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My ISP supplies an e-mail app and I've been SO used to using it (For what, like, ten years?) I almost NEVER accessed my e-mail via the web. Whenver I tried it it seemed clunky. I started posting at a Netflix community "ning" site that sends e-mail every time someone replies to a thread you've posted in and, boy, those e-mails sure can pile up. Since downloading each e-mail takes time, the computer app would take, like, forever to d/l all my e-mail, so I started using the web-based e-mail client.

You know what? Why oh WHY did I avoid using that before? :lol:

An old dog CAN learn new tricks. :blush:

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Congratulations and welcome, you old dog!! After a lonnnng time using a Charter address, I went with a Hotmail address and a Yahoo address for things like Walgreens Rebates that might send me spam.

One bright spot is that if your idiotbox ever goes bellyup or if you change internet providers or if you travel, a web address is key to keeping those emails!

Isnt there an option to NOT have replies emailed to you in that forum? Should be somewhere....

Liz

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My ISP's email is annoying (they have their own little firewall). It kept blocking all kinds of crap that shouldn't be blocked. I have 2 Gmail accounts that I actually use. One I use for forum registration and shopping, the other I use for PayPal, important crap, resume, when I give my email to another person in person, etc. The Forum and shopping one has a goofy name while the other has a more normal name (but with a pun that I and very few others get). I also have my school email address (that I never check), as well as an AOL one to use for AIM.

I typically don't check my email on the internet though. I usually go through Thunderbird on my main desktop and home but I HAVE TO check something I will check it through Gmail on the internet.

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I use web based interface for some accounts.

Then there are the ones where I have a strong password and complex username and really do not want to be bothered with remembering them so I only use those with POP access except the occaisional review and cleanup where I run keepass and use it to access the web interface.

I have to admit that now with wysiwyg html editors built into most web based interfaces and the speed of modern internet connections it has come a long way since the days when you would read one email while the next was downloading (or newsgroup post .....)

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... One bright spot is that if your idiotbox ever goes bellyup or if you change internet providers or if you travel, a web address is key to keeping those emails!

Isnt there an option to NOT have replies emailed to you in that forum? Should be somewhere....

Liz

For e-mail they've always had the option of accessing it online (and thus available anywhere there's a computer with Internet access), but it was awkward and, I dunno, clunky. In fact, I hated it. But either it's changed, or I have.

Regarding the load of reply e-mails, it's only for the threads I'm in, that I want to follow, and there's an option to turn that off, but it's not smart enough to send you ONE e-mail if, say ten people reply: You get ten e-mails for that one thread. And I'm in, like five.

There are dozens of threads and I'd have trouble remembering and finding the one's I'm in without the e-mail reminders (I'm new to the forum, well, there's a long story about that, but not an INTERESTING story). Maybe I'll turn 'em off when I'm more familar with navigating the site (or run out of things to say ... yeah, that'll happen).

My ISP's email is annoying (they have their own little firewall). It kept blocking all kinds of crap that shouldn't be blocked. ...

I typically don't check my email on the internet though. I usually go through Thunderbird on my main desktop and home but I HAVE TO check something I will check it through Gmail on the internet.

I'm happy with my ISP's tools, everything goes where I expect it to to. And I'm happy to know I'm not the LAST PERSON ON EARTH to use a computer app to get e-mail. :lol:

... I have to admit that now with wysiwyg html editors built into most web based interfaces and the speed of modern internet connections it has come a long way since the days when you would read one email while the next was downloading (or newsgroup post .....)

Ahh, that's why I wasn't using web-based e-mail before, it WAS clunky. Yeah, it works the same or better now than the computer app does. I do have to get used to doing things a bit differently but it's nothing major.

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You're not alone. I haven't used it yet. Don't know why

Well, if you've NEVER used it, you shouldn't hesitate. I wasn't using it because when I did try it (a while ago) it just plain did not work well. Now it works as well as the computer app, and I don't have to open the computer app and wait for e-mail to download. As soon as the web-based site opens (as quickly as any other web page) there's my mail. There are some navigation issues to learn (for example, the "next" button is a tiny link on the web page, whereas in the computer app it's a huge ol' button that's easy to hit).

I'm not sure I like having my "sent" mail saved "on the web" rather than on my computer (if you save your sent mail, I do). I don't trust the chain of potential problems that is the web: my computer has to work, my Internet connection has to work, the ISP has to be working, etc. (one reason I don't use "auto pay" online, I don't trust that every link in that chain will be working). With computer-based e-mail, even if you have no Internet connection, you've still got all your previous mail saved and available, the only link in the "chain" is: Is the computer working? (And I am the one that has control over that.)

Coincidentally, I'm listening to the last Windows Weekly podcast and Paul Thurrott is gushing over web-based e-mail, he's a recent convert, essentially saying what's been said here: It's as good as any computer-based app now.

*****

Edited by JDoors
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I'm not sure I like having my "sent" mail saved "on the web" rather than on my computer (if you save your sent mail, I do). I don't trust the chain of potential problems that is the web: my computer has to work, my Internet connection has to work, the ISP has to be working, etc. (one reason I don't use "auto pay" online, I don't trust that every link in that chain will be working). With computer-based e-mail, even if you have no Internet connection, you've still got all your previous mail saved and available, the only link in the "chain" is: Is the computer working? (And I am the one that has control over that.)

GMail has an experimental offline mode.

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