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Internet April 2001 • Vol.9 Issue 4 Page(s) 110-112 in print issue |
E-mail & More Online Sites Offer A One-Stop Shop For Messaging Needs | ||
 Whether you use the local phone company or Joe's Lawn Care and Internet Service to access the Internet, e-mail is a standard part of your Internet subscription. Given the fact that you already have free e-mail, why should you even consider using a Web site to send and receive messages? The answer to that question may surprise you. Web-based e-mail services such as Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, or Lycos Communications offer a bevy of features you're not going to get from your ISP (Internet service provider) without spending an extra dime. Some of the additional features you can receive from Web-based services include voice mail, wireless messaging, and password protection.  Available Services. We couldn't talk about Web-based e-mail without mentioning some of the better-known services. Take a look at the following messaging services to determine which one will best fit your needs.
Being one of the most powerful and flexible address books available online makes Yahoo! Mail one of the most powerful and flexible free e-mail sites on the Web. The address book in Yahoo! Mail can import contact information from Microsoft Outlook, PDAs (personal digital assistants), and the ubiquitous Netscape address book. Built-in features also enable users to synchronize the Yahoo! Mail address book with Outlook, Outlook Express, Symantec Act, Lotus Organizer, and Palm organizers. Once you've entered information about a contact, the address book can even draw, map, and provide driving directions to a street address. Yahoo! Mail can be configured to automatically sort incoming messages into different folders based on text in the header, address line, subject line, and body of the message. It will even forward specific messages (say, from your spouse or stockbroker) to a pager or cell phone. Yahoo! Mail is a good choice if safety and security are top priorities for you. You can password protect outgoing messages, and attachments to incoming messages are automatically scanned by Norton Antivirus. Yahoo! Mail also provides voice mail capabilities and 6MB of online storage, which can be upgraded to 25MB for $19.99 per year. Other features include message forwarding, downloading e-mail from a POP3 account, spam filter, group e-mail lists, and vacation response. http://www.mail.yahoo.com
TheMail.com may not be the most powerful e-mail site on the Web, but it offers enough bells and whistles—including a MergeMail function—to satisfy the needs of the average computer user. And it's one of the easiest Web-based e-mail sites to use. From any page on the TheMail.com Web site, you can compose a message, open the address book, retrieve mail from a POP3 e-mail account, or create a mail merge message. Clicking the MergeMail command opens a message composition screen almost identical to the standard message composer. The only real difference in the MergeMail composer is an extra pull-down menu containing field names from the address book. Click a field such as <first name>, <last name>, or <home address> and MergeMail automatically inserts the relevant information in the message. Each person who receives the message will get a "personalized" message based on information in the address book. Another feature, the File Manager, lets you store computer files, such as spreadsheets or photos, online so you can attach them to e-mail messages regardless of where you're at when you access the Internet. TheMail.com provides 5MB of online storage. In addition, you can download the Webmail CheckIt program and access your e-mail without launching the full browser. Other features include message forwarding, downloading e-mail from a POP3 account, group e-mail lists, automatic response, and vacation response. http://www.themail.com
Hate junk mail? Then this may be the ideal Web mail service for you because of the way it filters, sorts, and manages incoming messages. Hotmail features an Inbox Protector feature, which identifies spam and sends it directly to a Bulk Mail folder. If there are some junk mail messages you actually want to receive (be honest, you like the offers from Victoria's Secret), Inbox Protector can create a Safe List that saves them and sends everything else to the Trash Can, which Hotmail automatically empties several times a week. If you receive a message that is not bulk e-mail but is delivered to the Bulk Mail folder, you can open the message and click on the "This Is Not Bulk mail" button. Hotmail will send future messages from this address directly to your Inbox or another folder. A related feature, Block Sender, identifies specific addresses from which you will not accept e-mail. For your protection, McAfee VirusScan is used to scan any attachments that accompany incoming messages. As you might suspect, Hotmail is available free through Microsoft Network and includes the MSN Messenger Service. With the MSN Messenger feature, you can use the Web to chat with your friends via voice from your PC. If you subscribe to MSN Mobile services, Hotmail can use your cell phone or pager to notify you of important new e-mail messages. Hotmail provides just 2MB of online storage, but it can be configured to work with Outlook Express and store messages on your PC's hard drive. Other features included with Hotmail are message forwarding, downloading e-mail from a POP3 account, and group e-mail lists. http://www.hotmail.com Lycos Communications For group e-mails and voice mail, Lycos Communications offers some outstanding features. The address book lets users open up and modify e-mail groups according to each individual message. This lets you send the message to some members of the group, but not others, which is a handy feature if you're using your "Friends" list to send invitations to a surprise birthday party and you don't want to tip off the guest of honor. Lycos makes it easy to get the voice mail feature up and running. Once you've registered, you'll receive a welcome message via voice mail message to give you an idea of how voice mail works on your computer. You'll need to sign up for the Premium service to forward voice mails or receive voice mail notification on your computer. Unfortunately, the Premium service isn't available in every state. A particularly handy feature uses text-to-voice technology to send voice mail using your computer keyboard. Lycos also uses the same Instant Messenger feature as America Online, so you can chat in real-time with more 6.5 million AOL and Lycos users. Lycos provides an outstanding 15MB of online storage. Other features include the ability to downloading e-mail from a POP3 account and auto reply/vacation notification. http://www.mail.lycos.com
We found one of the most versatile services to be Excite Inbox, which combines e-mail, voice mail, wireless messaging, and faxing. It's a great combination for business users. The free voice mail service is designed to recognize and receive faxes sent to your voice mail box. After someone sends you a fax, use your computer to log into the voice mail box and download the fax as an attachment to the message. The free mobile access feature lets Web-enabled mobile phones access the Excite Inbox address book. You can even use Excite to store preprogrammed QuickText Messages, such as "Got your message and will reply ASAP" or "I'm on my way," that you can send from your mobile phone. You can also synchronize your Excite Inbox address book with Microsoft Outlook, the Netscape address book, and other e-mail programs. Excite Inbox provides up to 3MB of e-mail storage, or 1,000 messages a month. It also provides storage for up to 60 voice mail messages per month and 10 faxes a month. Other features include e-mail forwarding, downloading e-mail from a POP3 account, and group e-mail lists. http://www.excite.com How Web-based E-mail Works. With conventional e-mail, you log onto the Internet using your routine ISP connection, then using an e-mail program, such as Eudora or Outlook Express, you download and read your e-mail. The same program is used to access your mailbox and send e-mail messages. Unlike conventional e-mail, with Web-based e-mail you log onto the Internet using any connection, be it your dial-up connection at home, your network-based connection at the office, or a computer at a Web café. Then, using a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, you access the Web-based e-mail site, type in your user name and password, and access your mailbox. You can read your messages online and then delete them or store them on the Web site. Web-based e-mail sites typically let users store 5MB of messages on the site itself. A message stored on the site can be accessed from any computer with Internet access. If you decide to read a message offline, simply save it to your hard drive, then copy and save the text to your word processor or print it out. To send a message, log onto the Web site and use the built-in composer feature. If you don't want to tie up the phone line while you draft an e-mail message online, compose your message offline in your word processor first. Then you can copy it to the Windows clipboard, log onto the e-mail site, launch the composer, and paste the text into the composer. All of the software you need is built into your Web browser and the Internet site itself. Unlike ISP-based e-mail services, you won't need to install special software on your computer in order to use the Web-based e-mail service. Better yet, you won't have to deal with the hassle of configuring e-mail software to work with your ISP. E-mail Forwarding. E-mail has become so ubiquitous that many computer users have two or more e-mail addresses, typically one for the office and another for home. Moreover, e-mail addresses alter along with changes in jobs, schools, and residences. Simplify your e-mail experience by using Web-based programs, which can help reduce or eliminate the hassles caused by multiple addresses. Web-based addresses let users check office e-mail from home and home e-mail from the office. This is possible because e-mail meant for both locations is sent to the same Web-based e-mail address. And if you happen to change jobs or move to another town, your e-mail address will remain the same. In some instances, it may not be feasible to use a single e-mail address for all of your messages. For example, if your employer requires that you use its Web domain for work-related messages, you'll have to log into separate e-mail accounts for personal and work-related mail. In this particular situation, a Web-based e-mail service with message forwarding can automatically forward mail to your work e-mail address. And if you change jobs, you can reconfigure the Web mailbox to redirect messages from your personal Web mailbox to the e-mail system at your new job. Alternatively, you may be able to use a POP mail feature to download messages from your work e-mail account (or any other e-mail system that uses the POP3 e-mail standard, including the e-mail box provided by your ISP) to your Web mailbox. Be forewarned, though, that many companies don't allow outside access to their e-mail systems. Voice, Wireless & More. When signing up for a free Web-based e-mail account, some sites may automatically sign you up for a free voice mail account. Typically, these services provide a local telephone number and an extension that friends, business associates, babysitters, or anyone else can call to leave a voice message for you. Retrieve your voice mail by phoning the same number and extension and typing in a numeric password. You can also use your Web connection to download and listen to voice mail. Other sites go so far as to offer free wireless messaging to notify you when e-mail or voice mail arrives in your Web mail box or voice mail box. Depending on the sophistication of the service, users may be notified via a hand-held PDA or Web-enabled cell phone. A few Web-based e-mail sites even offer features that synchronize the address book in your PDA or cell phone with the addresses and contact information you save in your online address book. Two of the sites reviewed above, Yahoo! Mail and Excite Inbox, will let you create a printed copy of the address books. Web sites that offer these advanced features frequently make them available free, but require users to sign up for a special membership to the Web site. These special memberships are frequently free, but there is a catch. By signing up, you give the Web site permission to send you e-mail from its business partners. In essence, you're signing up to receive junk e-mail in exchange for some really great features. Few Compromises. This is a lot of great stuff, but perhaps you already use your ISP's e-mail service and a standalone e-mail program, (such as Outlook Express or Eudora ) to write, read, compose, save, and organize e-mail. You may be thinking that you'll have to give up all those features if you opt to use Web-based e-mail. Not necessarily. If you choose wisely, you can find a service that provides the features you use most. Most sites will let you organize your e-mail into folders and create an address book with information about everyone you e-mail. Some Web sites can even sort your mail, automatically placing messages from family into a Family folder or business-related messages into a Work folder. Other features to evaluate include: •Group e-mail, which lets you click a single address entry and send messages to a group of people. Look for address books that let you create and edit group lists easily. •Virus scanning, which protects your computer by scanning attachments to incoming messages. •Spam filters, which detect unsolicited e-mail and send it to a bulk mail folder instead of your inbox. Some Web mail sites offer only a basic take-it-or-leave-it filter, while others let you customize the filter to meet personal preferences. •Auto reply, a kind of "return receipt" that sends a standardized message back to anyone who sends you e-mail. •Vacation notification, a variation of auto reply that you can use when you're on vacation (or are otherwise uable to reply to e-mail messages).  by Jack Huttig
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