Email Providers

I recently got an ireland.com address and it's very unreliable - it can take several attempts to log in and it sometimes doesn't log out properly. This is annoying for lots of reasons, one of which is that it's a subscription account.

I've got a hotmail account I've had for years but because some places (Councils for example) don't like hotmail, it's been a niusance sending attachments which don't arrive or get twisted. Or the mails don't arrive at all. I've had experiences where I've been able to log into my hotmail account and open the message from the sent messages folder on the computer of a person who clearly doesn't believe that I've sent it. That's not good for business. Hence ireland.com, which is sober and sensible.

I also have a gmail and a googlemail account, both of which I almost never use.

What's the experience of other posters? What does it for you?

My main email is @iol.ie, but I only get that because I have a bt broadband connection.
You can also get an @eircom.net address for free but both these providers don't do web-based email, you need to use a client like outlook express, so you can't really check your email from anywhere. I think eircom might have an option for web-based but I haven't used it.
I also use hotmail, gmail, hushmail (I haven't used that in ages though and my account might be gone by now) and I think I have a yahoo.com or one of those.
I think hotmail is the handiest but any email address that ends in hotmail.com is never taken seriously.
My favourite is the iol.ie one, I never get spam and never have problems. The eircom address I had for a few years was inundated with spam emails, at least 10 a day.

The hotmail one is handy but it's unbelievable that it's never taken seriously around offices at all because of the potential security risks or what?

Microsoft's office caca is imminently the greatest office software ever designed according to some.

I think hotmail isn't taken seriously just because it's one of the most famous free emails providers.
I wouldn't take it seriously anyway. It's like when you get flyers in your door for builders or landscape gardeners and the only contact info for them is a mobile number.
It makes them seem really unprofessional and there's always the risk that they'll take a deposit, throw away their ready to go sim card and buy a new one the same day.

I use hotmail. I would recommend it to anyone and I've absolutely no problems with it at all. I can access it easily on any computer, anywhere in the world. The MSN Messenger application attached to it is widely used by my peer group so I can log into it and chat to people no matter whose computer I am on. Recently they have upped the storage hugely so that isn't an issue either. I've also had hotmail long enough that I have my actualy name as my address, which is handy, rather than __surname___firstname___1910___777@hotmail.com... or something to that end.

Aside from that, I'm still a student so I have e-mail addresses at both UCD and DIT which I use from time to time for matters concerning those institutions.

I find that the hotmail isn't taken seriously either...

Don't get me wrong - I use hotmail and am very happy with it. I've never had any problems whatsoever. The only concern I have is that it's not really taken seriously professionally. I couldn't use it in work or give it out to clients because it would make the company I work for look like a Mickey Mouse operation.
Obviously anyone working in an office is going to be given a work email address so this isn't really a problem.

My own hotmail account is probably over ten years old too now so it's one of the originals of my name. I've regularly thought of opening up email accounts galore with the original names of people just to sell them back to them again or at least try to get the highest bidder. It would be fun and would help keep the wolf away from the door. It's too late to do it with gmail or anything now though, unfortunately. Maybe it's better that I have time to do more serious things anyway.

It's seen as unprofessional as a flyer so, as AfricanDave says although it's from one of the biggest earning and most famous digital corpos in the world. If it's snobbery to hell with it but I think it must be to do with security risks...

I have is that it's not really taken seriously professionally. I couldn't use it in work or give it out to clients because it would make the company I work for look like a Mickey Mouse operation.

...which is why I set up the ireland.com one - but while the name is good, the service isn't nearly as good as hotmail.

AfricanDave wrote:
Obviously anyone working in an office is going to be given a work email address so this isn't really a problem.

Precisely.

Anyone who is trying to email in a self employed capacity, would, to my mind, be better getting their own .ie address and having an e-mail at it. If you were a self employed journalist you could have all your articles archived on it or whatever.

Kate P wrote:

I have is that it's not really taken seriously professionally. I couldn't use it in work or give it out to clients because it would make the company I work for look like a Mickey Mouse operation.

...which is why I set up the ireland.com one - but while the name is good, the service isn't nearly as good as hotmail.

Gmail is as good if not better - try it.

Is gmail as unprofessional as microsoft? Or Yahoo? I don't think so for some bizarre reason. (snobbery I'd say)

The troubles with email was I think the primary reason for setting up silverpond a few years ago. I've used indigo and yahoo in the past and I always thought it sucked.

Webmail never appealed to me either, and once you're on a spammers list, there's not much you can do to stop your inbox getting filled with junk.

With silverpond, I use pop3 to download emails every few days, however I have it set up to forward everything to my work address, so I get personal mails pretty much straight away.

You can easily get your own webspace (keep lots of your documents online for remote access) which includes email services, usually up to 100 addresses for about 80 euro per year. I find it very worthwhile and worth the money.

Having a .ie address costs money and unless you're a large corporation I don't think it makes much difference.

cactus flower wrote:Having a .ie address costs money and unless you're a large corporation I don't think it makes much difference.

It doesn't but it is probably easier to get one in a name that you want because less people have access to them. Even www.cactusflower.com is already taken .

Forget .ie.

A .com is only €7 and a .eu about €10 .

Good maintained hosting is about €55 + VAT