Recommendations please for a free email client

Box Brownie

Box Brownie

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Hi all

This is for & on behalf of a relative.

She has been using the Plusnet WebMail but it is not the best for speed and user experience = great frustration to do everyday emailing.

So, though not her ideal choice to have "more program installed" (I am still trying to resolve how & what might improve the webmail ~ I have a fix to try with her on the phone on Wednesday) what freely available email clients are other TPers using and can recommend for a PC who just needs and easy straightforward computer usage experience?

TIA :)
 
Thunderbird Mail has worked well for me on many different computers. I would also suggest Gmail - you can link any email account to it, for sending and receiving mail.
 
Why not just use Gmail and add it to that?
 
I don’t know PlusNet webmail but it sounds like an email address from her broadband provider which is always a mistake since you tend to lose it when switching.

I would think Gmail is the thing to get and it works well as a webmail in any browser or in various clients.
 
Thanks all for the suggestions (so far) :)

In regard to Gmail when installed etc do you need to have/create a Gmail email address to 'run it' as part of then adding a non Gmail address for such daily & ongoing usage as I described?
 
sphexx said:
I don’t know PlusNet webmail but it sounds like an email address from her broadband provider which is always a mistake since you tend to lose it when switching.

I would think Gmail is the thing to get and it works well as a webmail in any browser or in various clients.
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FWIW she changed ISP for other reasons but AFAIK in common with all ISP (I think they have an obligation?) they allow all customers, who leave, to retain a free email account that is accessed via webmail (NB even whist a member she relied on webmail)
 
Thunderbird here too (y)
Pretty much unlimited email addresses or so it seems, in unlimited separate folders, Its a bit like the ex- outlook express.
 
Box Brownie said:
FWIW she changed ISP for other reasons but AFAIK in common with all ISP (I think they have an obligation?) they allow all customers, who leave, to retain a free email account that is accessed via webmail (NB even whist a member she relied on webmail)
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No that’s not true and sometimes the ISP abandons running email altogether and if you no longer have an account with that ISP you may have trouble maintaining the account when there are problems.

I used Thunderbird for years and like others here found it good and if it still is would go that route.

On Gmail. You can usually set the ‘Plusnet mail’ (or whichever) to forward mail to Gmail (and then mark as “read”) and on Web Gmail you can set to reply ‘as‘ the Plusnet address.

Gmail has a really good spam filter.

Some (or many?) of these ISP emails are being run by Gmail anyway but with their brand on it.

Plusnet is owned by BT so probably not going to ‘disappear
 
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On Windows, EM Client is pretty good, I prefer it to Thunderbird (although that is excellent too).

On Android and iOS or macOS, there's an app called Spark which is far and away my favourite email client. It's going to be coming to Windows at some point too apparently, but I don't know when.
 
I've still got my Hotmail account I set up in (IIRC) 1997. No issues at all with it, and I think Google know quite enough about me already without giving them my emails as well.
 
Llamaman said:
I've still got my Hotmail account I set up in (IIRC) 1997. No issues at all with it, and I think Google know quite enough about me already without giving them my emails as well.
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How does this help the OP? :thinking:
 
Llamaman said:
I've still got my Hotmail account I set up in (IIRC) 1997. No issues at all with it, and I think Google know quite enough about me already without giving them my emails as well.
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And I bet all your contacts are getting annoying spam purporting to be from you as well. At least that my experience of other people’s Hotmail accounts :(.
 
sphexx said:
And I bet all your contacts are getting annoying spam purporting to be from you as well. At least that my experience of other people’s Hotmail accounts :(.
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Possibly, but I've not had anybody ever tell me so. I'll ask next time we have a group meet up.
 
Yet another vote for Thunderbird. Even my wife can fumble her way round the essentials....
My mother's just moved to a care home so I changed her PlusNet account to a free email one and the emails still download to her tablet. She even got a refund on her last bill.
 
Thunderbird is great, I've used it for many years, so a thumbs up from me. (y)

However, a back up email supplier I use for spam and additional throw-away addresses worthy of mention is Mail.com. Unfortunately, being in the UK we can't use their premium service, but their free one is very good. I've been using it about fifteen years now and have never had a problem.
 
Llamaman said:
Sorry, I thought it was obvious my comment was an alternative suggestion to the gmail love-in.,
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But you haven’t been able to get a new Hotmail a/c for years. :( I think it’s only “outlook.com” now

Edit to correct quoting structure :(.
 
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Thunderbird is great. Just one caveat. Make sure the system drive or at least user home is encrypted as you can copy data folder and plugin as you wish. It makes migration easy but also security risk.
 
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