So, the e-mail account I have through Charter Communications has proven to be troublesome. I can access it for a while, but then all of a sudden I can't, and have to call tech support. They do some magical thing to make it accessible again, and the techs are very nice folks, but I feel like a rat pushing a button, not knowing if I am going to receive any reward for the activity every time I want to read my e-mail. I'm tired of that, since it's happened over and over and over through the years. My ex-significant-whatever, who is younger and tech savvy, says I just need to get a free e-mail account through Hotmail or some other entity, not Charter. Since his ideas are usually reckless and foolhardy, I am wondering if setting up an account through Hotmail or wherever is actually free and safe, or if it is something I really don't want to do. Is there a free e-mail service that I can sign up for that is safe? I really respect and appreciate the advice I have obtained from Dokugans, so I thank you in advance for any help you can give...

I've got a couple of email accounts, but I have found that hotmail and gmail are less trouble filled than my yahoo
They also seem to be trying to outdo each other. The three of these are free sites and work good. I've had good luck with them. Just have had issues with yahoo stalling and having to reopen it. It holds tons of emails as I've had the yahoo of over 15 years without any serious problems.

Just go with what feels right for you. I enjoy all three of my free ones ( one is a business email that is free thru yahoo)

Hope that this has helped
Have fun!
Eve

I have three gmail accounts that I've never had a problem with, plus hotmail, yahoo, and comcast.

My advice, given my experience running different sites, would be to go with gmail as a free account, since I've rarely, if ever, gotten spam from a gmail account. Yahoo is rife with hijacking and hotmail has had its problems as well.

Just my two cent's worth!

~~me~~

Thanks so much, guys. I know I must seem like a real weanie, but I have learned to be cautious the hard way...

I know some have already given opinions, but I too have 2 GMail and Yahoo! accounts. My Yahoo! is for anything and everything and my GMail is used mostly for work/school things.

One of the better benefits for GMail as well, is that you can have several accounts all linked to each other and with the click of a button check each one for new mail. :3

I decided to go with gmail, and I was surprised how easy it was to sign up. The hardest part was coming up with a user name that hadn't already been taken. They didn't require any account numbers, social security numbers, or personal info, except date of birth. Thanks for the advice, and equally important, the moral support.

Speaking for myself, you are most welcome, knifethrower!! You've been with us since the beginning, I kinda count you as family, y'know? Anything else we can do to help, just holler!!

~~Wiccan~~

>.> Yah I've noticed that too. Hotmail tends to ask for addresses, phone numbers and other personal stuff now when you sign up for a 'new' email account. I always get Yahoo Ads on occassion after I sign in too asking if I want to give them a mobile phone number so that I can recover passwords through a mobile , which I find unbelievable.

Freedom of information is one thing, but if I wouldn't give my personal info to a total stranger than why the heck would I give the same information to a free email service provider?

Seriously, if they start asking for hair-colour, shoe-size, and how many nail-clippers I own, I'll be slowly backing away, running for cover, and convinced that Yahoo-bots are trying to take over the universe.

~ Pyre

I'm with you, Pyreite! Twenty, twenty-five years ago grocery stores in my area stopped trying to get customers to use those cards that track your purchases in exchange for special sale prices, because it annoyed people so much. Now the big drugstore chains such as Walgreen's and Rite Aid are back at it, requiring their customers to sign up for those cards in order to get any sale prices at all. A huge millage was passed to build a big, fancy new library in my town about ten years ago. They hired a new, out-of-town director who forced the kind and knowledgeable librarians who had worked at the old library to retire or quit, and replaced them with self-serve "scanners" and a few, unfriendly new "attendants" to care for the scanners. This expensive library now looks like something from a distopian movie, down to the red glowing lights and the piercing high pitched "tone" emitted by the security system, which some people can and some people can't hear. The machines require that you show your driver's license to prove who you are every single year, and finding even an unfriendly human employee (NOT a librarian) to comply is practically impossible. Not too surprisingly, most of the library patrons are actually homeless people using the restrooms to wash up and the reading rooms as a warm, dry place to sleep. The library tracks the books you check out, and reports them to Homeland Security. My old English teacher, thirty-odd years ago was determined to make us kiddies read Russian novels about humans living under the domination of a Byzantine bureaucratic regime, and books like "1984" and "This Perfect Day". I never realized the old fellow could foresee the future! ~MOVIE ANNOUNCER VOICE~ "In a world ruled by machines and gigantic evil corporations, DOKUGA stands as one of the last bastions of humanity!" Thanks, my friends, for making a safe and friendly place for us to play and interact on the internet.