I'm just about fed up with my orange.net email. I have used it for many years without major problems, but over the last year or so it is frequently "down" or broken for one reason or another. Despite being a loyal customer, I think it's time for a change to something more reliable. I have a Virgin account as a backup but the front page is so slow to load, I won't be using this as my main server either. Any suggestions?… preferably something that works with Thunderbird, but not essential. Thanks.

Gmail is best out there IMO. Full IMAP so should work well with Thunderbird

I've used yahoo mail since 2000 with very few problems, though only the main mail folder links with Thunderbird, not any subfolders you create

Gmail +1. Been using it since it came out and never had a problem. Switched to IMAP from POP couple of years ago after getting iPhone and all is good.

Yeah POP access like hotmail only gives you a view of your inbox, whereas IMAP lets you sync with all your subfolders etc. And when you look at a mail in IMAP, on your iphone or thunderbird client it tags it as read, whereas POP doesnt which is bloody annoying 🙂

gmail with domain forwarders

Gmail.
You can also get an email app for pretty much any mobile handset. Gives you txt based email using hardly any data and is constantly updating. Nice little app. I Just use opera when I want to view html

gmail has the advantage of IMAP it seems, but I have to say the UI is grim and dated 🙁

Another fan of gmail here, 100% reliable in all the years I've been using it.

Gmail is excellent, you can also set it to retrieve from your orange.net account (not that I'm suggesting this is unique).

Not sure about the UI being dated, it works….

You also get photo storage, document storage and a load of other add ons with a google account.

Alaric.

gmail.

never yahoo, never hotmail

Couldn't get on with Yahoo, have been using hotmail for ten years and gmail for four and both are great.

I should take another look at Virgin.

My NTLworld email is always fine and responsive. It didn't always work great with webmail access from abroad but they've recently done a major upgrade.

I think it might now have a tie-in with gmail and the free storage has gone up.

Hotmail has a much better UI than Gmail, including having a reading pane which Gmail doesn't. It can be set up as either IMAP or POP – it was using IMAP before Gmail even appeared.

IMO Microsoft can now be trusted more that Google not to do stuff to compromise your identity or pass your information on to advertisers

used yahoo for nearly 10 years, no issue with using as a pop mail on outlook 2007. Dont like hotmail and cant use it with a mail client anyway. Gmail pretty good also, although im not 100% sold on the way the mail string is set out. Tend to avoid using any mail provided by ISPs, as if you change you lose your e-mail addresses normally.

gmail has the advantage of IMAP it seems, but I have to say the UI is grim and dated

I must be grim and dated too then because I MUCH prefer it to all the other offerings that are too faffy and complex and overly graphical. And often go wrong. GMail all the way. App for my phone, IMAP syncs at work/home, simple clear and fast to do stuff. What else do you want from an email provision?

IMO Microsoft can now be trusted more that Google not to do stuff to compromise your identity or pass your information on to advertisers

Let your guard down, microsoft has won 🙂

I think it might now have a tie-in with gmail and the free storage has gone up.

Yes. Virgin now uses gmail to host it's email service.
I had problem configuring POP on it though. You might as well just get a gmail account – which I've had no such problems with.

I think i've used everything over the years. We previously used Yahoo Biz to host our email but the lack of IMAP finally did for it and we moved to Gmail. IMAP is great (when set up properly with your mail clients which is NOT the standard set up to get Gmail working properly – look around the web for tips). iPhone, webmail and a desktop client are now all in sync with drafts, sent and inbox the same everywhere.

Yahoo's last web interface was pretty good but I don't have any issues with Gmail either.

It's always a good idea to separate your email from your ISP, either by using Yahoo / Hotmail / Gmail, or using your own domain name and forwarding. That way, it's not a royal pain in the proverbial when you come to change providers.

I've got an account with all three webmails above, and they all pretty much work as advertised for my purposes at least. I use Gmail for personal mail, and Hotmail for generic "what's your email address" questions on web forms (so that it's no great hardship to close if it suddenly starts getting spammed to feckery. I don't really use Yahoo for much TBH.

There's nothing to stop you from creating multiple accounts and trying them all out, of course. Pick the one you like best before giving out your 'new' address to people.

I use a service called Fastmail.fm, mainly because Google already own enough of my life.

Fastmail is a paid-service – so no ads and very reliable. Full IMAP access since long before GMail even existed. Completely customisable filtering using the Sieve language.

Not for everyone, but suits me.

had gmail since it came out. was ace when the university webmail changed to using gmail.

had hotmail, which was ok, but i found it slow.

One issue with hotmail is that it will often get tagged as spam instead of arriving in the recipents inbox…

My main account is hotmail, has been since I've had e-mail…
used g-mail for a while…it was alright but didn't find it any better than hotmail (although that was a while ago so things may have changed!)

gmail works.. fact.
the UI whislt dated is simple and works very well.
I have converted my mother 'the technophobe' into a gmail user and she finds it very easy to use.

I do like the IMAP etc to sync my mobile with the email (and calendar) I dont even bother with outlook or thunderbird now.

I've remembered the other reason we switched to Gmail – by far the best spam filter ime.

gmail all the way.

GMail also. And as someone else mentioned, consider getting your own domain with email forwarding – for under a tenner a year I have my own .co.uk domain including the service to run it, and I just pick where I want the email to end up (to more than one account if I wanted).

Started doing it in about 2002, helped give me some peace of mind when I went over to gmail in 2004, as I could always switch providers at will without changing my email address in a million places. As it is, I've been a happy gmail user since I switched – which will be 6 years in a fortnight.