Everyone.net and Bigmailbox.com

[jamesglewisf]

Is anyone here using either everyone.net or bigmailbox.com to provide free web-based email to your visitors?

I was wondering if you are happy with the service or not.

I'm also wondering if people even like web-based email. I don't mind it if I can also use a POP3 program like Outlook. Web-based email allows me to check my messages when I'm not at my computer, but if I had to used web-based email exclusively, it would probably get old.

[Patrick]

I use Everyone.net and have seen BigMailBox before. I personally think Everyone.net is the better of the two.

I think web based e-mail has its purpose, and I use it quite a lot.

[James]

I used to have a Yahoo account before I got properly setup with a permanent ISP - and I really hated it. If I needed to refer back to a mail for any reason I would need to go back online - now I have instant access to all my mails from the last year or so in my Outlook Archives.
I know many people use them, but you wouldn't find me on a web-based mail account if I had any kind of choice

[Joe Tracy]

Everyone.net seems to have many more features. I was looking at the service a year ago and didn't go with them because of the number of complaints in their forums. Everyone.net's servers were maxing out and users were having long delays with the email service resulting in poor service to their visitors. Members asked everyone.net to put a hold on new sign-ups until new servers were installed, but everyone.net didn't and continued mass advertising and collect user sign-ups. This fiasco went on for several months and angered quite a few people. It was a case of very poor customer relations.

Remember, however, that this was a year ago. A lot can change in a year.

[Son Nguyen]

Yeah, I am also looking for a service like this (offering web-based mail box) and wondering what are the alternatives? remote-hosted or could be some scripts?
And if remote-hosted, any more choices beside bigmailbox/everyone?

Thanks

[malis]

I use the everyone.net service on two different sites and overall I really like the service. At times they have very poor customer service, but the service itself is now fast and fairly reliable.

As the webmaster, you can forward your address to a different account with pop3 access. I don't do this, because I am one of the few people in the world that needs web based access. I work in a hospital where I am always moving around, so I want to be able to check my e-mail from any of the computers. I always have an internet connection available so I have little need for pop3.

I had also looked at bigmailbox, but when I was trying them out I found everyone.net to be quite a bit faster. They seem to be trying to improve their customer relations, but it still seems like a fairly naive group running the place.

Let me know if you have any specific questions about the service.

Rick
http://www.webtowns.org

[Son Nguyen]

Thank you very much Rich for the insightful reply.
I'll look at more details at their site.
However, do you know any other similar services so we'd have some choices (more than 2!)

[malis]

I remeber I had looked into this a lot way back when I was deciding.

The other places included bn3.com and zzn.com

It looks like bn3 have changed their services some, so it'd be worthwhile looking at them. They offer pop3 and smtp access, 20 free mailboxes, 3megs of space each. Beyond that you have to pay a fee:

http://www.bn3.com/service.jx

zzn.com is a free service where you can setup e-mail at: yourname.zzn.com So it isn't really your own domain name. I had heard a lot of people who didn't like the service, and it also was slow when I tried it out. Looking at their home page it looks like they now offer pop access as well:

http://www.zzn.com


The other names I've heard thrown around, but I haven't looked into really include:

http://www.coconutsoftware.com/

I had heard there is some large set-up fee of around $900 to get started, and then some monthly fee thereafter, but it was a while ago and my memory isn't too great.

The last one I can think of is:

http://www.usa.net

Many people may know about their free e-mail accounts they offer, but I was surprised to find out that they also will partner to set-up your own email program. I have no idea what the costs or quality would be.

If anyone knows of any others, or has feedback on any of these companies, I'd like to know as well. I am a little concerned that the free email providers won't survive too much longer because most of their revenue is from the 50% of banner ads they take. As most webmasters are realizing lately is that banner ad rates are dropping substantially, so I don't know how much longer these companies will be able to remain profitable providing these "free" services.

A few other comments:

everyone.net gives you 100% control over all outgoing mail signature taglines which was a big deal to me, because I didn't want any ads on my outgoing mail messages (since I use it for work). bigmailbox says that they usually don't included taglines, but they retain the right to do so, and they told me they have had a few advertisement compaigns where they did add taglines onto users messages for a few days.

Let me know what you decide on.
Rick
http://www.webtowns.org

[Son Nguyen]

Great thanks for the post!
I don't have to implement the service immediately, but I think I'll give everyone.net the first try!

[SoldierMail]

There are tons of email providers you can start an online web based email service with. Go to the below URL for more information.

http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_providers.htm

[Joe Tracy]

I use Coconut Software for Animation Artist Magazine (www.animationartist.com). It is a solo-branded account where we control advertising and pay them a monthly fee as a result.

The service has been fairly good and was near perfect until a week ago when there were two outages that created sporatic service over a two day period.

Coconut Software also offers co-branded options. They aren't as well known as everyone.net and bigmailbox.com, but that may be a good thing.

[jamesglewisf]

This is a lot of really good information. Thanks everybody.

I'm still trying to decide whether or not I want to offer this. Its seems like the kind of thing that once you get started with a provider it would be hard to change providers or stop. I wouldn't want a bunch of people who signed up for the service hacked off at me.

Is there anybody who has used it with several hundred or several thousand signups?

[Patrick]

Well, my Everyone.net service has about 105 signups. No real complaints yet.

[adam]

My everyone.net service has about 1100 subscribers.
No complaints at all.

Another name to be thrown in here should be http://www.communityarchitect.com
I want to have their free homepage feature but I don't know if it's possible to only have one feature (ie either free homepages for your users, or free email or IM)

anyone got anything on them? I sent an email off, I'll fill you guys in when I get some news.

Adam

[etLux]

Everyone.net seems to do a pretty decent job of it.

[malis]

Adam,

Community Architect used to be called northsky.com and is now owned by About.com I believe. I have set up their free homepage service, although my sites don't get enough traffic to really take advantage of it. You can just offer the free webpages. Their mail is now hosted by everyone.net and they have gotten rid of their instant messenger feature.

Overall, a nice service for free, but I personally wouldn't use it for a free homepage, as I think there are better utilities at a place like homestead.

Rick
http://www.webtowns.org/Webmaster_Re...ment_Services/
Rate and reviewed, add your own comments!

[jer]

Are you saying homestead has a co-branded free-homepages service that anyone can apply to? I might be interested in that..

Has anyone had any experience with CommunityArchitect/NorthSky ? I'd really like some feedback on their homepages service...

thanks,

[adam]

Malis: I meant offering their services, not using them as a host.

Chuck... yes indeed, they are advertising on sitepoint atm i think.

Adam

[jer]

HomeStead? I've seen the Community Architect ads... but I haven't seen anything about HomeStead.

Can someone tell me if HomeStead in fact does offer a co-branded homepage service?

thanks a lot,

-chuck

[malis]

I'm sorry, I was not at all clear. I meant to say that if I wanted to build my own personal page on a free service, I probably wouldn't use the northsky services, as I don't like the banner ad and the "easy" page creater is not very easy.

Homestead does NOT offer a co-branded solution that I am aware of. Sorry for the confusion.

Rick
http://www.webtowns.org/Promotion_an...ic_Generation/
Add tools you have found useful to the list!

[SoldierMail]

Originally posted by jamesglewisf

Is there anybody who has used it with several hundred or several thousand signups?

SoldierMail.com has 10,000+ signups... I'm working with BigMailbox.com. I have had minor problems with their service but there technical support is the best. Numerous times I've gotten response within 15 minutes. Its like they are waiting on you to have a problem and they jump on it. One time while Bigmailbox went down they even called my house and told me the service was down and they apologized.

[jer]

Do you think they'd do that for all their clients having problems? I mean, if you've got 10,000 signups, that means you're probably making them a lot of money some way or another.

I'm currently debating what to do for my new (non-profit) site, everyone.net or bigmailbox. I've had some pretty big disappointments with everyone.net, and I really dislike their support. I'm not sure bigmailbox has the same customization and features though.. also, how do banners and signatures work with bigmailbox?