If Outlook is the devil....

[neoufo51]

...Then what do you use so as to not have to use the evil Outlook with its many vulnerabilities? I'm still using it, but I wanna see what people think is the best alternative.

I also wanted to make a e-mail poll that did NOT include Outlook in it as thats what I'm trying to stray away from. Figured somebody needed to make one. I put up the top 5 alternatives people use, except for Opera and Mozilla mail, as they are better than Outlook in terms of vulnerability, but still lack a lot of features these and maybe other clients you guys can suggest have.

[Rahwgwar]

Eudora

[Rickio]

I've used all the email apps you have in your poll and thebat is the best.

peace

[Galileo]

Put Outlook Express in your poll too, so you can see who sticks with it. I use it, works great.

Nothing keeps someone from sending a virus via email and having it come in via Eudora, TheBat, or any other email program. You can still get a virus.

If you want, just turn off your auto-preview and Javascript for it.

1. Go to VIEW, Layout, and uncheckmark Show preview pane.
2. Go to TOOLS, Options, Security, and pick "Restricted Sites Zone(more secure)"

There you go. Now no mime headers can be previewed and scripts can run.

( And be sure to Go into the Internet Options control panel and confirm that Javascript and Active-X off for your Restricted Sites zone. In fact, if you want, you can even custom tailor your own zone and have all kinds of options available to you. Select whatever you want to have on or off. :-)

[Sockfulloflove]

i use good ol' YAHOO MAIL! lol

[notbob]

yep web based email accounts are totally the way to go--you only download the messages you want, you don't have a bunch of extra garbage hanging around, you can check it from anywhere

[neoufo51]

Well, yeah. Web based accounts do the trick all right. I have 3 accounts, all web accessible. Yahoo for finance, shopping and forums as well as a spam decoy, my ATT account for my personal contacts, and my UC account for school exclusively. Its just that the filtering and options are pretty scarce in OE, and I'm looking for the absolute best replacement for it.

So far, I notice you can only do text email in The Bat! and Pegasus Mail has a really shitty interface and has annoying extensions so its a hassle just to check multiple accounts.

[Rickio]

Originally posted by neoufo51
Well, yeah. Web based accounts do the trick all right. I have 3 accounts, all web accessible. Yahoo for finance, shopping and forums as well as a spam decoy, my ATT account for my personal contacts, and my UC account for school exclusively. Its just that the filtering and options are pretty scarce in OE, and I'm looking for the absolute best replacement for it.

So far, I notice you can only do text email in The Bat! and Pegasus Mail has a really shitty interface and has annoying extensions so its a hassle just to check multiple accounts.

What do you mean by you can only send text email via TheBat!
You can send and recieve attachments.

[Galileo]

He's talking about HTML.
inline viewable images, tables, stationery, letterheads, sound, flash, etc.

TheBat has an HTML email Viewer, but not for composing email, so what you'd have to do is compose an HTML page with an HTML editor and then email it with TheBat as an attachment.

TheBat's HTML viewer has been disassociated with the IE browser, so it turns off javascript, activex, and embedded mime-types. Which is essentially the same thing you would do if you did the instructions I just said above for OutlookExpress. However, with Outlook Express, you can compose email.

TheBat also does not use the Windows Addressbook (WAB). If you do manage to get some virus from a p2p program like KazaaLITE or something, some viruses open the WAB to obtain the email addresses of all your friends and use their own hidden internal built in SMTP to transmit itself to them.

[Galileo]

Its just that the filtering and options are pretty scarce in OE

Huh?! Outlook Express has a wealth of filtering options in it. Much more than some Web-based email provider has, that's for sure.

In addition to mail rules and filters, many antivirus programs include exceptional plugins and features for Outlook including AVG, Norton, McAfee, NOD32, PC-Cillin, etc etc, but no antivirus programs that I know of support TheBAT. AVG will examine and screen all incoming, and all outgoing email messages for all known viruses, and optionally even at a footer indicating that your email has been checked. There are plugins that put a clickable button right in the Outlook Toolbar for you. These let you set scanning options, perform tests, configure, update dat files etc right from inside Outlook Express.

As far as mail rules, Outlook has more than webmail, THAT's for sure. Webmail services have a maximum that you cannot go over, and often it does not even include the ability to forward email, much less apply style or color changes.

To look at the filtering options in Outlook Express,
Go to TOOLS, Message Rules, MAIL RULES.

You can intercept emails according to people in the FROM line, words in the Subject line, words in the Body of the message, people in the TO line, CC line, priority, if it's from a certain one of any of your multiple accounts, by size, whether it has an attachment or not, and whether it's secure.

The functions you can then perform include deleting it, moving it, making a copy of it, forwarding it, highlighting it with color, flagging it, marking it as read, marking it WATCHED, or ignoring it. You can auto-reply to it, avoid downloading it from the server at all, delete undesirable ones from the server before it even arrives.

In addition you can maintain a Blocked Senders list, And Outlook has support for tons of Anti-Spam tools, but other email programs are unsupported. For instance an email can be identified as a spam message and then moved to a MightBeSpam folder, or even summarily deleted, however addins that support Outlook can also BOUNCE that email so that the sender thinks it's a bad/false email address and so they may take it off of their spam list.

In addition, the antispam plugins that support outlook can Nail that spammer by analyzing the headers, tracing the emails, urls, ip's, and send path of the SMTP server in the headers, including even de-coding OBFUSCATED url's, and then it will REPORT the spammer to the abuse division of their ISP for account cancellation, and/or report that open relay to blackhole lists.

There's searching and finding in messages, and if you have OUTLOOK as opposed to Outlook Express, you have advanced searching options, plus hundreds of COM ADD-INS that add extra features to it.

So when it comes to Rules and Filtering options, Outlook probably has the most options of all.

[Infomouse]

Telnet directly to the mail server.

If there is an attachment, extract it and do a virus scan before opening.

[Krell]

Originally posted by notbob
yep web based email accounts are totally the way to go--you only download the messages you want, you don't have a bunch of extra garbage hanging around, you can check it from anywhere

True true, altho I can't think of any web based services that have the filtering ability that Outlook or OE has. Hotmail only gives you 10 rules to apply. One is also limited on storage with web based email, however if you use email for its intended purpose, and not as an attachment mule, then you rarely have to save you mail off of the server. Come to think of it, I never have.

The beauty of web based mail is you can use all your bogus accounts to sign up for sweepstakes etc, and not use your personal account. I also hate anyone who forwards cute crap, or joke of the day, or "pass this along and you will . . . ."
I will what, stab you in the neck?

[The Hunter]

A friend of mine used to think it was funny to attach bloody songs. A easy way to solve that problem was to send him inagaddadvida full length. That sort of messed him up.

[Galileo]

Mail Rule:

Check Messages on server,
If sender = <ass sending me songs via email @ his-isp.com>
and
message contains an attachment,
then
Do not download it from the server.
Delete message,
Reply to <ass sending me songs via email @ his-isp.com>,
attach file <SlackwareLinuxCD1.ISO>
Send message.

[Lamourlady]

omg.
my brother did that.
emailed me a song.
it was James Taylor - Your Smiling Face.
his heart was in the right place, but for the love of...
i'm 56k.......me thinks he forgot.
i use OE and works great for me.
mind u.......i've gotten a much more indepth look at it.
thanks, Galileo.
your knowledge never ceases to amaze me.
;)

[backmann]

Originally posted by Sockfulloflove
i use good ol' YAHOO MAIL! lol

Yep, mee too, but I read it on OE.

I used Eudora back in the Windows 3.1 and Netscape 2 times, then eventually swithced to OE.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"

[collideous]

Best alternative to Outlook? Entourage!

[Theinfamousone]

MY ISP provides web based email, and I check it with Outlook Express, I'm not sure how big my mail box is, but I've never filled it up. My friend sends me videos (just short ones), so I think it's gotta be pretty big. I love OE cuz all I do is click it on the quick launch bar and I instantly have all of my ZP replies come back to me.

Otherwise I'd have to go to attbi.com, login, password, etc, then check everything. If I leave OE on, it checks for new messages every few minutes.

[nasrules]

all my accounts are either pop3/http server and web compatible. 5 of em, i can check em easily with outlookexpress and if im away i can still check them!

[Wings_of_Azrael]

I use TheBat. If an email client doesn't have the ability to minimize to the sys. tray, I won't use it. I know Outlook can if you modify a registry key for it. Still... it's Outlook... I don't want none of that.

[Skeptikal]

Originally posted by collideous
Best alternative to Outlook? Entourage!

yep... Entourage is the way to go...

[rainbowdemon]

Originally posted by The Hunter
A friend of mine used to think it was funny to attach bloody songs. A easy way to solve that problem was to send him inagaddadvida full length. That sort of messed him up. That's a mighty fine song!! But I don't think I would want it to turn up in my e-mail. Not with dial-up!! lol

[J2ndBFsCs3rdN]

I am use this one i like very much anybody else like this also it good but not sure how safe.....i use norton also all fine so far.

edit: oopsi....i forget http://www.incredimail.com

[random]

i use hotmail hehe, too lazy to setup an email client

[kiwibank]

calypso mail ver 3.30.00 - great for sending and receiving large attachments on 56k

kiwibank

[Fowlerj]

I'm tired of microsoft having the monopoly, everthing ms does has the same look and feel, hich may be functional for the noobs, but fails those who are, "technologically literate" as they are generally after apps with more advanced features, or simply because ms has pushed them too far. The bat is a very worthwhile solution, versitile, and generally well rounded.

[rainbowdemon]

I was using Hotmail, but it's been real buggy lately. Switched to Eudora. It's much better.

[Malicious Intent]

Hotmail spam drives me mad. I've got an account for msn messenger and it is always popping up saying I have mail from "Biggus C0ck-a-do-da-do" or whatever. I would switch it off, but stupid friends keep sending to that account.

[Psx]

I happen to like thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/)