Is .mac email very reliable, fast, etc?

rickr10

I am currently using Comcast for high speed internet. I'm happy with it except for the fact that Comcast only supports pop, not imap. Now that I have a iphone I sync email with it. After doing some research I found out imap is far better than pop when used on multiple devices and eliminates the problem with syncing.

We have Qwest dsl available here with msn and I am going to check with them if they support imap but I think my best option may be able to subscribe to .mac. I know many parts like photocasting I won't use. The iDisk is also too small for me. I've heard Leopard will add features to .mac but I like both the syncing part of .mac and also the fact I get a .mac email address and it is imap.

Since this will replace comcast as my primary email which I use a lot daily for heavy use I am wondering if it's very reliable, works fast, etc. I would set it up on my iphone and in the mail program on my Mac but I want to make sure it's very good before I make the switch.

teedoff087

http://mail.google.com/



Seriously. You can access it on your iPhone easily and access it from any web browser. If you want, it has free POP access as well. Best interface I've ever seen too.

kephisto

Rickr10, since you are very active with email it should be an advantage to have access to your email from any computer that has access to the net. Even if most of your email is done at one place, such as when you?re at home or at work, being able to sync your email between various places, such as your iPhone and Mac, is a big plus. Having a .Mac account would allow you to do this and far more.



Perhaps your best option is to sign up for a Free Trial of an .Mac account, which is good for 60 days. Even with limited features, such as 50MB of online storage space, this should let you test it out and see if it suits your needs.

audiopollution

.Mac mail, for a *paid* email service, is horrific.



I can't say anything good about it.

synth3tik

I have had .mac for aver 3 years now. I like it. It works and I can't say I have really had much problems with it. No right now it's not worth the cost, but come 10.5 it will be worth every penny.



P.S. I try to avoid Comcast like the plague.

mr. me

Quote:

Originally Posted by audiopollution


.Mac mail, for a *paid* email service, is horrific.



I can't say anything good about it.

.mac is not a paid email service. It is a subscription service, which includes email, for Mac users. If you don't need the benefits of .mac, then don't subscribe to it. As for me, .mac's email service is working better for me than my ISP's standard service (Suddenlink.net).

audiopollution

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Me


.mac is not a paid email service. It is a subscription service, which includes email, for Mac users. If you don't need the benefits of .mac, then don't subscribe to it. As for me, .mac's email service is working better for me than my ISP's standard service (Suddenlink.net).

Do you pay for your .Mac subscription?



If so, it's a paid email service.

backtomac

Quote:

Originally Posted by audiopollution


Do you pay for your .Mac subscription?



If so, it's a paid email service.

I think he alluding to the fact that he uses the other services available though .Mac. But I'm with you, if you're only going to use it for email it ain't worth it.

audiopollution

Quote:

Originally Posted by backtomac


I think he alluding to the fact that he uses the other services available though .Mac. But I'm with you, if you're only going to use it for email it ain't worth it.

Fair enough ... but the yearly subscription fee is split among the various components of .Mac and obviously email is part of that. This being the case, I would expect much better reliability.

bergermeister

Quote:

Originally Posted by audiopollution


.Mac mail, for a *paid* email service, is horrific.



I can't say anything good about it.

I use .mac for my homepage and as a drop disk and get mail for free. It works great and I have never had any problems with it.



Beats the heck out of my old mail system.



Also, 10,000 yen (about 100 bucks) is not actually expensive in Japan for a year. A decent night out on the town will easily run that or more.

backtomac

Quote:

Originally Posted by audiopollution


Fair enough ... but the yearly subscription fee is split among the various components of .Mac and obviously email is part of that. This being the case, I would expect much better reliability.

I gave it the trial run and it seemed reliable for me. I just found that I was only using the email function of the service and for $100 it was to much for me. If I used the other services then it might be better value.

truth42

.Mac is very stable in my opinion. But it's far too expensive. There are a lot of cheaper and/or free alternatives out there. Unless, Apple can offer something that others do not the service is an expensive luxury.



Saying that, I've been a subscriber for three years!

tkn

I think yahoo mail, which is pretty nice, also supports IMAP, although you may have to pay for that (additional benefit, push e-mail should you get an iPhone which apparently .mac does not have).



Basically do not bother for e-mail getting .mac. It is basically abandonware right now.

guillaumeb

Abandonware, You kidding? damned i love the idea f .Mac I just hope they'll up the sotrage space but then if they do i want to subscribe



Now sth tells me that it will become a special version of Google Premier

southerndoc

.Mac's email service definitely has room for improvement. I've had friends say they've sent emails that I never received. .Mac's spam filters are pathetic, and there is no option online for you to go through the junk mail folder to see if any "friendly" emails were flagged as spam (perhaps my friends' emails were flagged as spam and deleted).



Apple definitely needs to revamp its .Mac service. Email could stand a lot of improvement, the iCards need a major rehaul, and it would be nice if users could schedule iCal appointments from the web through .Mac.

galley

My folders tend not to be synced up when I check my web mail at work. Even deleting a new message does not get them in sync. Sometimes it requires moving a message to a different folder. Weird.

troberts

I had it for a couple of years, but since I was only using it for email I decided to stop using it. I would wait until after MSWF2008 to see what Apple has been up to with the .mac service before signing up for a subscription. One nice thing about .mac is you can have aliases so you never have to give out your real .mac email address.