What is the best program for ensuring emails get through?

[Rob 3,152]

As the title says. I'm currently using Outlook, but get p'd off a lot by it considering emails from sensible sources just as likely to be junk as an advert for viagra or similar, e.g. when someone in the house sends me an email to print out, it thinks it's spam despite coming from the same house. It also doesn't seem to receive a lot of emails from other people whom I have no reason to disbelieve when they say they sent one. Sometimes their emails arrive, at other times not. Where these go, God only knows, but it's getting a bit tedious and patience with computers isn't one of my virtues. Do emails regularly get lost due to traffic density or any other reason?

[declanwmagee 122]

Hello Rob

I strongly recommend to everyone who gets in a pickle with Outlook - and believe me, everyone does, that you switch to a web browser based email. That way, as long as your browser is working (and they're pretty robust compared to Outlook), your email will work. There are dozens of providers, and your existing provider may well do a web-based service which would mean you could keep all your emails. Even if they don't, you should be able to keep your email address by setting up a permanent forwarding to your new one.

[Rob 3,152]

Thanks Declan,

My internet provider is BT, who presumably decide what is and what is not allowed through. Should I be looking to change from BT? Personally I think I should be able to decide what is allowed through and not be dictated to by a 3rd party. e.g. Why should emails from the wife be considered spam or is the filter system a misogynist? You also have the problem of losing your email addresses if you change. Private ones aren't a serious problem, but business ones are. Oddly enough, the coin business website address seems to get loads of spam but the BT addresses don't, suggesting BT are filtering out a lot of incoming emails before I even get to see them. As the coins emails are on a separate hosting site, maybe Outlook isn't the problem and my provider BT is what I should be looking to change. It's the unpredictability of the blocking that p's me off most.

[TomGoodheart 403]

We tried Outlook for a day or so when we first got a computer, decided it was rubbish and switched to Hotmail. I don't seem to have any problems with it, it scans for junk fairly well and you can pick up your emails from any computer because it's web based.

I don't know why people use Outlook, it just seems so dated and clunky to me.

[azda 979]

Hotmail, google gmail, Yahoo mail, and probably many more and most are free. Just copy and paste all your contacts into word and when you've opened an account paste them all into the new address book.

Send your contacts a fore warning that you're changing address for your reasons stated before you discard BT Mail though.

Apologies in advance if someone has wrote similar whilst i have been writing this, it seems to be a Common occurance in the past 24hrs and Me Peckris is a Bit tense about it

[Rob 3,152]

Thanks for the contributions gents. Do any of these allow ME or is there some way to bypass the system to decide what is legit, rather than having some anonymous algorithm decide? If it doesn't, I'm probably no better off because the wife et al will probably still be considered junk. I suspect there are two levels of filtering at present. The first is BT who allow so many through, and of the survivors, Outlook culls some more. The ability to see a complete list including what they have blocked before forwarding the acceptable ones on to me would be even better, but I'm probably asking too much there even though it could potentially solve the problem.

[TomGoodheart 403]

This sort of thing Rob?

[Colin G. 147]

Thanks for the contributions gents. Do any of these allow ME or is there some way to bypass the system to decide what is legit, rather than having some anonymous algorithm decide? If it doesn't, I'm probably no better off because the wife et al will probably still be considered junk. I suspect there are two levels of filtering at present. The first is BT who allow so many through, and of the survivors, Outlook culls some more. The ability to see a complete list including what they have blocked before forwarding the acceptable ones on to me would be even better, but I'm probably asking too much there even though it could potentially solve the problem.

Rob you could always try Mozilla Thunderbird if you don't want to use a web based e-mail program, also free to download and use.

[azda 979]

Must take a look at this Mozilla thunderbird meself

[Rob 3,152]

This sort of thing Rob?

Does it offer the option to always allow specific people too? The latter is more important than being able to block emails. Getting annoyed with incessant spam is one thing. Not receiving something you needed because of the provider is a level up in inconvenience. It surely can't be beyond the bounds of reasonable programming to have the facility for me to tell the email filter to always allow messages from abcd@123.com for example.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Rob

[Peckris 579]

Thanks Declan,

My internet provider is BT, who presumably decide what is and what is not allowed through. Should I be looking to change from BT? Personally I think I should be able to decide what is allowed through and not be dictated to by a 3rd party. e.g. Why should emails from the wife be considered spam or is the filter system a misogynist? You also have the problem of losing your email addresses if you change. Private ones aren't a serious problem, but business ones are. Oddly enough, the coin business website address seems to get loads of spam but the BT addresses don't, suggesting BT are filtering out a lot of incoming emails before I even get to see them. As the coins emails are on a separate hosting site, maybe Outlook isn't the problem and my provider BT is what I should be looking to change. It's the unpredictability of the blocking that p's me off most.

This sort of thing Rob?

Does it offer the option to always allow specific people too? The latter is more important than being able to block emails. Getting annoyed with incessant spam is one thing. Not receiving something you needed because of the provider is a level up in inconvenience. It surely can't be beyond the bounds of reasonable programming to have the facility for me to tell the email filter to always allow messages from abcd@123.com for example.

Though my sisters and I are Mac users, my sister had a lot of email problems when she was with BT. It does seem that they apply filters before the emails even reach you, that's before Outlook even sees them.

However, the suggestion to use hotmail (Microsoft Live or Googlemail) is very sound. You keep your email addresses however many times you change your ISP. Plus, you can still use Outlook or another email client if you want - you just tell (e.g.) Googlemail to set up your Gmail account as a POP account, then you simply add it as a new email account in Outlook, and you get all your hotmail downloaded to your computer while it also still lives on, in Google. Finally, you can add an existing POP account (e.g. your BT email address) in Googlemail so you can get it online too.

It's all a lot more fluid and flexible than it used to be.

[TomGoodheart 403]

Does it offer the option to always allow specific people too? The latter is more important than being able to block emails. Getting annoyed with incessant spam is one thing. Not receiving something you needed because of the provider is a level up in inconvenience. It surely can't be beyond the bounds of reasonable programming to have the facility for me to tell the email filter to always allow messages from abcd@123.com for example.

Probably. It certainly allows you to override when it wants to block content.

Looks like you get an approved sender choice too:

Thing about hotmail is that, as far as I know, you can set up an account and then merge your current mail as Chris says above. So you could try it out and see what you think?

[1949threepence 3,367]

We tried Outlook for a day or so when we first got a computer, decided it was rubbish and switched to Hotmail. I don't seem to have any problems with it, it scans for junk fairly well and you can pick up your emails from any computer because it's web based.

I don't know why people use Outlook, it just seems so dated and clunky to me.

Agreed, Tom. I use my hotmail account for serious e mails, as I know I can always rely it to do exactly what it says on the tin. I can also pick them up on my phone.

All the crap goes to my outlook express. I use this for online orders/general enquiries and I don't care who gets the address. There's no spam filter on it either. Not sure what BT do, but I would certainly be irritated by any spam filter that was beyond my personal control. My ISP is Virgin Media.

[Colin G. 147]

We tried Outlook for a day or so when we first got a computer, decided it was rubbish and switched to Hotmail. I don't seem to have any problems with it, it scans for junk fairly well and you can pick up your emails from any computer because it's web based.

I don't know why people use Outlook, it just seems so dated and clunky to me.

Agreed, Tom. I use my hotmail account for serious e mails, as I know I can always rely it to do exactly what it says on the tin. I can also pick them up on my phone.

All the crap goes to my outlook express. I use this for online orders/general enquiries and I don't care who gets the address. There's no spam filter on it either. Not sure what BT do, but I would certainly be irritated by any spam filter that was beyond my personal control. My ISP is Virgin Media.

Agreed Virgin let everything through, and then you sort it, the best way to be!!

[Colin G. 147]

Rob,

Just to be clear, this is your personal e-mail address and not your @rpcoins address you are having the problem with? If you do not have the same issues with your mail servers at RP coins create another mailbox on that account rob@rpcoins or some other and then you will be using the same mail servers.

Edited June 9, 2012 by Colin G.

[Peter 615]

I use outlook and hotmail no problems.

[DaveG38 408]

I solved this problem permanently by having an email address that isn't likely to be used by the spam producers. When I had david.j.groom@btinternet.com, I got tons of spam simply because the robots that send this crap were able to easily identify this as name and hence use it. Now I use ukc801988231@btconnect.com and never get a single piece of spam. No messing about blocking senders, which can take an inordinate amount of time - just a simple email change, job done and sorted. Of course, this was done at a PC change and also meant changing emails of websites I use but it's not that big a deal.

[Nick 329]

I solved this problem permanently by having an email address that isn't likely to be used by the spam producers. When I had david.j.groom@btinternet.com, I got tons of spam simply because the robots that send this crap were able to easily identify this as name and hence use it. Now I use ukc801988231@btconnect.com and never get a single piece of spam. No messing about blocking senders, which can take an inordinate amount of time - just a simple email change, job done and sorted. Of course, this was done at a PC change and also meant changing emails of websites I use but it's not that big a deal.

Publishing your email address on a public forum might not help though!

[Peckris 579]

I solved this problem permanently by having an email address that isn't likely to be used by the spam producers. When I had david.j.groom@btinternet.com, I got tons of spam simply because the robots that send this crap were able to easily identify this as name and hence use it. Now I use ukc801988231@btconnect.com and never get a single piece of spam. No messing about blocking senders, which can take an inordinate amount of time - just a simple email change, job done and sorted. Of course, this was done at a PC change and also meant changing emails of websites I use but it's not that big a deal.

Interestingly, I got loads of spam in the days when my tesco email account was my initial + surname. So I simply changed the name on Tesco's website to my full first name + surname, and I haven't had any spam since (which is several years now). This is despite using it to register on some sites, such as iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, eBay, etc. However, Tesco have been great about letting people keep their email addresses once they change ISP; I used Tesco for diallup until 2005 then changed ISP for broadband. Yet my Tesco email address has been used continuously for years and is still my main address (theoretically they are still my ISP if ever I wanted to go back to diallup - yeah, as if!)

[Gary 7]

We tried Outlook for a day or so when we first got a computer, decided it was rubbish and switched to Hotmail. I don't seem to have any problems with it, it scans for junk fairly well and you can pick up your emails from any computer because it's web based.

I don't know why people use Outlook, it just seems so dated and clunky to me.

Agreed, Tom. I use my hotmail account for serious e mails, as I know I can always rely it to do exactly what it says on the tin. I can also pick them up on my phone.

All the crap goes to my outlook express. I use this for online orders/general enquiries and I don't care who gets the address. There's no spam filter on it either. Not sure what BT do, but I would certainly be irritated by any spam filter that was beyond my personal control. My ISP is Virgin Media.

Interesting! Hotmail, hmmmm. I am germany and my brother in england has a Hotmail E-mail address. It is impossible to send him an Email from my every day email account due to the fact that Hotmail blocks it full stop. He gets no notification and I get my email returned with the message that Hotmail does not accept emails from my provider! Hows that for filtering? Hotmail blocks a complete provider! I use a popular german provider that has been in exsistance for probably nearly 20 years and hosts millions of email accounts.

I use Outlook and Kaspersky together and have very little problem with spam, now and then I get a few spam mails that do make it into my inbox but a quick click and they are banned for ever to the spam folder. I would rather have all mails come through and I decide which is spam than have legit mails blocked by my provider.

[azda 979]

We tried Outlook for a day or so when we first got a computer, decided it was rubbish and switched to Hotmail. I don't seem to have any problems with it, it scans for junk fairly well and you can pick up your emails from any computer because it's web based.

I don't know why people use Outlook, it just seems so dated and clunky to me.

Agreed, Tom. I use my hotmail account for serious e mails, as I know I can always rely it to do exactly what it says on the tin. I can also pick them up on my phone.

All the crap goes to my outlook express. I use this for online orders/general enquiries and I don't care who gets the address. There's no spam filter on it either. Not sure what BT do, but I would certainly be irritated by any spam filter that was beyond my personal control. My ISP is Virgin Media.

Interesting! Hotmail, hmmmm. I am germany and my brother in england has a Hotmail E-mail address. It is impossible to send him an Email from my every day email account due to the fact that Hotmail blocks it full stop. He gets no notification and I get my email returned with the message that Hotmail does not accept emails from my provider! Hows that for filtering? Hotmail blocks a complete provider! I use a popular german provider that has been in exsistance for probably nearly 20 years and hosts millions of email accounts.

I use Outlook and Kaspersky together and have very little problem with spam, now and then I get a few spam mails that do make it into my inbox but a quick click and they are banned for ever to the spam folder. I would rather have all mails come through and I decide which is spam than have legit mails blocked by my provider.

Not web.de by any chance is it Gary?

[Rob 3,152]

Thanks chaps. It looks like there is no hassle free solution.

[Peckris 579]

Thanks chaps. It looks like there is no hassle free solution.

You're forgetting Einstein's immortal equation - H=MS2 (Hassle equals Microsoft squared )

[Nick 329]

Thanks chaps. It looks like there is no hassle free solution.

You could configure Outlook not to filter out any junk e-mail (Tools->Options->Preferences->Junk E-mail). If you still experience problems, then it is most likely your ISP that needs changing, rather than your email program.