MyRealBox rated the best FREE email

mail2me · 9 Jun 2002, 01:38 PM

About.com's best free email list MyRealBox as the world's best with FastMail Guest account the next best.

http://email.about.com/cs/freeemailr...free_email.htm

Jeremy Howard · 10 Jun 2002, 04:06 PM

I thought the reviews on this page are very good--the reviewer seems to understand the key features of each service very well. It's nice to see an email provider review that includes some services other than Hotmail/Yahoo, and includes comments beyond just first impressions.

nic76 · 11 Jun 2002, 02:08 AM

yahoo and hotmail are number 3 and 4, hmmm....

ikxu · 11 Jun 2002, 02:26 AM

As I see one has to agree to pay 10 american dollars per email if one receives spam. I believe this is not fair as our emails are copied and sold by many, and to pay for something that one has no control over it it is not fair in my book.
fastmail.fm does not charge a fine, plus they are very helpful to those who have an account with fastmail to block spam.
ikxu

**Gankaku** · 11 Jun 2002, 03:41 AM

ikxu - I agree with you. I was afraid of this clause. What if someone got my email and started spamming with my address? What if the klez virus got ahold of my address in someone else's address book and started sending emails out with my address book? This is why I never went further than the signup screen/agreement page.

Gazania · 11 Jun 2002, 03:54 AM

I don't mind if an offending account would be subject to termination, or even to stiffer penalties, after an investigation shows that the person is INDEED at fault, and knew he or she was at fault. That would be fair.

But $10? And no appeal or investigation process? That makes me wary as well.

Too bad. It really looked like a nice service.

jedilizagain · 11 Jun 2002, 05:01 AM

I use myrealbox, but it lacks at least one feature that would make it tops on my list: the ability to sort messages. I would have an easier time deleting email from the webmail interface if I could just sort emails.

I'm glad fastmail made it!

csl1010 · 12 Jun 2002, 11:46 PM

i agree

tazzboy1977 · 18 Jun 2002, 01:36 PM

I'm wondering is there a similar service to myrealbox.com that is more loose with thing? I happen to like it a lot and that is the kind of service I am looking for except being nail by fines for unsoicalated email and have to pay premuimn service for ad blocks and tagline supressor?

Thank

tazzboy1977 · 19 Jun 2002, 12:46 PM

Here is the thing in full if you want to read it all The answer to Anti Spam is K:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Please read this entire message as it may contain information answering
your request.

Table of contents.

1) Introduction

2) Most Frequently Asked Questions
a) What do I enter when I am asked for my username?
b) I have lost or forgotten my password. What do I do?
c) I have signed up for a new MyRealBox account, when will I receive
my password?
d) Why can't I set a timeout higher than 40 minutes?
e) Could you please give me a give summary of MyRealBox' settings?
f) How can I change my display name?
How can I change the name used when I send mail via the Web
interface?
g) How do I disable my account?
h) When I try to login I receive an error message stating "Your
session has
timed out".
i) Why does MyRealBox exist?
j) I want guaranteed uptime with MyRealBox, can't you test somewhere
else?
k) I'm confused about your Anti-Spam policy. Do I have to pay for
SPAM I
receive?
l) How can I find out about planned downtime?
m) I am using MSN and I cannot sign up for your service. Why?
n) Why is my mail to Yahoo sometimes not being sent or slow in being
sent?

3) I've read all help and FAQ pages, what now?

1) Introduction
===========================================================================
This is an AUTO-REPLY to acknowledge your mail to MyRealBox.com has
been
received. Please DO NOT REPLY to this message, as it will only multiply
the number of AutoReply messages you receive.

Due to the volume of mail we receive, we are not able to respond
individually to each message sent to this address.

2) Most Frequently Asked Questions:
===========================================================================
a) What do I enter when I am asked for my username?

Your user name (and login name) is the name you chose at signup,
without
the @myrealbox.com part, e.g. if "johndoe@myrealbox.com" is your
email
address, then "johndoe" is your user name that you use to login to
myrealbox.com services.

b) I have lost or forgotten my password. What do I do?

Please go to http://www.myrealbox.com/ and click on the
‘Manage your account’ link and then click on the 'Reset
Password' link.
This will allow you to enter the answer to your secret question and
generate a new password.

If you have not set a secret question and answer, you will *not* be
able
to reset your password. Any requests without the answer to your
secret
question will be ignored. The secret question and answer is the
*only*
method we have to verify you are the owner of the account.

c) I have signed up for a new MyRealBox account, when will I receive my
password?

Typically, you should receive your password within minutes. However,
the
response time depends on Internet traffic. You should receive your
password within two to three hours after you signed up.

d) Why can't I set a timeout higher than 40 minutes?

Because if you do not have any activity for 40 minutes we do not
want
you to keep using resources on our server. If you are composing a
message and click send after you timed out you will have the option
of logging in again and it the system will send your message even
after you timed out.

e) Could you please give me a give summary of MyRealBox' settings?

POP Server - pop.myrealbox.com
IMAP Server - imap.myrealbox.com
SMTP Server - smtp.myrealbox.com
Client configuration tips can be found in our Help&FAQ section on
http://www.myrealbox.com.
If a client is not listed in our FAQ section, we can not help you
configure it, please contact the author/vendor of your client to
get support for it.

Incoming and Outgoing message size limit - 10MB
Attachment size limit - Approximately 7.5MB
Maximum number of recipients for a single message - 15

f) How can I change my display name?
How can I change the name used when I send mail via the Web
interface?

Please go to http://www.myrealbox.com/ and click on the
‘Manage your account’ link and then select the 'Change display
name' link.
This will allow you to enter the answer to your secret question and
enter
a new display name.

g) How do I disable my account?

Please go to http://www.myrealbox.com/ and click on the
‘Manage your account’ link and then select the 'Disable' link.
This will allow you to enter the answer to your secret question and
permanently disable your account. We can not re-enable your account
if you change your mind later.

h) When I try to login I receive an error message stating "Your session
has
timed out".

You need to enable "session cookies" in your browser. MyRealBox uses
a
session cookie to protect your account. This cookie is never
written to
your computer's disk and is removed from your system's memory once
you
have left our site.

i) Why does MyRealBox exist?

MyRealBox exists for two reasons:

1.MyRealBox is as an Engineering test site

The engineering team that programs the NetMail software uses
MyRealBox as
a testbed to try out new versions before releasing them as part of
the
NetMail product. This means that from time to time MyRealBox users
will
experience downtime due to installation of new software or due to
the engineering team debugging a new feature.

2.MyRealBox is a showcase for Novell Netmail.

NetMail is a product available for sale to customers. MyRealBox has
been a
great tool for selling NetMail since it allows potential customers
to see
all of the features NetMail has to offer and it proves the
scalability of
the product.

j) I want guaranteed uptime with MyRealBox, can't you test somewhere
else?

No, we cannot. Testing new software is the main purpose of
MyRealBox. If
you like the quality and functionality MyRealBox.com provides, but
require
100% uptime, we would be happy to refer you to one of our customers
who
offer paid email services using NetMail as their mail system. Those
sites will
also be able to provide you the support you deserve.

k) I'm confused about your Anti-Spam policy. Do I have to pay for SPAM
I
receive?

No. The policy is in place for people who try to send SPAM through
MyRealBox and for people who try to use a MyRealBox account as a
sender,
autoreply or return address for SPAM.

l) How can I find out about planned downtime?

Whenever we know in advance about some downtime, we will post it in
the
"MyRealBox News" section found at http://www.myrealbox.com on the
left
side of the page. We usually give 24 hour notice before any planned
system maintenance. Sometimes we don't know in advance, usually
because
some test code is not as stable as we expected, in those situations
we try to keep downtime to a minimum.

m) I am using MSN and I cannot sign up for your service. Why?

In order to sign up we require a email address from a paid service
to
allow us to contact you in case of a violation of our Terms of
Service.
MSN gives out the same domain for free and for paid email services.
Since we cannot distinguish between them and since Microsoft is not
cooperative in tracking down problems we will not accept MSN
addresses,
nor will we make exceptions to this rule.

n) Why is my mail to Yahoo sometimes not being sent or slow in being
sent?

Yahoo has implemented a new policy that can best be described by the
following quote:

"We[Yahoo] refuse to nuke this spammer's drop box, and we are
going to punish you for sending a bounce to it."

This quote was taken from the following news article, which also
describes the issue:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2...niu.edu&rnum=1

3) I've read all help and FAQ pages, what now?
===========================================================================
Please check if your question, comment or concern is covered in our
regularily updated "Help & FAQ" section located at
http://www.myrealbox.com or if it is answered earlier in this message.

If your question is not answered in our "Help & FAQ" section or in this
message, please re-send your question to
"myrealboxsupport@myrealbox.com" and
make sure that you include the following information:

- Your MyRealBox account name
- If reporting problems related to our web interfaces, specify what
browser and what version and language of the browser you are using
- If reporting problems with a mail client, include the exact version
and
language of that client (i.e. Outlook Express 5.5.1243 English).
- Your computer's operating system.
- As much detail on the problem as you are able to provide (i.e
instead of saying "I can't get my mail" say "When I am using
Outlook Express 5.5 and I click the "Get Mail" button, a window
pops up and gives me the error "Could not connect, Error code
10060")

WE WILL NOT ANSWER ANY REQUEST THAT DOES NOT PROVIDE THIS BASIC
INFORMATION!

MyRealBox is a free email service. We do not derive any revenue at all
from
providing this service, therefore the amount of support provided to our
users is limited. If our level of support does not meet your specifc
needs
then we kindly ask you to please choose a paid email provider that has
a
dedicated support staff to better serve your needs.

Thank you!

MyRealBox Support

mlibbey · 20 Jun 2002, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by nic76
yahoo and hotmail are number 3 and 4, hmmm....

Well, Yahoo and fastmail were actually tied -- both got 4 stars.

mlibbey · 20 Jun 2002, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tazzboy1977
n) Why is my mail to Yahoo sometimes not being sent or slow in being
sent?

Yahoo has implemented a new policy that can best be described by the
following quote:

"We[Yahoo] refuse to nuke this spammer's drop box, and we are
going to punish you for sending a bounce to it."

This quote was taken from the following news article, which also
describes the issue:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%....niu.edu&rnum=1

let me paraphrase
"Runbox is committed to letting spammers abuse the internet. Yahoo has implemented an anti-spam policy that sometimes catches us, resulting in slower delivery times to them."

The thread says that yahoo has a system that slows down spammer's systems -- if runbox is getting caught by it, spammers must have found their system easy to abuse!

FromLine · 20 Jun 2002, 03:07 AM

Question:

Does MyRealBox let you customize the FROM header?

**munchkin** · 20 Jun 2002, 03:58 AM

No, only the 'reply to' address.

**psalzer** · 20 Jun 2002, 04:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mlibbey

let me paraphrase
"Runbox is committed to letting spammers abuse the internet. Yahoo has implemented an anti-spam policy that sometimes catches us, resulting in slower delivery times to them."

The thread says that yahoo has a system that slows down spammer's systems -- if runbox is getting caught by it, spammers must have found their system easy to abuse!

How'd Runbox get into this thread?

9 Jun 2002, 01:38 PM	#1
mail2me Master of the @ Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: California, USA Posts: 1,597	MyRealBox rated the best FREE email About.com's best free email list MyRealBox as the world's best with FastMail Guest account the next best. http://email.about.com/cs/freeemailr...free_email.htm

11 Jun 2002, 02:26 AM	#4
ikxu Guest Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 400	question As I see one has to agree to pay 10 american dollars per email if one receives spam. I believe this is not fair as our emails are copied and sold by many, and to pay for something that one has no control over it it is not fair in my book. fastmail.fm does not charge a fine, plus they are very helpful to those who have an account with fastmail to block spam. ikxu

11 Jun 2002, 03:54 AM	#6
Gazania Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 181	Me three .... I don't mind if an offending account would be subject to termination, or even to stiffer penalties, after an investigation shows that the person is INDEED at fault, and knew he or she was at fault. That would be fair. But $10? And no appeal or investigation process? That makes me wary as well. Too bad. It really looked like a nice service.

12 Jun 2002, 11:46 PM	#8
csl1010 Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: U.K. & Hong Kong Posts: 284	@@ i agree

18 Jun 2002, 01:36 PM	#9
tazzboy1977 Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Oregon Posts: 4	A similar service to myrealbox.com I'm wondering is there a similar service to myrealbox.com that is more loose with thing? I happen to like it a lot and that is the kind of service I am looking for except being nail by fines for unsoicalated email and have to pay premuimn service for ad blocks and tagline supressor? Thank

10 Jun 2002, 04:06 PM	#2
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	I thought the reviews on this page are very good--the reviewer seems to understand the key features of each service very well. It's nice to see an email provider review that includes some services other than Hotmail/Yahoo, and includes comments beyond just first impressions.

11 Jun 2002, 02:08 AM	#3
nic76 Essential Contributor Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 449	yahoo and hotmail are number 3 and 4, hmmm....

11 Jun 2002, 03:41 AM	#5
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,265	ikxu - I agree with you. I was afraid of this clause. What if someone got my email and started spamming with my address? What if the klez virus got ahold of my address in someone else's address book and started sending emails out with my address book? This is why I never went further than the signup screen/agreement page.

11 Jun 2002, 05:01 AM	#7
jedilizagain Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 315	I use myrealbox, but it lacks at least one feature that would make it tops on my list: the ability to sort messages. I would have an easier time deleting email from the webmail interface if I could just sort emails. I'm glad fastmail made it!

19 Jun 2002, 12:46 PM	#10
tazzboy1977 Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Oregon Posts: 4	myrealbox Reply to my question Here is the thing in full if you want to read it all The answer to Anti Spam is K: Dear Sir or Madam: Please read this entire message as it may contain information answering your request. Table of contents. 1) Introduction 2) Most Frequently Asked Questions a) What do I enter when I am asked for my username? b) I have lost or forgotten my password. What do I do? c) I have signed up for a new MyRealBox account, when will I receive my password? d) Why can't I set a timeout higher than 40 minutes? e) Could you please give me a give summary of MyRealBox' settings? f) How can I change my display name? How can I change the name used when I send mail via the Web interface? g) How do I disable my account? h) When I try to login I receive an error message stating "Your session has timed out". i) Why does MyRealBox exist? j) I want guaranteed uptime with MyRealBox, can't you test somewhere else? k) I'm confused about your Anti-Spam policy. Do I have to pay for SPAM I receive? l) How can I find out about planned downtime? m) I am using MSN and I cannot sign up for your service. Why? n) Why is my mail to Yahoo sometimes not being sent or slow in being sent? 3) I've read all help and FAQ pages, what now? 1) Introduction =========================================================================== This is an AUTO-REPLY to acknowledge your mail to MyRealBox.com has been received. Please DO NOT REPLY to this message, as it will only multiply the number of AutoReply messages you receive. Due to the volume of mail we receive, we are not able to respond individually to each message sent to this address. 2) Most Frequently Asked Questions: =========================================================================== a) What do I enter when I am asked for my username? Your user name (and login name) is the name you chose at signup, without the @myrealbox.com part, e.g. if "johndoe@myrealbox.com" is your email address, then "johndoe" is your user name that you use to login to myrealbox.com services. b) I have lost or forgotten my password. What do I do? Please go to http://www.myrealbox.com/ and click on the ‘Manage your account’ link and then click on the 'Reset Password' link. This will allow you to enter the answer to your secret question and generate a new password. If you have not set a secret question and answer, you will not be able to reset your password. Any requests without the answer to your secret question will be ignored. The secret question and answer is the only method we have to verify you are the owner of the account. c) I have signed up for a new MyRealBox account, when will I receive my password? Typically, you should receive your password within minutes. However, the response time depends on Internet traffic. You should receive your password within two to three hours after you signed up. d) Why can't I set a timeout higher than 40 minutes? Because if you do not have any activity for 40 minutes we do not want you to keep using resources on our server. If you are composing a message and click send after you timed out you will have the option of logging in again and it the system will send your message even after you timed out. e) Could you please give me a give summary of MyRealBox' settings? POP Server - pop.myrealbox.com IMAP Server - imap.myrealbox.com SMTP Server - smtp.myrealbox.com Client configuration tips can be found in our Help&FAQ section on http://www.myrealbox.com. If a client is not listed in our FAQ section, we can not help you configure it, please contact the author/vendor of your client to get support for it. Incoming and Outgoing message size limit - 10MB Attachment size limit - Approximately 7.5MB Maximum number of recipients for a single message - 15 f) How can I change my display name? How can I change the name used when I send mail via the Web interface? Please go to http://www.myrealbox.com/ and click on the ‘Manage your account’ link and then select the 'Change display name' link. This will allow you to enter the answer to your secret question and enter a new display name. g) How do I disable my account? Please go to http://www.myrealbox.com/ and click on the ‘Manage your account’ link and then select the 'Disable' link. This will allow you to enter the answer to your secret question and permanently disable your account. We can not re-enable your account if you change your mind later. h) When I try to login I receive an error message stating "Your session has timed out". You need to enable "session cookies" in your browser. MyRealBox uses a session cookie to protect your account. This cookie is never written to your computer's disk and is removed from your system's memory once you have left our site. i) Why does MyRealBox exist? MyRealBox exists for two reasons: 1.MyRealBox is as an Engineering test site The engineering team that programs the NetMail software uses MyRealBox as a testbed to try out new versions before releasing them as part of the NetMail product. This means that from time to time MyRealBox users will experience downtime due to installation of new software or due to the engineering team debugging a new feature. 2.MyRealBox is a showcase for Novell Netmail. NetMail is a product available for sale to customers. MyRealBox has been a great tool for selling NetMail since it allows potential customers to see all of the features NetMail has to offer and it proves the scalability of the product. j) I want guaranteed uptime with MyRealBox, can't you test somewhere else? No, we cannot. Testing new software is the main purpose of MyRealBox. If you like the quality and functionality MyRealBox.com provides, but require 100% uptime, we would be happy to refer you to one of our customers who offer paid email services using NetMail as their mail system. Those sites will also be able to provide you the support you deserve. k) I'm confused about your Anti-Spam policy. Do I have to pay for SPAM I receive? No. The policy is in place for people who try to send SPAM through MyRealBox and for people who try to use a MyRealBox account as a sender, autoreply or return address for SPAM. l) How can I find out about planned downtime? Whenever we know in advance about some downtime, we will post it in the "MyRealBox News" section found at http://www.myrealbox.com on the left side of the page. We usually give 24 hour notice before any planned system maintenance. Sometimes we don't know in advance, usually because some test code is not as stable as we expected, in those situations we try to keep downtime to a minimum. m) I am using MSN and I cannot sign up for your service. Why? In order to sign up we require a email address from a paid service to allow us to contact you in case of a violation of our Terms of Service. MSN gives out the same domain for free and for paid email services. Since we cannot distinguish between them and since Microsoft is not cooperative in tracking down problems we will not accept MSN addresses, nor will we make exceptions to this rule. n) Why is my mail to Yahoo sometimes not being sent or slow in being sent? Yahoo has implemented a new policy that can best be described by the following quote: "We[Yahoo] refuse to nuke this spammer's drop box, and we are going to punish you for sending a bounce to it." This quote was taken from the following news article, which also describes the issue: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2...niu.edu&rnum=1 3) I've read all help and FAQ pages, what now? =========================================================================== Please check if your question, comment or concern is covered in our regularily updated "Help & FAQ" section located at http://www.myrealbox.com or if it is answered earlier in this message. If your question is not answered in our "Help & FAQ" section or in this message, please re-send your question to "myrealboxsupport@myrealbox.com" and make sure that you include the following information: - Your MyRealBox account name - If reporting problems related to our web interfaces, specify what browser and what version and language of the browser you are using - If reporting problems with a mail client, include the exact version and language of that client (i.e. Outlook Express 5.5.1243 English). - Your computer's operating system. - As much detail on the problem as you are able to provide (i.e instead of saying "I can't get my mail" say "When I am using Outlook Express 5.5 and I click the "Get Mail" button, a window pops up and gives me the error "Could not connect, Error code 10060") WE WILL NOT ANSWER ANY REQUEST THAT DOES NOT PROVIDE THIS BASIC INFORMATION! MyRealBox is a free email service. We do not derive any revenue at all from providing this service, therefore the amount of support provided to our users is limited. If our level of support does not meet your specifc needs then we kindly ask you to please choose a paid email provider that has a dedicated support staff to better serve your needs. Thank you! MyRealBox Support

20 Jun 2002, 03:07 AM	#13
FromLine The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 2,619	Question: Does MyRealBox let you customize the FROM header?

20 Jun 2002, 03:58 AM	#14
munchkin Moderator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Milliways Posts: 1,165	No, only the 'reply to' address.