Inbox.com
A great free e-mail service, providing a massive 5GB space, with Web mail, POP3 access, spam protection and a host of other useful features. Please note, however, that the 5GB offer is only valid for U.S., Canada and UK residents ( 2GB is allocated for other locations). Inbox.com also offers a free online calendar service and an online photo album, so you can share pictures with family and friends.

Postmaster
Postmaster is a solid and reliable free e-mail service, allowing people to access messages from anywhere in the world. It claims to be Britain's largest provider and includes many features, such as password protection, address books, attachments and mail filtering. The service also allows you to send voice e-mail messages. Addresses are: yourname@postmaster.co.uk.

Bluebottle
This site provides a solid free e-mail service with 250MB storage space and integrated spam (junk mail) filtering. Using Bluebottle, you can access your e-mails either via a Web browser, by IMAP, or by POP3 (using any e-mail client you choose). Along with these advanced functions, Bluebottle also allows you to manage folders and set up address verification lists.

Freeola 500
Register at Freeola too choose from a huge collection of free e-mail addresses (over 500). This service provides free e-mail forwarding, free e-mail auto responders, anti-spam and virus protection, and also a Web mail option, so you can access your e-mail from anywhere in the world, provided you have access to an Internet connection. Click the "view all 500 addresses link" for the full selection.

Hotmail
Hotmail is the world's most famous online e-mail service. They provide fast, secure inbox access from anywhere in the world. One of the downsides is you get an awful lot of junk mail from inappropriate Web sites. We've found it's an average e-mail service that provides you with quick and easy mail management. Anti "mail bomb" filters contribute to the success of this veteran provider.

Lycos
This free e-mail service provided by the portal "Lycos" offers free spam (junk mail) protection and doesn't have any limits on attachment sizes. 15MB of mailbox space is available here, along with basic text editing tools (font changer, etc.) Registering for a Lycos e-mail account will also allow you to access their other services, such as chat rooms. POP3 access is no longer available here.

HushMail
Provides an online e-mail service with extra security features. You can send e-mail to any person with an address but to take advantage of their high 1024 bit encryption, your recipient must also have a HushMail account. After the recent hiccup with "Hotmail hackers", you should seriously consider this if handling important e-mail. HushMail is robust, solid and reliable.

EmailChoice.com
This professionally-designed Web site offers a completely free e-mail account for life that's accessible from virtually anywhere with an Internet connection. If you choose to register here, your e-mail address will be: yourname@emailchoice.com. This service also provides an online calendar service and reminder service, so you can input all the events that you need to remember.

mail2web
This service allows you to securely access your POP3 e-mail inbox from anywhere in the world. Ideal for when you're on the move (or when you need to access your messages remotely), mail2web functions very much like any other Web mail interface, and allows you to send mail, forward, compose and even delete messages on the fly. They also support WAP compatible mobile phone access.

AlloyMail.com
Alloy Online's free e-mail service (powered by Mail.com) provides you with a fair number of features, such as an online address book, deleted and sent messages folder, 5MB of mailbox space and even supports file attachments. Although the interface looks familiar if you've used a "Mail.com" provider before, there is a strong sense of originality in the design here.

Mail.com
Mail.com (as used to power Lycos and numerous other services) offers a free personalised e-mail service that is private and accessible from anywhere. You can choose from a variety of domain names and because this service is password protected, only you will have access to your account. If you share a computer, their secure log-out function will protect your messages.

Big Foot
"Tools For The Internet". With a free e-mail address, Bigfoot will deliver your messages to any e-mail account you want, regardless of how often you change providers, which provider you choose, or how many accounts you might have. Your account will never expire unlike most other similar services since you have the ability to change where your e-mail is forwarded to.

Yahoo! Mail
On the whole this service is very good. Yahoo! is usually fast and the mailbox interface here is quite appealing. You will receive few junk mail (spam) messages and their mail servers are lightning fast. Some users have reported that their pages don't expire after logging out. However, this problem seems to have been fixed. Overall, a great service if you already use "Yahoo!"