- They can append a small ad to each email message which is sent or received

- They can display banners

- Their sites can issue popup windows with advertisements

Why would you want to use a free email service? Probably most important reason is simply to help you with spam. You can use a web based free email account to receive messages from signups to various services. Then, you can access account only when necessary for service. This way, any spam messages will be directed to free mailbox, which you do not use very often if at all.

Another great reason to use these services is to be able to pick up your email from your browser. This is great for when you are traveling or on those occasions when you want to read your home email when at work (see "Is surfing internet safe at work?")

Each of four basic types of email services are described below, along with some examples of some of free services that are available.

Web Based Email - These services allow you to retrieve, send and manage your email from your browser. In general, services are advertising (banner) supported, although most offer an ad free paid version of some kind.

Hotmail.Com http://www.hotmail.com The first and oldest web-based email system. Good interface, reliable and reasonably fast.

Mail.Com http://www.mail.com/mailcom/login.jhtml Probably best free web-based email service available. Choose from dozens of different email domains. Very easy to use and flexible. Premium service is available at a low cost.

Startrekmail http://www.startrekmail.com/member/login.page Create your own Star Trek email address. Choose from many domains, including:

@StarTrek.com @USSEnterprise.com @Klingons.com @HesDeadJim.com @ToBoldlyGo.com @DeepSpaceNine.com

Yahoo Mail http://mail.yahoo.com/ Another popular, nice email system. Lots of features, very reliable and fast.

POP Email Services - POP email is virtually always supplied as part of services you receive from your web host and ISP. Your messages are stored on a server, and you use your email client (Outlook, Outlook Express or Eudora, for example) to send, receive and manage your messages.

E-OmniNet http://eo.yifan.net/ E-Omninet provides online services of all kinds with a single account. It includes file manager, address book, bookmarks, solar and lunar calendars plus event reminder, free POP3 email and web hosting.

Imagine how it feels to really want to tell a webmaster that he's done a great job, and you cannot find an easy way to do so. It's enough to make anyone annoyed ... upset enough not to come back? Perhaps not, but after working so hard to get a visitor to your site why anger someone who only wants to tell you that you've done a good job?

On our site we have gone through many different guestbooks. Like many sites, we began with standard remotely hosted versions. In general, these did job but as our site matured we jumped from service to service, attempting to find one that suited our needs. After much searching, we decided to maintain our guestbook by hand (what a pain that was), until stumbling on best guestbook script we have ever seen. Once we installed vizbook we realized we were in guestbook heaven.

Anyway, virtually all of remotely hosted guestbook services will do job. If your site is based on a web host that allows for user installed CGI routines, then vizbook comes highly recommended.

User Installed Scripts

User installed guestbook scripts are most definitely preferable to remotely hosted versions. If you are allowed to install your own scripts, then by all means do so - you will get a much better guestbook.

Vizbook http://www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/vizbook.shtml I personally tested virtually every guestbook script that was available on cgi-resources (http://www.cgi-resources.com). Once we stumbled upon script called vizbook, we realized we had found perfect guestbook. Let me emphasize that point - this guestbook is absolutely incredible. It has everything, and was even completely customizable to match our site perfectly. If you can install CGI scripts on your server, then there is no other choice as far as I am concerned.

Remotely Hosted

Many sites take advantage of many remotely hosted guestbook services that are available. The advantages of using a remote service include:

- The maintenance required to upkeep guestbook is minimal and generally consists of reviewing entries.

- Your bandwidth and disk quotas are not affected by guestboook.

The disadvantages include:

- Remotely hosted guestbooks are supported by advertising, which means banners. These cause visitors to be drawn away from your site.

- Configuration of remote guestbooks is usually very limited, so guestbook will not match your site.

- You are stuck with features provided by guestbook provider.