what is a really good email service?

I still think Protonmail is quite good.

I have proton mail (free version).  With the paid one is it easy to move a contact list from yahoo to proton mail?

Or better yet, is there a way to do it with the free one?

Mike Haasl wrote: Or better yet, is there a way to do it with the free one?

some website wrote:
Within Yahoo Mail, click Contacts.
Click the ... > Export to CSV file.

And in the top right of Protonmail: "Contact", then "Settings" and then "import Contacts" and use the .csv option.

Thanks Sebastian it worked!  It didn't bring across my email groups but I can shuffle people around from here.  At least I don't have to retype them all

I read this about a month ago while still having cellular reception to sadly see permies does not have smtp service one can sign up for

I haven't been able to find an answer to my question but thought a couple of old school people might know?

I am looking for a messaging client like an extremely lightweight Slackware, that does not require a cell chip and phone number like signal and whatsapp etc

to use a wifi apparatus (old phone as ascii messaging client) from a neighbour's really weak wifi signal
Ideally run on Android

But also that might work with resurrected dos/dialup modem over copper phone line?

I could ask the recipient to load same client so not needing Gmail to communicate

Many thanks

J8N9H1
(Back from Iqaluit)

Ra Kenworth wrote:I am looking for a messaging client like an extremely lightweight Slackware, that does not require a cell chip and phone number like signal and whatsapp etc

to use a wifi apparatus (old phone as ascii messaging client) from a neighbour's really weak wifi signal
Ideally run on Android

But also that might work with resurrected dos/dialup modem over copper phone line?

I could ask the recipient to load same client so not needing Gmail to communicate

If you're looking for something with real time communication - IRC might be a good option. There are plenty of IRC clients available for Android, and there are IRC clients reaching back all the way to the early 90's, so it shouldn't be hard to find something very lightweight for any given platform.

If you're looking for something that isn't real-time, where either side can be offline and still receive messages - I think email is the best option. There are thousands of other email providers aside from Gmail, and plenty of apps that can be used (I really like FairEmail on my Android phone), and email is also a very old protocol so older systems can handle it fine... if you find an email provider that still allows for older connection types like POP3.

Thanks so much!

I will check out both IRC and
FairEmail which sounds intriguing

I remember the old days of wine (over redhat6) but I doubt I can get my son loaded up with that lol since he's the one with the bells and whistles

As for pop3, last time I configured smtp it was pop3 but now I can't get any configuration information from anyone! He has a .com but no one seems to know how to access email except via Gmail

FairEmail might just do the trick!

Ra Kenworth wrote:Thanks so much!

I will check out both IRC and
FairEmail which sounds intriguing

I remember the old days of wine (over redhat6) but I doubt I can get my son loaded up with that lol since he's the one with the bells and whistles

As for pop3, last time I configured smtp it was pop3 but now I can't get any configuration information from anyone! He has a .com but no one seems to know how to access email except via Gmail

FairEmail might just do the trick!

Is there something specific you are trying to avoid, or just to make communication more secure? Sounds like you are trying to avoid Gmail. Would that be because it is from Google or a more specific concern?

Will you be downloading an app from the play store? If so you will have to sign into a Google account. FairEmail is also available through the F-Droid app, which is for downloading open source software without using the Play Store.

But then you are still using Android, an OS written by Google. I'm not sure what all that implies for security as far as using Android, but there are other OSs that work on Android phones and use software written by outside parties, like LineageOS. There are even phones with open source hardware that run ARM versions of Linux. Now we are way out in the weeds.

If you just want to communicate without Gmail, Protonmail as mentioned above is a generally respected and approachable alternative for an account. It can be accessed through it's own app or through a browser page.

Sarah Elizabeth wrote:I really can't fault fastmail.com

Back in 2016 I did a lot of research into email options and of the 10 possibilities I looked at, fastmail was the stand-out best.  It is a paid service but really well worth it. There was no credible free option that came close.  

It's reliable, scalable (personal and business), loads fast on a relatively slow computer and and has a nice clean interface.  

The help desk is all email, no calls, but very responsive and helpful.  It is simple to set up aliases, it has a good calendar and you get a discount code give your friends if they sign up.  

Its webmail, POP 3 and IMAP4.  

It is also a really ethical company and has a lot of open source projects if you know your way around a computer.

They say "you are our customer not our product" which I really like.  

It is really cost effective if you choose the lowest tier and also if you pay 2 or 3 years at once.  I am on the middle tier which costs me less than $5 a month and would definitely be adequate for a small business although I just use it for personal stuff right now. It is based out of Australia but payments are all in USD - by paypal, ccard etc.  

I have used it since 2016 and still find it excellent.  

They have a free account to try it out for a month too so nothing to lose..

Paul, I don't think permies is the only online presence having problems with hotmail etc.

Is anyone else currently using fastmail?

They have been my primary account for close to 20 years. I agree with most of what is said above except that someone 'saying' you are a customer not a product isn't the same as being able to prove it. It was a free service at the entry tier originally and only recently became pay only, but is very affordable and at least in line with what seems reasonable to minimally pay into a functional business model, so they do at least present better than services like gmail.

Thing is I've never experienced a problem that registered with me for those 20 years until yesterday. I was informed that someone I have been trying to have pay a bill is getting their email bounced and I'm not seeing any indication it is being sent to me. They have a hotmail account. The person alerting me to this problem is using an account through a domain set up specifically for their business and they said they get a warning when they attempt to send me email and it is not sent until they make a second attempt to confirm it.

Now for the past month or two I have been clearing out at least a dozen messages per day from the spam box. 99% come from the same two domain names, but I check each one because every one in a thousand is a legitimate email that got filtered wrong. But the fact that a dozen emails a day from the same two junk addresses makes it to my boxes at all while legitimate emails (from two different domains) are being entirely screened out is a big red flag to me. I've been on the other end of massive systemic black/white listing in a crisis situtation and don't want to contribute to such passive aggressive indulgences

I'll investigate further to see if this could be an issue on the senders' end, but would be interested to hear if others have fastmail experience, or can share more about issues like this in the wider email topography...

Posteo is what Protonmail purports to be.

I never got a complete explanation for my missing emails, but it did seem to be something on the sender's end. Fastmail customer service was very responsive when contacted.