need a change from gmail

[Christopher]

Hello all

I have used gmail for quite a few years now but since they forced their "new look"gmail on me,I would really like to find another email client,not outlook/thunderbird/windows live or hotmail.I have been looking at idnet's,would I be right in saying webmail?I set up a couple of new addresses to test and all seems ok.I know it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that gmail has but I'm really not bothered about that, cos it's just got bloated over the years,but would like to know if idnet's email is reliable and secure,also if I ever left idnet would I lose the use of the email service.Lastly do I always have to log into my idnet account page first to get to the log in page for email or is there a short cut.

FOA Rik I did read the help pages about this but I sort of lost it half way through.

Thanks in advance for any help.

If no one out there can help me with this,then could they please send me a few Shekels so I can buy some postage stamps 

[Christopher]

Just after writing my last post,went to try to log into my idnet account and the site seems to be down.So my next question is:when the idnet home page is down I can't access my email right? 

also even the netters page is struggling to load

[Steve]

I think there's been a passing burst of solar radiation.

No seriously, your not on your own it does seem to be ok now.

[Simon]

The url for the webmail is: http://webmail.idnet.com/

You can use that as a bookmark / favourite, depending on which browser you're using, and you don't have to enter via the IDNet customer portal.

I believe that you would lose the email service if you left IDNet, because it's a 'free' service included in the Broadband packages.  IDNet used to offer a paid for email service, but not sure if they still do.

There seems to have been a few issues tonight, with the IDNet Home Page, and the email, so that may well have affected you for a while.

Something else that might be worth considering:  http://www.gmx.com/

[pctech]

Personally the best thing I ever did was register my own domain and start paying for e-mail hosting.

1. I'm not saying there's anything at all wrong with IDNet's mail service or indeed any iother ISP's mail service for that matter but it does give you the freedom to move ISPs as you wish without losting your address (as its simply a value added service that you don't actually pay for as part of your subscription so the ISP deletes it if you choose to leave although I think with IDNet you can pay a small monthly fee to maintain it if you do choose to leave)

2. If you do pay a fee for your mail service then you do have some recourse in the event of an issue as you are paying that provider specifically to provide you with mail and/or web hosting, ISPs have no liability to you if the webspace or mail service provided with your ADSL connection is down for an extended period as the contract is for provision of the connection only.

[Christopher]

Thank you all very much for your replies and PM's
but as I haven't been able to access my idnet email account for over 2 hours then I don't think I'll be using it after all.

Thanks again all

[Christopher]

Thanks Simon,I'm just about to dump the awful "new look" gmail. I tried the gmxmail that you suggested and have to say I quite like it and signed up 3 accounts and all was well,but then something strange happened when I tried to sign up to 1 final account,it refused to let me and thier email support reckons that my IDNet ip address is blacklisted.I'm not really bothered about this (or should I be?) as I still managed to sign up for the last account today without any problem so I have my 4.Just curious about the blacklist is all.
Any way,glad to be shot of gmail and thanks all for the help.

[.Griff.]

Thanks Simon,I'm just about to dump the awful "new look" gmail.

I assume you're already aware you can change the look of Gmail? Mine looks no different now to the way it looks years ago.

[Simon]

Thanks for letting us know, Christopher.  I have two GMX accounts, but they're not my default accounts.  That said, they are very useful at times, and I never get spam from them. 

[JB]

Any way,glad to be shot of gmail and thanks all for the help.

A look at the GMX (.com) reviews via Google seems to show quite a few people being locked out or accounts suspended apparently for no reason. I've used a GMX (.net) account for quite a few years but you need to administer it in German. It's been very reliable and I use POP3 access to it all the time, mainly for messages from mailing lists. Both the net and com addresses of GMX resolve to very similar IP's and seem these days to be part of 1&1.

I have to agree with .Griff. about Gmail. My Gmail account looks just the same as it did years ago and the customisation options are numerous. Also, the spam filtering on Gmail is IMHO excellent.

[Christopher]

I assume you're already aware you can change the look of Gmail? Mine looks no different now to the way it looks years ago.

Hi Griff, if you mean gmail used to allow you to switch between  the old and new versions,well it maybe that you still have that option,I had it for months up until a few days ago but now gmail has forced the new look on me and thousands of others,just "google gmail new look" and see what comes up or look at this  http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dear-google-get-rid-of-the-new-look/signatures Then what do I know, but if you say you can configure gmail to use the old look then please tell me how as I and many others would love to know how.

Thanks for all replies

PS any thoughts as to why my IDNet IP address may be blacklisted

[Steve]

PS any thoughts as to why my IDNet IP address may be blacklisted

On which site Chris?

[Christopher]

On which site Chris?

Morning Steve

Could I refer you to my post No: 6 on: Yesterday at 14:42:21

Thanks

[Gary]

Hi Griff, if you mean gmail used to allow you to switch between  the old and new versions,well it maybe that you still have that option,I had it for months up until a few days ago but now gmail has forced the new look on me and thousands of others,just "google gmail new look" and see what comes up or look at this  http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dear-google-get-rid-of-the-new-look/signatures Then what do I know, but if you say you can configure gmail to use the old look then please tell me how as I and many others would love to know how.

Thanks for all replies

PS any thoughts as to why my IDNet IP address may be blacklisted

There is a cog, you can change theme, and screen spacing on that, there a loads of tweeks to make gmail look like you want.

[Christopher]

There is a cog, you can change theme, and screen spacing on that, there a loads of tweeks to make gmail look like you want.

Yeah ok Gary

[peasblossom]

In Chris's defence here, the only option is to get used to the new look. It's not possible to go back to the classic look and several theme options aren't around any more either. (No more choosing your own colours.) Or use the Seamonkey web browser which it doesn't recognise as in the 21st c and gives a remarkably retro look!

[Simon]

Another vote for SeaMonkey here. 

[.Griff.]

There is a cog, you can change theme, and screen spacing on that, there a loads of tweeks to make gmail look like you want.

As Gary says just use the cog and change the spacing/theme to how you want.

As 6jb also confirmed once you alter the settings it looks as it did in the past.

[cavillas]

Why not use the old trusted Hotmail or livemail as it's now called.  Neverhad any problems over the past umpty years since it was nade available (about 10 or so I think).

[sebt]

Probably a little late to the party on this one but here's my recommendation. Use the Opera browser's email client in IMAP mode with Gmail. It works beautifully for me: gives me the best of Gmail, without the BS, and a local mail client interface which for serious emailing is much nicer than any webmail interface.

Gmail is great but like the OP the webmail overhaul was not to my liking. In addition I didn't like the fact that at certain times, typically from 11pm to 1am (hey - I'm a night owl) Gmail often got completely unresponsive. It would also on other occasions become unresponsive.

Continuing to use Gmail, I simply use Opera's IMAP mail client as my main interface to it instead, which neatly solves all the problems. It's always lightining quick and responsive. The reason being, imo, that it's the web portion of their servers that get stymied, not the mail servers themselves. Opera talks directly to the mail servers and bypasses the web servers.

Also you can install Opera on as many machines as you like and everything's kept nicely in sync, along with my Android Gmail as well. Nice. My mail is accessible from all devices and all share a single Inbox, Sent items, etc.. Opera itself is lean and fast and a nice alternative to the other "big browsers". As a web developer and programmer it's my default browser too due to its great CSS support and developer tools. Small free download, doesn't cr*p over your PC nor interfere with anything else.

Concurrently with using IMAP, you can continue to use the webmail interface too. As others may have pointed out, clicking the cog and choosing the compact theme gets you pretty close to the way Gmail used to be.

I would personally steer very clear of Hotmail, Yahoo mail etc.. Their security record is pretty appalling, where Gmail's is actually pretty good. You need to weigh up the benefits of "the cloud" with your own security or reliability needs on this one, and for me Gmail's track record balances these requirements.

Of course you could use other mail services with IMAP, or you could use another mail client like Thunderbird, Seamonkey or whatever. But I like Opera's approach - it's fast and integrates tightly into the browser. Only shame - but no biggie - is that presently Opera's contacts and Google contacts are not synchronised, and some of the nicer Gmail Inbox views (like Priority Inbox) are not there in Opera. Starring directly from Opera is supported though

Good luck, hope this helps. Msg back if you need any help setting up..

S

[Christopher]

Hi sebt thanks for your comments.

The quality of gmail was never an issue with me,always found it very good and reliable. It was the "new look" format I had issues with but not any more,I have dumped gmail and gone with hotmail and gmx and they seem to suit my needs.

Thanks again

[casual-moron]

Hi Chris.

you didn't mention if you were looking for another "free" service or something that's gonna cost you money 

looking at the latter here's two options that might be of interest

1. virtually every web hosting package under the sun includes email into the bargin, prices vary but it normally costs about 5 quid per month for a decent package that will throw in a "free" domain name so you can be [whatever@whatever.com], you can normally setup a bunch of different addresses which is handy if you have family. it includes a webmail interface as well as the ability to download your mail as per normal. if you've any interest in having a website this is probably the way to go, your email (and website) are obviously dependent on continuing to pay the bill, although its fairly trivial to back everything up and move it to a different provider. 

as a side note, I've got a dedicated server running cpanel (the software most big hosting company use), if you wanted to have a poke about to see what the webmail looked like before deciding whether or not to go that way, I'd be more than happy to set you up with a dummy account (send me a pm)

2. to my surprise Microsoft's office 365 is ... not terrible, in it's basic guise it costs roughly the same as premium gmail (£2.60 per user per month) it's hosted exchange which is Microsoft's business email system, and includes phone syncing and various other toys, although it does look like a webmail version of outlook, so might not be to your taste.