By Lou Dolinar
Fourth in a series
Updated Feb. 14, 2006

Looking for alternatives to Microsoft Outlook Express? This freebie isn't exactly state-of-the-art, even among comparable programs that are given away.

Spam, security and features are all issues better addressed by alternative software. We've already looked at some of these, including the e-mail programs for alternative browsers Mozilla, Netscape and Opera.

Here are some stand-alone options:

Pegasus Mail (www.pmail.com ) is an old favorite of mine and has been around in a free version since New Zealander David Harris wrote it in 1989. It runs on every version of Windows, but not on Linux or the Mac. The native interface takes some getting used to, but you have the option of making it look like Outlook Express, one of the many customizing options. Security is top-notch; it includes encryption and works especially well when combined with Harris' freebie e-mail server, Mercury
Mail Transport System. The latter isn't easy to configure, but once you have it up and running, you can play with the big boys in security by, for example, instituting "block lists" of Internet addresses of known spammers.

Eudora (www.eudora.com), another old-timer for Mac (all OS) and Windows systems, comes in a paid version ($39.95), which incorporates an anti-spam filter, an ad-supported version that omits the filter, and a free "lite" version. With pretty much every feature you could want, it won PC World's top honors for e-mail programs in 2003.

Incredimail (www.incredimail.com) isn't exactly my cup of tea, but several readers recommended it for Windows. Why? Well, it's fun. E-mails disappear into animated 3-D graphics when you send them. Characters wander onto the screen to inform you when mail arrives. You can customize it with an assortment of e-mail backgrounds, animations, sounds, 3-D effects and e- cards. More practically, it also incorporates a so-called white-list filter - it can only let in e-mail from the people you authorize it to. I can't use a spam filter like that, since I get mail from strangers all the time, but most home users will find it puts an end to spam. The ad-supported version is free, and you can ditch the ads for $49 and get a boatload of new features, including voice attachments and fancier formatting.

What about Web-based e-mail services? Google's new e-mail service, Gmail, has been overshadowing all competition with its 1 gigabyte of free storage, but Gmail is far from perfected and lacks some critical features that competitors Yahoo and Hotmail have long incorporated, for example, the ability to read your other POP3 accounts. This is an area that changes almost daily, as competitors add new features to cope with Google. For example, several people who use Yahoo say its new $19.95 per year service,which gives two gigabytes of online storage, is a steal. Here are some others worth noting:

We used to recommend Mailblocks, which alas has been bought by AOL and what's known as a challenge-response system, which, like white-listing, can pretty much eliminate spam for many people. When someone sends you an e-mail for the first time, they get a note back , requiring them to click on a link to register before the mail goes through. Other services have stepped into the fray, you can get a good rundown at http://email.about.com/cs/spamgeneral/a/challenge_resp.htm

Hushmail (www.hushmail.com) focuses on security. Any e-mail sent from one Hushmail user to another is automatically encrypted and decrypted, and you also can communicate with users of other encryption schemes. The free, ad-supported version limits you to 2 megabytes of storage and 1.5MB of attachments. The more useful $29.95 annual subscription gives you 32 megabytes of storage. There's also a combination white-list and challenge response filter, and a chat application, similar to AOL InstantMessenger but encrypted.