HotPop Endorsed by Scot Finnie

bbrener · 26 Nov 2002, 11:24 PM

Jeremy:

A week or two ago while disucssing free Email solution, Scot Finnie reviewed FasMail and gave it a recommendation. This week he gave a recommendation to HotPop and said he had purchased an account there. http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/35.htm

When I pointed out to him that it was missing features like IMAP, he told me that HotPop had SMTP and Pop in their free account while FastMail did not and so as far as free Email services were concerned he preferred HotPop. (I think the 500K limit would be a killer for me!).
Anyway, thought you'd like to know.

Brian

**DBH** · 26 Nov 2002, 11:26 PM

But IMAP is much better IMO!

bbrener · 26 Nov 2002, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DBH
But IMAP is much better IMO!

The great majority of people are not that literate and they prefer Pop, but the main point was the availability of SMTP I think. IMAP is a 'boutique' solution for not understood by the general population. My daughter uses Hotmail and would have no idea what IMAP was or how to use it.

**DBH** · 26 Nov 2002, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bbrener
...the main point was the availability of SMTP...

Ah, yes, I forgot about that.

As to the explanation of IMAP, maybe someone here can do that in layman's terms, although it's most likely in another thread.

Derek G · 26 Nov 2002, 11:59 PM

I am new to IMAP and it took some getting used to, but if anyone has experience of using Newsgroups (via apps like Outlook Express) then they would not be too surprised by IMAPs culture differences to POP.

bbrener · 27 Nov 2002, 01:03 AM

For the record, my intent in this thread was not to get into a discussion on the merits of Pop vs IMAP (I think are many threads on that) or comparison of Email services.
Basically it was to suggest that Jeremy might want to add SMTP to the free account so as to take away one negative in the comparison with HotPop.

Brian

Onno · 27 Nov 2002, 01:22 AM

Free accounts + SMTP == an abuse headache.

Allowing people SMTP access is not something we want to give away for free because people will abuse this privilege. Especially considering how easy we make it to sign up for a free Guest account...

Perturbance · 27 Nov 2002, 01:29 AM

I signed up for HotPop before discovering FastMail, and in fact I still have a free account there. The weirdest issue I had with that account was that my POP client (Eudora 5) would delete mail from the server without downloading it first! I didn't have any built-in or third-party spam killers, and I monkeyed with all the POP settings I could think of within Eudora (esp. 'keep mail on server for x days', which I never enabled for that account/personality).

It's really freaky to see Eudora issuing DELE commands when it has yet to download anything.

Just my $.02

DrStrabismus · 27 Nov 2002, 04:08 AM

I don't really see how you can blame anything other than Eudora for that.

Pushwall · 27 Nov 2002, 05:16 AM

I looked at hotPOP's features and found for the free account that you're limited to receiving 1,000 messages a month (about 33 per day), and sending 500 messages per month. And on their $19.99/yr service the receive limit is 2,000 per month (about 67 per day), and send limit is 750 per month. I find hotPOP's receive limits are just too restricting. Since I mostly receive emails (and very few with attachments), FastMail with its fairly reasonable bandwidth quota seems a much better bargain for me and how I handle my email. I could easily see opening a hotPOP account and eventually running over their receive limits just because of spam. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that this is what is going to happen to Scot Finnie and he may have to revise his recommendations on hotPOP at a future date.

bbrener · 27 Nov 2002, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pushwall
I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that this is what is going to happen to Scot Finnie and he may have to revise his recommendations on hotPOP at a future date.

I agree with you. (Scot actually said he took a paid account). It is very restrictive. 500K is nothing when someone sends you a couple of photo's. I don't advocate the service but it is interesting how the relative value of SMTP is perceived.

RobAJ · 27 Nov 2002, 05:51 AM

It's hardly a killer to use your ISPs SMTP server, most of them (at least over here) seem to provide you with them, without too much restriction over their use.

Jeremy Howard · 27 Nov 2002, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RobAJ
It's hardly a killer to use your ISPs SMTP server, most of them (at least over here) seem to provide you with them, without too much restriction over their use.

Yes, I'm surprised it's a big issue too.

DJF · 27 Nov 2002, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Onno
Free accounts + SMTP == an abuse headache.

I would imagine that HotPop has a major problem w/ abuse of service. Softhome offers free SMTP, but they have strict rules on message frequency.

paleolith · 27 Nov 2002, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RobAJ
It's hardly a killer to use your ISPs SMTP server, most of them (at least over here) seem to provide you with them, without too much restriction over their use.

Usually true. The exception is if your best choice of ISP has unreliable SMTP. I have a friend in Romania who is in this position. When Yahoo terminated their free service with SMTP, I bought her a FM Member account so that she can use SMTP without needing to trust her ISP. (The dollar/leu exchange rate is such that she cannot consider paying for anything priced in dollars.)

Edward

26 Nov 2002, 11:24 PM	#1
bbrener Essential Contributor Join Date: May 2002 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 467	HotPop Endorsed by Scot Finnie Jeremy: A week or two ago while disucssing free Email solution, Scot Finnie reviewed FasMail and gave it a recommendation. This week he gave a recommendation to HotPop and said he had purchased an account there. http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/35.htm When I pointed out to him that it was missing features like IMAP, he told me that HotPop had SMTP and Pop in their free account while FastMail did not and so as far as free Email services were concerned he preferred HotPop. (I think the 500K limit would be a killer for me!). Anyway, thought you'd like to know. Brian

26 Nov 2002, 11:59 PM	#5
Derek G Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 23	IMAP Similarities I am new to IMAP and it took some getting used to, but if anyone has experience of using Newsgroups (via apps like Outlook Express) then they would not be too surprised by IMAPs culture differences to POP.

27 Nov 2002, 01:29 AM	#8
Perturbance Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Corvallis, OR, US Posts: 5	My HotPop experience I signed up for HotPop before discovering FastMail, and in fact I still have a free account there. The weirdest issue I had with that account was that my POP client (Eudora 5) would delete mail from the server without downloading it first! I didn't have any built-in or third-party spam killers, and I monkeyed with all the POP settings I could think of within Eudora (esp. 'keep mail on server for x days', which I never enabled for that account/personality). It's really freaky to see Eudora issuing DELE commands when it has yet to download anything. Just my $.02

26 Nov 2002, 11:26 PM	#2
DBH Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: USA Posts: 1,533	But IMAP is much better IMO!

27 Nov 2002, 01:03 AM	#6
bbrener Essential Contributor Join Date: May 2002 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 467	For the record, my intent in this thread was not to get into a discussion on the merits of Pop vs IMAP (I think are many threads on that) or comparison of Email services. Basically it was to suggest that Jeremy might want to add SMTP to the free account so as to take away one negative in the comparison with HotPop. Brian

27 Nov 2002, 01:22 AM	#7
Onno Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 753	Free accounts + SMTP == an abuse headache. Allowing people SMTP access is not something we want to give away for free because people will abuse this privilege. Especially considering how easy we make it to sign up for a free Guest account...

27 Nov 2002, 04:08 AM	#9
DrStrabismus The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 2,804	I don't really see how you can blame anything other than Eudora for that.

27 Nov 2002, 05:16 AM	#10
Pushwall Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 2	I looked at hotPOP's features and found for the free account that you're limited to receiving 1,000 messages a month (about 33 per day), and sending 500 messages per month. And on their $19.99/yr service the receive limit is 2,000 per month (about 67 per day), and send limit is 750 per month. I find hotPOP's receive limits are just too restricting. Since I mostly receive emails (and very few with attachments), FastMail with its fairly reasonable bandwidth quota seems a much better bargain for me and how I handle my email. I could easily see opening a hotPOP account and eventually running over their receive limits just because of spam. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that this is what is going to happen to Scot Finnie and he may have to revise his recommendations on hotPOP at a future date.

27 Nov 2002, 05:51 AM	#12
RobAJ Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: York, United Kingdom Posts: 115	It's hardly a killer to use your ISPs SMTP server, most of them (at least over here) seem to provide you with them, without too much restriction over their use.