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5 good reasons not to use your Internet Provider's e-mail account

All Internet Service Providers (ISPs) supply their users with a free internet account. This is usually in the form of This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . While this service comes free with your internet access, there are a number of very good reasons why you shouldn't use this address for your e-mail.

• Most ISPs do not provide comprehensive e-mail virus scanning, and the ones that do often charge extra for it. Why do you have to scan for viruses when they've already reached your computer, when a service provider can comprehensively scan your e-mail, for free, before you've even received it? You can also be sure that a large service provider's industrial strength virus scanner hasn't been affected or disabled by settings or malicious programs on your computer.
• Most ISPs do not provide the best spam filtering,, and some even have the hide to charge for the service. Some sources say that e-mail spam, or junk mail, makes up over 80% of all e-mail sent. Spam can be very hard to detect, what makes one message addressed to you legitimate, and the other message spam? To accurately determine the difference requires some incredibly smart and adaptive programming and a massive volume of e-mail to analyse. As an added bonus, most phishing e-mails can be filtered out as spam, so a good filter protects you from most phishing attacks as well.

• ISPs provide very limited storage space for e-mail. Most providers will only grant you 10 to 25 Megabytes of space on their servers to store your e-mail. This is fine for normal use, but the onus of backing up your e-mail falls on you. What if something goes wrong with your computer?
• Internet providers will cancel your e-mail address when you cancel or transfer your internet account. Can you imagine being trapped into continuing to pay for an internet service with 'Provider A' because everyone knows your e-mail address, when you know 'Provider B' is offering better service at a better price?
• Internet providers supply only the most basic e-mail access. Why settle for basic when you can get evolving features for free? ISPs usually provide limited e-mail access when you're not at your main computer, and provide no support for checking your mail from your mobile phone or PDA.

Now that we've shown you the limitations of your ISP's service, let us tell you about Gmail (Google Mail) and how this free service overcomes these shortcomings.

• Gmail provides free comprehensive e-mail virus scanning. In our experience, Gmail's industrial strength virus scanning is so effective, you are unlikely to ever see a virus in e-mail again.
• Gmail provides the best free spam filter we have ever used. We have extensive experience with the spam filters employed by the biggest Australian ISPs, big Australian corporations and other large free e-mail providers, and Gmail beats them all, hands down! We don't know how they do it, but when Gmail manages spam, they almost eliminate it completely.
• Gmail provides over 7,000 Megabytes of free storage (compared to up to 25 Megabytes with an ISP) and is ever increasing this number. Why all this space? Gmail lets you archive your e-mail on their servers, so while you may lose data on your computer, you will never lose your Gmail archive. Even better, when you realise you need an old e-mail you've deleted off your computer, you can retrieve it from Gmail in an instant.
• Gmail is independent from your ISP so you can change internet providers as often as you like, and your Gmail address will work perfectly from all of them, without change.

• Gmail provides some of the most innovative and evolving new free features, embedded right into the service. This includes global access to your e-mail from any computer, mobile phone or PDA with internet access and instant e-mail search capabilities. They also roll out little ideas such as the 'forgotten attachment detector' which makes sure you have attached a file when you talk about it in your e-mail.
• Gmail supports custom domains and business users. Need a more professional e-mail address than This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ? No problem, Gmail works excellently in conjunction with your own domain name, and can even be used like a business mail server to manage all your e-mail users.

When you're ready to begin the transition to Gmail, head over to their website, sign up, and explore their features.

Changing e-mail addresses does not mean you need to lose e-mail! There are many ways to transition an e-mail account so that you continue to get all your old messages. If you need more information, or want help or advice on transitioning, expanding or changing your e-mail, we can take care of it all for you. Just call us for more information.