Simple E-Mail Freeware

[Dave]

Hello,
I am attempting to help my somewhat computer skills deficient parents move
from their AOL dial up account to a DSL hook up.

They liked the ease of use of the AOL e-mail system and they are having
trouble adapting to a different e-mail client. I have recommended that
they NOT use MS OutLook Express as an e-mail client due to its well know
security vulnerabilities.

I have installed both Pegasus and Calypso to give them a trial at using
these programs. They find these feature rich programs too complicated to
understand and cannot seem to pick their path through all the features to
easily fing the basic functioning they are seeking.

Configuring the program is NOT an issue. I will configure it with the
server info and security settings for them.

Does anybody have any suggestions for a freeware e-mail program that is
as simple to use as the AOL mail interface with similar functionality?
Thanks for any input.
Dave

 

[Dave Felice]

Hello,
I am attempting to help my somewhat computer skills deficient parents move
from their AOL dial up account to a DSL hook up.

They liked the ease of use of the AOL e-mail system and they are having
trouble adapting to a different e-mail client. I have recommended that
they NOT use MS OutLook Express as an e-mail client due to its well know
security vulnerabilities.

I have installed both Pegasus and Calypso to give them a trial at using
these programs. They find these feature rich programs too complicated to
understand and cannot seem to pick their path through all the features to
easily fing the basic functioning they are seeking.

Configuring the program is NOT an issue. I will configure it with the
server info and security settings for them.

Does anybody have any suggestions for a freeware e-mail program that is
as simple to use as the AOL mail interface with similar functionality?
Thanks for any input.
Dave

If you are really looking for simplicity, most DSL carriers that have
email tied into it, have a webmail interface (sbc/yahoo for
instance)...otherwise, try Mozilla Thunderbird (as long as you are
willing to help configure it initially, it is like any other pop-email
program in that regard).

Dave

 

[Steven Burn]

Does anybody have any suggestions for a freeware e-mail program that is
as simple to use as the AOL mail interface with similar functionality?
Thanks for any input.

MS OE.........

Yes it has it's problems but then again, so does everything else (everything is susceptable to exploitation in one way or another, I don't care what it is..... the fact it's "not exploitable at the moment" is neither here nor there)...... aslong as you have an active real-time AV/AS and firewall, have disabled the Preview pane, have restricted it to text e-mails (not really necessary if your like me and view the source before opening the e-mail, but it's sufficient for those that are careless) and have a rule in place to auto-move e-mails with attatchments to a special folder (deleted items folder is a good place for these (unless your expecting an attatchment from a specific person of course)), it's as safe as everything else.

Golden rules for PC's = a system is only as safe as the person administering it.

--
Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

 

[Mark Warner]

MS OE.........

Yes it has it's problems but then again, so does everything else
(everything is susceptable to exploitation in one way or another, I
don't care what it is..... the fact it's "not exploitable at the
moment" is neither here nor there)...... aslong as you have an active
real-time AV/AS and firewall, have disabled the Preview pane, have
restricted it to text e-mails (not really necessary if your like me
and view the source before opening the e-mail, but it's sufficient
for those that are careless) and have a rule in place to auto-move
e-mails with attatchments to a special folder (deleted items folder
is a good place for these (unless your expecting an attatchment from
a specific person of course)), it's as safe as everything else.

Golden rules for PC's = a system is only as safe as the person
administering it.

Agreed. I will grant that running IE/OE *unprotected* would make a user
more vulnerable than running an alternative browser and/or email client.
However, if the user keeps the OS up to date, has good (and current)
resident AV and firewall protection, and uses common freaking sense,
then the risk differential shrinks to near zero. The 'Net does no one
any good if you can't use the damn thing. JMO. YMMV.

 

[Mike Dee]

Does anybody have any suggestions for a freeware e-mail program
that is as simple to use as the AOL mail interface with similar
functionality? Thanks for any input.

Mozilla Thunderbird (which is skinable, make it look like
what they're used to).

Found this review which compares AOL Communicator to Mozilla:

**/
.... Unfortunately, Communicator doesn't mimic the near-perfect email
formatting of Mozilla, which it resembles closely otherwise.
Instead, the plain text handling in Communicator is as broken as
Outlook's (with misplaced '>' characters and line breaks)...
/**

Rest of review:
<http://email.about.com/cs/winclientreviews/gr/aolcommunicator.htm>

 

[scootgirl.com]

[snip]

If you are really looking for simplicity, most DSL carriers that have
email tied into it, have a webmail interface (sbc/yahoo for
instance)[snip]

That's what I did for my mom. I just made a shortcut to her taskbar to get
to the login screen.

Karen
http://scootgirl.com/

 

[\(ProteanThread\)]

not to mention the fact that thunderbird can log in to AOL IMAP accounts.