My prime computer is down and it might be weeks before it can be fixed.
(My second computer doesn’t have email capability - because it is linked to the prime computer, and I wanted to confine emailing to one computer.)
So, until the numero uno computer is fixed, I’m using Yahoo for emails. Aside from the ads what other drawbacks might there be?
None, really. It’s much better than Google or Hotmail, as far as I can see.
If you want easier access, you can set Outlook to read from it.
Also, the reverse is true. You can set Yahoo mail to read from your other email system. Check the options.
Thank you very much for the assurances that Yahoo email’s okay to use .
I did note the option to link Yahoo <—>Outlook and I might give this a try when my other machine is again operational.
do you need to keep a record of your “Sent items”?
Yahoo mail doesnt save them by default, and when you set it to save, the saved mails count as part of you quota. So you may run out of room .
Since this is more of a request for opinion than a factual question, I’m moving this to IMHO.
Unless you routinely send and receive large documents, this is very unlikely. I have three or four years worth of saved sent & received mail and I’m only using 5% of my 1GB storage.
I’ve used Yahoo for years, since I got out of college which was about 9 years ago. Never any problems, their spam filter does a good job, basically no complaints.
You are aware that most ISPs allow you to check your email on the web, right? You might not have to use Yahoo.
If I linked my Outlook <—> Yahoo, would the latter’s antispam function work as well for Outlook, too?
And by the way, the site’s anti-spyware picked up a couple of malware items I wasn’t aware of, when I scanned, just for the hell of it.
I installed the Yahoo toolbar in order to get email alerts, but the alerts don’t ever come. (I have the Sound turned up.)
I wrote to their Help desk for the answer.
And so far, whenever I boot up (o Restart, anyway) I get a little window asking if I want to use Yahoo for my search engine and Home Page. I check off No to each and
do the same for “Don’t ask me again,” but it doesn’t seem to matter. I think I’ll write to them about this Popup, too.
You have to pay for POP access though, right? Or is that actually free now?
No idea, sorry. I’ve never linked it with Outlook.
I didn’t know that, Athena, and I thank you for telling me. But I think I’ll stay with Yahoo for awhile. They even offered me a free second address - james.jones@Yahoo.com.
I took them up on it, even though my real name is john.smith. 
By the way…
The nag screen mentioned earlier is gone. I shut down and then booted up, launched my FireFox browser and I didn’t get the nag. Happy Days.
No. Yahoo gives you a full Gigabyte to use.
Hotmail announced they would match that, but they are still at 25MB today.
You pay for it, I think $19/year, but only if you want the mail to reside on your own computer instead of online. I’d actually rather they have it online, where I can refer to it from work and other computers.
One possible drawback with free web-based mail accounts (including Yahoo! Mail) is that some web sites don’t accept them for registration.
Also I’ve found the search function on Yahoo! Mail to be slow and difficult to use. Gmail is much better in this respect. (Actually, I personally consider Gmail to be better in all respects, and have configured my Yahoo account to forward everything to my Gmail account.)
I’ve used Yahoo email as my spam-catcher email site for years, and I have no complaints. I don’t know why you would want to set Outlook as your browser, since Outlook is one of the worst Microsoft products and I avoid it whenever possible.
A tip for preventing your email addresses getting co-opted - I made an Excel database of all my email addresses, with a cell for each permutation (family, friends, etc.), and I just copy and paste when sending emails. It’s an extra step, but I know that no one ever gets spammed from my address books, because they’re all empty.
**
[QUOTE=BarnOwl]
I installed the Yahoo toolbar in order to get email alerts, but the alerts don’t ever come. (I have the Sound turned up.)**
I wrote to their Help desk for the answer.
And they still haven’t answered. But I finally saw the “alert” — a teeny tiny envelope (it looks like) with a teenier-tinier orange blob on it, which appears in the tool bar when new mail has arrived. No audio — so far, anyway.
[QUOTE=BarnOwl]
**
Yahoo seems to go through periods when the alert doesn’t work so well. There have been weeks when I haven’t gotten any notification at all, or the notification shows up two or three hours after the email comes in. Then, suddenly, it’s fixed and my notifications are instant.
All in all, Yahoo Mail has been pretty good to me over the years, but I’m finding I like Gmail more and more. I’ve taken to giving out my Yahoo address to businesses and anyone who may spam me, but my friends all reach me at Gmail.
[QUOTE=Asimovian]
Asimovian,
How do I get G-mail?
[QUOTE=BarnOwl]
I just sent an invite to your Yahoo address. Currently, you can only get Gmail by receiving an invitation from a current Gmail user (someone jump in here if this isn’t true any longer).
Make sure to check your Bulk Mail folder if you don’t see if shortly. Yahoo has been known to toss Gmail invites in there.