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What is a good email program?Written by John BirrenbachEmail programs, most everyone uses Outlook or Outlook Express, why? Cause they are free, they are installed in Windows Operating Systems, made the default program so people naturally use them. Well therein lies the problem. Because they are used so frequently by so many people they are subject to attack. Virus writers write for programs and Operating Systems that are most widely used. It's kind of like the thiefs that steal a particular kind of car, why cause they know they can unload them easy. Same is partially true with Outlook and Outlook express. They are used by so many people they are an easy target. While the product available now is certainly better than what was open for use a few years ago, unfortunately due to it's market dominance (and virus writers seem to have a general dislike for anything Microsoft) the problems persist. There is however a way to avoid many of the problems with being involved with the major player and use other software. Some of it is available at a charge, usually small, some is available for free. One such email program is a result of work at the University of IL (where Netscape originated from). Essentially some students back in the early 90's needed to make a program and they made Eudora. For many years Eudora was totally free, however in the mid to late 1990's the University spun the project off into a private company and sold the rights. However in the agreement, Qualcom had to still offer a free version for people to use. Essentially what they did was take the email program, add some enhancements, and then offered the new version for sale. As they developed new enhancements the previous for sale version became the FREE version and this has continued to this day. Eudora is now also available in a sponsored mode. Essentially that means that Qualcom sells advertising space in your program, and creates a small (and I mean small, enough that I don't even notice it anymore) window with an ad in it. For that you get the almost full blown version of the software with 99% of the features of the paid version intact. I have been using Eudora since it was first introduced and found it to be one of the most powerful email programs available. Not only does it keep your address book safe from prying eyes, and virus software, it is fully configurable to handle any number of email accounts. I currently have 8 email accounts all being checked by the program on three different servers. Everything from standard POP accounts, to secure POP accounts to IMAP servers. It checks them all at various intervals that I have told it to check mail for on the various servers. It also has a filtering system that at times can be a bit overzealous, in that it will look at each of your incoming mail and then direct it to a various email box in the program ( I currently have 15 different boxes so that mail is sorted accordingly ) or directly to the trash ( I have mine set so that 95% of the spam email that comes in is directed straight into the trash bin) which is a nice thing to have your program do. You can also set the program so that you can send mail as under a variety of names or email addresses. Each of the many email boxes I need to check each have their own address for them. As mail comes in it is sorted to the proper box by it's incoming address for me and placed in the proper location and pops open a window when mail is directed there. When I reply to each of these email addresses I am able to pull down the appropriate email address for that box and send email back out from the address it came in from, or use my general address. Another nice feature is pretty much unlimited signature files. These are the things at the bottom of your email that you send out, generally your Thanks, NAME, email address or other message. I have again about a dozen or so of these that I use depending on who I am emailing. If I am sending out a press release I use one, if I am responding to an email account another, and so on. Thus I can customize the bottom of my email as I would like it, and tie it to a specific outgoing address. This saves me lots of time in typing my name email address and messages I want to include at the bottom. Eudora is also a very secure program when it comes to those pesky virus that start sending email to people in your addressbook. Unlike the majority player, it's address book is kept in a different sort of format, and as Eudora is not the biggest guy on the block it is not targeted as Outlook is. It also has a feature that allows you to tell it not to send out automatic emails which helps stop the spread of viruses. Frankly without Eudora as my email program I would be lost. It is that good that I would recommend that everyone use it. You can find it at this location http://www.eudora.com/. It's available for both Windows and also for The Apple Operating systems, and in the archives they have versions for older Operating systems as well. This web site created and maintained by John Birrenbach Consulting all materials are copyright protected under International Copyright Law.
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