PTA Technology Corner

You just signed up for Comcast Cable or Verizon FIOS and they are so nice to include an email address with your service. It may be tempting to use it, but I’m about to talk you out of it. First, there are hundreds of free email services available (about a half-a-dozen that are used by most folks). They come with spam filters, forwarding capabilities, can be used in almost any email application you have and are easy to use.

But the best part about using a free email service other than the one that came with your combined voice/TV/Internet service is that you can turn off or change your TV service without changing your email address! Lots of folks are looking at Verizon FIOS as an alternative to Comcast Cable or other options they might have (I switched last year and not only saved money, but got a great deal more than I was getting with Comcast). This week two people I was talking to for different reasons said they didn’t want to change their voice/TV/Internet service because they don’t want to change their email address.

Do yourself a favor - even if you’re not thinking about changing your cable TV or Internet access service at your house, start to migrate to a new email address that’s free and doesn’t depend on other services you may have.

My favorite? Gmail from Google. It’s easy to use, gives you a huge amount of storage space, and comes with probably the best spam filter available. After that you might look at Yahoo or even AOL (yes, they are still around and now you can get an email address for free!). MSN/Hotmail has been notorious for spam filter problems (sometimes working, sometimes catching things it shouldn’t - called a false positive) and at times being unreliable or down for maintenance when you need to access it. If you’re an Apple user, the .Mac service is wonderful because you get so much stuff with it like backup software, website hosting, calendar syncing, etc. that’s fully integrated into the Mac operating system. It does cost $99 per year though so do the 30 day trial to see if you like it first. All of these make your messages available via the web too so you can get your email from wherever you are!

No matter what you choose, make it one that isn’t tethered to anything else you subscribe to and someday you’ll be glad you did when it’s time to upgrade to a better TV, Internet or phone service at your home.