Self Shop Computer Support (UPDATE #7) 08-24-2014 (GREAT)

[ken572]

(ALL)

Please take the time to read this and watch the short video.

This is a must read and must watch. I think you will like what

you read and watch.

LINK:
https://beta.startmail.com/

Ken.

[TomB]

On the surface it looks good, but it does not provide enough detail and how do we know that company is not a rip off? First how does it run? Are they functioning like an ISP (for example Time Warner or Comcast) or are they just a replacement for Outlook (or equiv.) It sounds like they are providing user-to-user encryption and that sounds really desirable, but what encryption program and how are keys managed?

Finally, I'm becoming so skeptical about everything on the web that I wonder if they are bad guys putting out phishing bait or good guys with a real product. For anything on the web, how can someone tell?

Tom

[redneckalbertan]

Tom I will not argue with any of the points that you made, I think you are absolutely right. The thought that I was left with after reading this article was, maybe it's time for me to quit using a "free" service and move to a paid for service.

With my ISP I have access to 5 email accounts that are included, and their privacy policy is less invasive. I set one up for myself, because I had to, but never used it, when I signed up for internet services. At that point I had been using a hotmail account for six years so why would I want to change? I've not been with the same ISP for about 10 years... I guess I should have switched then! To register a domain and keep that updated does not cost that much, and a person could set up their own email server and run it that way, a person may miss emails with ISP down time and power outages if there isn't power redundancy setup with your server and associated communications hardware. Then there is always the option for paying for hosting services for your aforementioned purchased domain. Not expensive, I have seen some go daddy promotions for extremely basic hosting services including email for $4 a month. $10 a month gets a person a lot more server space and, more than likely, more email addresses than a person would know what to do with.

But I digress my quick thought has turned into a ramble.

[TomB]

... The thought that I was left with after reading this article was, maybe it's time for me to quit using a "free" service and move to a paid for service.
...

I've been thinking the same thing, but just don't where to turn. I have two houses, one in Time Warner land and one in Comcast land plus a ski area business that buys web and mail services via merchant source. I've been using one of the five Time Warner addresses for twenty years and everybody knows it, but I'm going to sell that house, Time Warner will be gone, so I have to change e-mail provider. Further the Time Warner e-mail sign in is continually hacked by somebody that blasts out span to apparently thousands around the world. Time Warner has tried everything to no avail in stopping it. I spent from 5AM to 11AM connected to their chat service Saturday and by today, Monday, I have received 631 "Mail Delivery Failure" notes. These result from when the spammer tries to send crap to an address that no longer exists. I know that my private account for the Ski Mountain is notoriously bad for performance. Often if fails to send out mail and who knows how much it drops on the way in. Further its very costly to maintain but necessary and extremely expensive to replace. So I have to change, but really don't want to go thru the process of notifying everybody about the change twice so I don't want to just move to Comcast.

Although I use to work in a business where we had to have secure communication, I've retired from that and just don't want to spend the considerable amount of time needed to understand and maintain my own private domain. It's all tough and I'm very surprised that some company has not been able to make a successful business out of e-mail services. It always seem like all company business models are based on (1) give away the address, (2) spy on all traffic, (3) sell the traffic to advertisers, (4) sell advertisers the right to put unwanted ads on my computer. I hate that and wish there was some way I could charge every advertiser for the use on my computer and display, say $10 per add.

So now I have to change e-mail provider, don't mind paying for it, but see no way to tell if the new companies business plan is anything other that changing point from (1) give away the address to (1) sell the address. It's darn frustrating.

[BadDog]

I use gmail and Hotmail for just that reason. Used to move around a lot, also had and then abandoned my own domain. And as long as you provide a good password, Gmail is about as secure as your going to find, and they seem to have great SPAM filtering. I've got an account there from the time when you had to be "invited", and to my knowledge it's never been compromised and still does not get more than a few SPAM messages that make it to my SPAM folder on any given day, and I don't recall the last time a SPAM mail made it to my inbox, but also never recall a false reject or lost email on that account. Best part, as long as Google doesn't fold, the account should be good forever (or until it's not, whichever comes first).