24-2003, 7:02 PM
I have 10 or so email accounts, mainly with yahoo or hotmail, that I use. I arrainge them in a hierarchy of trust, the highest of which I then use Exchange to consolidate from (running on a separate Win2K server w/ very good virus protection and custom filters) and Outlook on my own workstation to read from. I've never had a virus make it to my Outlook inbox. My three lowest trust accounts receive close to 1000 messages a day, 90% or so of which is spam, that I read with online readers and not Outlook. If a message is legit then I'll move it to various folders that my Exchange server will download from.

Paul Kunkel
08-25-2003, 11:28 PM
If you are on a Mac, Phil I have all sorts of answers for you. I personally on my home email rarely get more than a few emails a day and their all ones I want to receive. OSX native email app 'Mail' has built in spam filter. Mac's in general get practally no virii (never had Norton pick one up) plus my dialup ISP has a email filter that does a bangup job of keeping the rifraf away. Whatever u use get Norton antivirus, even if you use a web based client. One false move importing and opening a file that is contaminated and you're toast.

Jim Becker
08-26-2003, 9:39 AM
With all the viruses and junk out there, do you use mail2web.com?

I use https://Mail2Web.com when I travel...Softcom is my hosting service for my web site (myhosting.com) and email as it happens. The service is convenient and works well. The only beef I have is that I prefer to use the secure connection method (SSL) and when you click on logout/login as a different account, it defaults back to non-SSL.

At home, my email is first screened with Mailwasher Pro (http://www.mailwasher.net/) . It allows me to bounce and/or delete email I don't wish to receive, including spam and virus-laden messages. I even "read" some of the email directly from it and delete them without downloading for convenience. The "new message" messages from SMC are an example of this...I click on the links from the Mailwasher Pro window to access the threads and just delete the message from MWP without bringing up Outlook. In this manner, Outlook is no longer running 24-7 and downloading things I just don't want to see.