Setting Up a Free E-Mail Account

Did you know that the UK uses e-mail more than any other country in Europe: 50% of people as opposed to 34% across the rest of Europe?

E-mail has now developed into a mainstream form of communication and it's hard to imagine how we managed without it.  Recruiters will often ask for you to e-mail a CV rather than fax as e-mail often provides superior speed and quality of transmission.

If you don't already have an account, you will find it useful to set up an e-mail account whilst you are looking for a new job as it offers you the opportunity to send and receive messages from recruiters, network contacts, companies and other people you will be dealing with. The best thing with web based e-mail is that you can access it from anywhere, be it an Internet cafe or your own PC.

There are a number of free e-mail services available via the internet. They are free because they are supported by advertising. This type of e-mail account is independent from that provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) which is often only accessible via a PC with the ISP’s software installed. You can write, send or receive e-mail's from any PC around the world as long as it has an Internet connection . As your mail account is held on an internet server rather than the hard disk on your computer. Mail services are ‘cross-platform’ which means that you can use a PC or MAC to reach your e-mail.

Many of the free services offer the same level of functionality as subscription services and features may include: spell checking, address books, mail forwarding, ability to send and receive file attachments, e-mail address for life, news services and junk or spam mail blocking. Some services also offer the facility for you to direct other e-mail accounts such as your corporate e-mail to your Internet based account so that if you are traveling you can collect your messages without having to dial into your corporate server.

A selection of the major providers are listed below and all operate in a very similar way. To get started: log onto the web site and choose ‘sign up’ or ‘register’ – you will be asked to enter a user ID and password and you’re in!

www.hotmail.com
Microsoft's free e-mail service - not surprisingly the most heavily subscribed e-mail service around.  The high number of users results in many duplicate names and so it can be difficult to register simply your name as a unique user name.

www.talk21.com 
Free e-mail from BT.  Easy to use and access.

www.yahoo.co.uk 
Popular mail package with option to purchase additional storage space plus Yahoo Briefcase - a file storage facility - useful if you are moving around and don't have a laptop. Store your documents in the briefcase and access from any Internet connected computer.

www.lycos.co.uk 
Free e-mail and SMS from Lycos. No limit on mailbox size.

www.postmaster.co.uk 
UK based independent e-mail service.

www.bigfoot.co.uk 
Billed as 'e-mail for life', this service not only provides you with an e-mail address but will also divert e-mail's to other e-mail addresses, automatically forward e-mail's onto 5 other e-mail addresses and filter and distribute incoming e-mail's according to your preferences.

www.twigger.com 
A useful service for those who already have an ISP e-mail account.  Links to all ISP e-mail accounts that have a remote access facility - enter your user name and password to access your account.

www.hushmail.com 
Similar to hotmail in concept and functionality but provides e-mail encryption for additional security.

For the patriotic...

www.scotland.com 

For the not so serious...

www.another.com
Another.com provide a huge selection of e-mail addresses - so if you always wanted to be Elvis@graceland.com, this is the one for you!