If you are not paying for the product you also have little to no technical assistance from the current platform you are on. Your all important email has no technical support if you are not paying for it. What does that mean? It means you can’t call Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink and others for technical assistance like password resetting or hacking issues and get a live person. The only technical assistance now available is by automated systems and codes sent via text message to your cell phone.
You need to decide what path you want to follow now. Here are your choices:
1. Stay with free email. You will get ads and cookies and adware and tracking. Additionally you MUST have access to a cell phone with text messaging. If not your own, a trusted friend or family member. You must have a cell phone number tied to your account now. I can’t stress this enough. Free mail is now automated. No cell phone number on your account, ability to reset the password and the account is basically dead and gone as a free email.
2. Stay with your Existing provider but Pay for service. AOL, Gmail, Yahoo and MSN are all offering paid for solutions and they all cost about the same. All run about $5.00 per month. With a paid for service you actually can call them although the automated solutions are always easiest. Of these providers Google or gmail offers the best solution and broadest services for the money. Their spam filter is also superior to anyone else. In my opinion.
. If you are a home user, and don’t have a lot of issues with spam and what not, go to the paid service of your current provider, update all your account information and put a cell phone number on the account. Keep a good antivirus program and backup.
. If you are a home user with lots of spam issues. Change your email and dump the junk. Move to Google who will do a better job keeping the spam away. You can run double mailboxes until you jump to the new one if you want.
. If you run a small business you really need to be on Google and a domain name if you can which is unbelievably cheap for what you get. Less than $200.00.
Microsoft has left many of you wanting in the mail department as it reduced the quality of mail programs which are automatically included with your new computer. They want you to buy their product. So that has also forced this switch to online services and paid for email.