best free email forwarding service

jdsmith,

When you say "changing servers" do you really mean "changing ISPs"? I ask because there's a big difference and I will be assuming that you made the common error of calling your ISP your "server".

Secondly, why do you want forwarding if you do not like their email? It's much better to just use the third party email that you choose with no forwarding. That just adds another point of failure and more hassle. You are usually not obligated to use your ISP's email (and if you are that's a big reason to dump them) so I'm not sure what you want forwarding for.

As to the free email question I recommend against free email for a variety of reasons. But in choosing one you should consider the following factors:

1) Stability of the service. Will it flake out on you with downtime?

2) Stability of the company. This is a big one. There are many small fish out there with good offers but most shot down in a year or so or convert to premium only email. This is what really narrows free email down.

3) Available space. This is usually only an issue for webmail-based accounts.

4) Remote and offline access through mail-readers like Outlook Express and Eudora.

This is by far the most important aspect. This renders space an irrelevant concern (as the email is held on your computer and cleared off the remote mail provider's server).

It's also a huge convenience and negates any webmail issues (e.g. if you don't like the webmail they provide just access it through your mail reader).

The ones that best fit these criteria are:

Yahoo
Hotmail
Myway

They are stable companies (the first two easily being the most stable of the bunch).

Hotmail allows for access through Outlook Express.

Try lycos....
and google they offer an email service now.......

Google is in BETA and one of the founders said the BETA period may last for over 6 months.

if time is an issue waiting for Google will be a problem

If you want a free e-mail service,I would suggest www.bubbajunk.com
Its a website that was originally started for truckers,but they do have a free e-mail that anyone can use.
All you have to do is register,and you get a bubbajunk e-mail address for free.Thats the one I used when I drove over the road,and its a pretty good one.

clarification
Yes, I mean ISP. Switching from aol to verizon.
I am confused about Outlook and Eudora. It seems like Outlook is some universal program that everyone knows about but me. I tried finding a website but didn't; or is it something that does or does not come on your computer? And is it an email service or does it simply read your email on another service? I've downloaded Eudora but still haven't figured it out. I'm pretty remedial, here, I know, but am accustomed to the simplicity of aol.
The reason I'd like to use forwarding is because I haven't found an email service I like (don't like Verizon's) so I'm trying out different ones. In the meantime, I need to send out change of address forms and get off of aol, so I figured I'd just send everyone the verizon address till I found an email service I like.
Do you have any recommendations about simple, reliable forwarding services?

Re: clarification


Outlook Express usually comes on Windows computers.



It is a program that retrieves your email and allows you to read and send email.



Ok, this might help.

AOL is both an ISP and a software, and their software serves as a mail reader.

Outlook Express and other mail readers work in similar (but better) manner to AOL in that they too are programs that allow you to read email.



You seem a bit confused about forwarding and I'm trying to guide you to an easier solution.

For forwarding you need your verison service to forward. Anything else would have retrieve your email from them.

Instead of doing this, IMO, you should pick an email service you want to use and distribute that email.

Anywho, if you want to retrieve email from another pop3 account Yahoo offers a free service to do this.

Yes, I understand that is what you're suggesting & I appreciate your takiing the time to reply, but here's the deal. I'm still experimenting with various email services. I don't understand Eudora can't seem to set it up properly, I don't want to send prof'l email from a yahoo or hotmail account. Fastmail.fm was recommended to me by someone here and I'm trying that out but I may find a better email service and not want to use that service (I'm not sure I can save my email on there). I'd like to avoid the hassle of sending out another change of address form to my whole address book in a month or two, should I change email services. Since I will probably stay with Verizon, I can safely give out my Verizon address and then arrange for that mail to be forwarded to another service, like Fastmail or whatever service I choose in the future (assuming I can figure out how to do that!) Kind of serving the same purpose that people get personal domain names for, so they can change ISPs w/out changing their address; I want to be able to change email services & leave my verizon address (though I don't like their email system).

Does that make sense?

Not really.

See, if you want your email forwarded from verizon to another service verizon needs to forward it (because they will be the point of entry for your email).

So whatever secondary service you choose to use will then need to retrieve, not forward, your email.

Like I said, the free yahoo accounts allow you to retrieve the email through pop.

But if you want to have your outgoing email use the verizon address it will probably not work.

You could specify the return address of your email to be the verizon email address but some recipient's email providers will reject it as a spoofed address that doesn't have reverse dns entries. They reject it because spammers use an indentical technique.

So if you really don't want to ever have to send out the address change notification you should probably get a domain, as you can then use any mail reader, almost any ISP, and also have a choice of where to host it and what webmail service to use.