November Poll

[Computer Hope Admin]

For the month of November we thought it would be interesting to see what users are using to send and receive e-mail. Feel free to make comments about why you think your e-mail program is better than any of the other programs listed or tell others why you use your program of choice.

In the past Computer Hope has used Microsoft Outlook as it's primary e-mail program however has recently moved over to Mozilla Thunderbird a great free e-mail solution that so far we've been very happy with.

All past monthly polls and results can be found on the Computer Hope poll page.

[honvetops]

Verizon << ISP
YAHOO

[Fed]

I use Outlook Express, I've never seen a need to change to anything else.

[Rob Pomeroy]

Nathan - this needs to be a multiple response mail.    I use variously:

• Thunderbird
• Outlook
• Yahoo webmail
• Gmail webmail
• Mail.com webmail
• ePrompter to check the latter 3

I never ever EVER use Outlook Express and I pity anyone who does.  ;D

[soybean]

I voted Outlook Express <hi, Rob, > but I also use Outlook and have one email account which is accessed only online.

[Rob Pomeroy]

2 November 2006

Rob's official pity list:

• Fed
• soybean

[Fed]

I never ever EVER use Outlook Express and I pity anyone who does.

Why Rob?

[unlovedwarrior]

cuz its a microsoft product. but sadly i use hotmail which is infected with the ms disease

[Fed]

I think I'll wait for a valid reply unlovedwarrior.
BTW, your shift key is broken.

[soybean]

cuz its a microsoft product. but sadly i use hotmail which is infected with the ms disease

Somehow, that marvelously objective and comprehensive assessment hasn't convinced me to stop using it.

[Zylstra]

I use Outlook Express, I've never seen a need to change to anything else.

Same here, but I did want to switch to Thunderbird and try it out, but I couldent... no HTTP mail access...

[Dilbert]

I have had no major issues with OE. I use it.

[Rob Pomeroy]

3 November 2006

Rob's official pity list:

• Fed
• soybean
• Zylstra555
• Dilbert

Why?  Firstly, the limited feature set and the brain-dead way OE handles multiple email accounts.  Secondly, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=outlook+express+vulnerabilities&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

[Zylstra]

3 November 2006

Rob's official pity list:

• Fed
• soybean
• Zylstra555
• Dilbert

Why?  Firstly, the limited feature set and the brain-dead way OE handles multiple email accounts.  Secondly, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=outlook+express+vulnerabilities&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

It handles all my email accounts correctly, what do you mean, Rob?
Most of the vularibilities are causes by the constent hackers of Microsoft protects since its more common.

[Fed]

So Thunderbird, Outlook or some sort of webmail is the best for beginners?




Does your bicycle have training wheels?  

[patio]

TBird...

[Rob Pomeroy]

It handles all my email accounts correctly, what do you mean, Rob?

It improved with age, but I could never forgive all the signature nonsense, the lack of features, the non-standard HTML, allowing the use of Word, for goodness' sake to edit emails, etc, etc.  Full blown Outlook does make up for this by being an exceptionally good PIM...

Most of the vularibilities are causes by the constent hackers of Microsoft protects since its more common.

Oh well, that's all right then.  

So Thunderbird, Outlook or some sort of webmail is the best for beginners?




Does your bicycle have training wheels?  

Ah no, for beginners, try Pegasus.    

[XtaszY]

Outlook Express Rulz!
Am I Write?  

[Rob Pomeroy]

Figures.  

[patio]

I almost forgot...Oh Joy Joy Joy another Poll.

[Dilbert]

There's nothing wrong with the monthly.

[unlovedwarrior]

I almost forgot...Oh Joy Joy Joy another Poll.

this one is about something thou... not random stuff

[GX1_Man]

Well, that does make it different then.

[alex116]

I use Webmail because Yahoo doesn't support other stuff and besides, I'm used to it. It's rather annoying sometimes

[hansme]

I use opera mail client for reading e-mails.

[JohnK]

I use Outlook 2000 simply because I have Office 2000 Professional, so I figure why not use it.

[arthurarad]

I am extremely happy with my Outlook as program combined with GMail as provider. For those of you out there who have GMail accounts, you should know that it is possible to use it in Outlook. For those of you interested in this, send me an e-mail.

[Flame]

Outlook Express. I like Outlook more, but it's broken and I'm tired of fighting with it.

Flame

[banjo67xxx]

I switched from OE to Thunderbird cos the dumb *censored* OE insisted on downloading a copy of everything in my IMAP folders whether I wanted to read it or not. When using a laptop in a foreign country with cellular data card, thats the last thing I wanted  

Also, Thunderbird claims to have adaptive spam filtering, although I think I need to RTFM again cos its not learning what I call spam very well  :-?

PS: Thunderbird works with gmail too, in fact that's the only way to get outgoing mail to work with some ISP's, especially as Chinese ISPs don't supply smtp servers (everyone in China uses webmail, mainly 163.com)

[Rob Pomeroy]

Even in China they have to use SMTP.  Mail doesn't get routed without it.  

[banjo67xxx]

Even in China they have to use SMTP.  Mail doesn't get routed without it.  

You are technically correct. However, ChinaNetCom do not provide an SMTP service. I spent a long time talking to their customer support line with my wife translating for me, and also talked to several competent Chinese computer users, only to discover that everyone uses 163.com or hotmail via HTTP.

Nearly all well designed SMTP servers from ISP's will reject any outgoing email that doesn't originate from their own broadband or dialup connections. I've configured my own UK SMTP server to reject any outgoing email that doesn't originate from my internal LAN, and so as I havn't configured VPN on my LAN I can't use that from my laptop on China.

So, if I want to send email from my laptop in China using Thunderbird, then gmail offers a password authenticated SSL encrypted SMTP server, which I can use.

PS: The other great thing I noticed is that the Great Firewall of China doesn't block smtp.gmail.com despite the rest of google mail being blocked http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,71091-0.html?tw=wn_index_5

See http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?t=13007&highlight=google+mail for a full discussion on the use of SMTP within China

[Rob Pomeroy]

You are technically correct.

I know.  (Cue smug grin.  All right, hit me if you want to.)

However, ChinaNetCom do not provide an SMTP service. I spent a long time talking to their customer support line with my wife translating for me, and also talked to several competent Chinese computer users, only to discover that everyone uses 163.com or hotmail via HTTP.

I think the issue here is China's highly restrictive country-wide firewall/censorship policy, rather than unavailability of a particular protocol.

Nearly all well designed SMTP servers from ISP's will reject any outgoing email that doesn't originate from their own broadband or dialup connections.

It is a trivial matter for a spammer to trick many SMTP servers into thinking that an email originates within the ISP's circuits though.

I've configured my own UK SMTP server to reject any outgoing email that doesn't originate from my internal LAN, and so as I havn't configured VPN on my LAN I can't use that from my laptop on China.

Which server software are you using?  When not set up a restrictive relay (accessible only by you)?  Or a web interface (e.g. Squirrelmail) that enables email to originate from your own server?

[banjo67xxx]

I think the issue here is China's highly restrictive country-wide firewall/censorship policy, rather than unavailability of a particular protocol.

It is a trivial matter for a spammer to trick many SMTP servers into thinking that an email originates within the ISP's circuits though.

Which server software are you using?  When not set up a restrictive relay (accessible only by you)?  Or a web interface (e.g. Squirrelmail) that enables email to originate from your own server?

I was making a point about how easy it is to use gmail as an outgoing SMTP server, to circumvent all of these issues.

The unavailability (or if you prefer me to say the difficulty in finding accessible servers) of the protocol, and the knowledge required to trick SMTP servers, makes it non-trivial to configure OE or Thunderbird to work within China without using gmail (or other similar SMTP services).

I could set up a web interface, configure a restrictive relay, or even install SMTP server software on the laptop, but why bother when I've got gmail?

FYI, I'm using Sendmail 8.11.7 on Solaris 7 with procmailsanitiser on an old SPARCstation-1 which I borrowed from work 6 years ago. Other than editting the /etc/aliases file occasionally and adding new user accounts, I've not had to do anything to maintain this antique for atleast 3 years  

[Rob Pomeroy]

I was making a point about how easy it is to use gmail as an outgoing SMTP server, to circumvent all of these issues.

Yes, sorry, it's not always easy to gauge a poster's level of technical expertise on the basis of a few posts.

FYI, I'm using Sendmail 8.11.7 on Solaris 7 with procmailsanitiser on an old SPARCstation-1 which I borrowed from work 6 years ago. Other than editting the /etc/aliases file occasionally and adding new user accounts, I've not had to do anything to maintain this antique for atleast 3 years  

And I suspect you haven't even had to reboot it.