Onebox.com

...started using Onebox.com. While Onebox.com has no personalized "start page" connected with their program, they do have something better. They have two different options for receiving notifications of new email. You can have them send a message to your "real" email address letting you know that new mail has arrived. This message has a link to the message itself which you can just click on. If you don't like that, you can have all ...
...of the best things about Onebox.com is its filtering system. Of all the web-based email programs I've seen, none have given you the option of setting up general filters - only blocking specific addresses. Onebox.com has a general filter option which can be configured to look in different parts of the offending emails - these are "From", "To or CC", "Subject" and "Body". Within these options, you can have it ... more

UPDATE - As of April 15th, Onebox will no longer be free. However, if you don't want the voice mail option or premium services (a real toll free number with no extention and a 25mb inbox instead of 10mb), it will cost only $25 per month. This may still be worth it since it has the best filtering system available that I know of (even better than Outlook and my beloved Agent) and the largest inbox on-line that I've found (basic package will now be 10mb vs. the usual 3mb). Everything else below still applies.

I've tried Yahoo! and found that although it has about all one really needs for a free web-based email program, it was a real spam trap. The one good thing about Yahoo! was that you were notified if you had new mail on your personalized "start page".

I've also used Excite, but the problems the company had haven't been totally fixed yet, and it seems a very slow, heavy site. Perhaps it will improve, since they say that they will soon have notification of new emails on your personalized "start page", but that page is so limited in its scope that it has become annoying to use. Also, their spam filter has been down for months now, and I found myself, once again, only getting garbage and not real mail.

Hotmail has its advantages as far as web-based email. They give you several filtering options, but the one that really is useful means putting every email address into your address book which is a real time-consuming process. Also, their personalized "start page" doesn't notify you if you've got new mail.

This is why I've started using Onebox.com. While Onebox.com has no personalized "start page" connected with their program, they do have something better. They have two different options for receiving notifications of new email. You can have them send a message to your "real" email address letting you know that new mail has arrived. This message has a link to the message itself which you can just click on. If you don't like that, you can have all your messages forwarded to your "real" email address. Both of these options override the disadvantage of not having a personalized "start page".

One of the best things about Onebox.com is its filtering system. Of all the web-based email programs I've seen, none have given you the option of setting up general filters - only blocking specific addresses. Onebox.com has a general filter option which can be configured to look in different parts of the offending emails - these are "From", "To or CC", "Subject" and "Body". Within these options, you can have it look for a particular word or phrase or group of letters in various forms - this means you choose the options "contains", "does not contain", "begins with" or "ends with" regarding the word, phrase or character string. After that, you tell it where these should be filed - such as the trash or a folder. So, for instance, I have already set up filters for all emails whose "From" "ends with" jp (Japan) and tw (Tiawan) to be sent directly to the trash can. I'm sure you've all received the exact same spam from different addresses before, so this option will be invaluable for ignoring all those chain letters and offers to purchase anything from a diploma to body-part enlargement products.

When you sign up with Onebox.com you are automatically given a phone number where people can leave you voice mail or send you faxes. I'm sure that this is a real plus for people living in the US, but for us non-Americans its basically useless (unless you have a practically free international dialing service). Still, this is the first service of this kind that I've seen on any free email service.

Other options available are the usual folders and address book options. The address book has import and export features so if you have all your contacts on Outlook, Outlook Express or Palm Desktop, you can bring in all your contacts to your new account.

Finally, Onebox.com has a calendar option where you can schedule tasks and events. This also has an import and export feature, but since I don't know what "iCal" or "xml" are, I don't know what programs these connect to. Still, it may be invaluable to someone reading this, I'm sure.

All in all, while this won't be the only email program I use because it has only a 3MB capacity, it certainly is good enough for using as an address when posting on usenet or signing up for things on the internet that might not be as safe as you think. So, I think Onebox.com is the free web-based program I'll stick with from now on.
 

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