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[poppy]

Following the spam incident I have ditched my F9 mailbox and opened a gmail account. It was a bit fiddly but I have managed to get it to work with POP3 (Windows Mail). I had been thinking about this for some time anyway and one of the reasons was that I dislike the long and convoluted e-mail addresses that we have to use. My new one is really simple and easy to remember.  Not being all that computer savvy, can anyone tell me if there is any downside to using third party providers in preference to our own?  Does anyone use gmail or have any opinions?   

[Ultra]

Well, here goes (40 other viewings and no comments so far)...   I have used independent mail services for years (have just renewed one account for the next 3 years).  I have accounts on GMail, Yahoo.co.uk, Orange.net, FastMail.net and Runbox.com (plus a few more).

I can think of few downsides, though a bit depends on the software at the receiving end (both mail server and mail application).  I am fairly confident some mail applications show the sender as being on GMail (even when it should be showing my mail address including a domain I registered).

Just as Hotmail has earned a bad reputation for being a haven for spammers, I suppose there might be some who spot GMail and feel like it is AOL     Some offer a bit more versatility than others, and can do things like checking (sucking in) mail from other POP mail servers, have filtering rules, and able to forward mail on or simply send an alert.

Since GMail is free, you have lost nothing by opening the account.  You can find an exchange of views over at www.emaildiscussions.com 

[poppy]

Thank you for your reply and opinions. I am about to take a look at your link. The only problem so far is that I did have confidence in our e-mail service because of the AV - I have had phishing e-mails intercepted in the past whereas my friend, who has TalkTalk has received warnings but had them downloaded anyway. Like others, I was less confident about spam management because just marking it didn't seem useful - I would prefer not to have it downloaded, full stop. Anyway, I will stick with gmail for now and if things improve here perhaps I can have another try.

[Ultra]

There is free Windows AV software from Grisoft.com (AVG v7.5) and also on Avast.com from another firm.   Your friend might find it worth checking one or other.  Both are quite simple to set up, and AVG will certainly intercept the incoming mail from the mail server, check each item, and if a virus is found, will remove it from the download into the virus vault (I think, sorry, I use Linux not Windows most of the time now).


There is also some spam detection software from keir.net called K9, which builds up a database of incoming messages and learns from the user, so after a bit of training it will know that your incoming mail from some online shop you use is not to be treated as spam.  It marks messages as SPAM in the Subject line which allows the user to put a rule in their e-mail software (for Outlook Express, a new rule chan be created via  Tools  / Message Rules / Mail...  - it is easy to create a new local folder, eg "Possible Spam" and then set a rule to store anything with 'SPAM' in the Subject into that new folder).


Biggest problem for me is where something is not just marked but blocked from download...  If it was something the user wants, they don't have the option to accept it at their own risk. 

I have recently found that some web/mail servers I have used have recently been blacklisted.  It's a big pain if the mail goes to some other server which not only rejects the message, but might give some sort of misleading error message (ie not saying 'your mail server is on a blacklist, and your mail is treated as spam even if it was not' but saying something like 'unknown user' which does not help identify why there is a problem).

[Matt_2k34]

AVG tends to be abit flakey to be honest, (especially recently), moved to NOD32 and been happy every since its only £20 odd for a liscence for a year, apposed to what, 90? for norton.

Most AV should scan emails auto, as its being downloaded so that isn't too much of a worry, just try and make sure its up to date other than that, id have to agree with Ultra, also be wary of using google.afterall they use the information you give them to give you adverts... so who knows what they watch, right ?

[poppy]

With regards to AV I currently use Computer Associates (eTrust) and it has served me well, although I have used AVG in the past with no problems either. In Windows Mail I use the Message Rule to prevent those e-mails tagged as spam from being downloaded. Gmail is generally working out well but on checking the web account today it had put a couple of e-mails which were not spam into the spam folder so I had to click on the 'not spam' button. On a positive note, the spam coming from F9 has now ceased so someone is doing something right at last.

[xpcomputers]

Since discussion has moved on to AV and spam solutions I thought I'd chip in my opinion.

If you are looking for AV and Spam protection suggestions I would currently recommend Zone Alarm Internet Security v7.

They always had an excellent firewall, and I found their spyware, spam and AV to be excellent last year. Ver7 this year is even better. They've improved the spam protection and spyware protection features. Even better though, they have bought in Kaspersky AV (which is currently regarded as the best by many!), to replace their previous AV solution. I think the package is unbeatable in the current market. It is a bit like a best of breed collection, but fully integrated into one neat console.

The icing on the cake is if you buy direct from Zone Alarm's US website and pay in dollars, you can nab a real bargain (due to the exchange rate)! Last month I paid just £36 ($69) for 3 Licences of the full Internet Security Suite (normally sells for up to £50 per licence here), making the full deal just £12 per PC. (They have deals for 1, 2 or 3 machines too... just avoid the 5 licence deals, as 2x "Three Licence" deals is normally cheaper!).

Hope this helps someone.

[dhookham]

If you are looking for AV and Spam protection suggestions I would currently recommend Zone Alarm Internet Security v7.

I used to use ZA until a few years back when I found it got a bit flakey (possibly just one version but it was enough to put me off at the time).

Norton was ok until around 2001, after which it seemed to turn into bloatware.

I've currently got F-Secure on an XP box and Kaspersky on Vista. F-Secure in particular is quite "noisy" to start with - discreet windows are not something it's known for

[xpcomputers]

If you are looking for AV and Spam protection suggestions I would currently recommend Zone Alarm Internet Security v7.

I used to use ZA until a few years back when I found it got a bit flakey (possibly just one version but it was enough to put me off at the time).

Norton was ok until around 2001, after which it seemed to turn into bloatware.

I've currently got F-Secure on an XP box and Kaspersky on Vista. F-Secure in particular is quite "noisy" to start with - discreet windows are not something it's known for

I wouldn't let a bad experience a few years ago put you off. This is a whole new beast and works very well indeed, in my opinion.

I just noticed that ZA Internet Security v7 is the PC PRO magazine A-List choice currently.

Strangely Norton 360 is their second choice! I am used to reading everyone saying Norton AV in particular was known for being a slow, memory hogging hulk, that was only mid-table for detection rates! So presumably they have done a lot of work on it for this new version. They always had a good interface and excellently silent Firewall though.

PC PRO says of Norton 360: "It's Vista compatible, comes with licences for three PCs as standard, and offers a huge range of silent and effective security and system utilities."

I didn't think I would be recommending Norton to anyone, but it looks like I might need to rethink that... silent security is often the best for beginners (as long as it works) as there are less questions to get wrong (thereby potentially compromising the security!). I will be giving it a trial run to see if it solves a clients current problems!

I will take a look...

When I last checked F-Secure a year ago, I found it to be unintuitive, noisy, clunky and a little frustrating, yet the previous version had served me well for a year, and appeared to have excellent security track record! I haven't seen it this year for comparison...

I guess a lot of it is personal preference. Also it shows you need to buy based on this years product, as some products improve and some get worse with each version change. Past record is probably not a very reliable judge (although you want to take it into account)!

Apologies to the original poster, as your question about email providers as been hijacked by a discussion on AV protection.

Mike

[godsell4]

PC PRO says of Norton 360: "It's Vista compatible, comes with licences for three PCs as standard ..."

Norton 360 is nearly £100 so I would expect it would protect a whole home full of PC's for that price.

SW.

[xpcomputers]

PC PRO listed it as £60 inc VAT from www.symantecstore.com


If you click on their US store in Dollars, then it is available for $59.99 US Dollars from the www.symantecstore.com.

I haven't tried buying it, but they do have Great Britain listed as one of the countries you can buy it for.

I would guess it will work out at about £33 with current credit card exchange rates. Which is, about £11 a copy (if you can use all three licences - more if you waste one or two).

This is a special offer which is only valid for a short time. You can get this price buy deselecting their "1 year of downloads" option. You just need to burn the download onto a CD when you get it to be sure that you can re-install it throughout the year.

I haven't bought it, or used it, so this is purely "academic research", but I see no reason why it won't let you buy it in dollars for this price... and I haven't used the product, so don't yet know if it is any good.

I hope this helps someone though.

Mike

[Matt_2k34]

Dont be silly, everyone seems to know the british are STUPID, - The Gov. recently had a petition to stop companies overcharging the UK, and to be honest its utter B/S but they will complain about buying a US copy then using over here... afterall your taking away their huge margin.

NOD32, a little research will show you its quite a premium product , oh, and F-Secure was a little flakey, hence removing and swapping to nod