E-mail, chat, & VoIP forum: What are the pros and cons of Web-based e-mail systems?

I gave up downloading my emails from my ISP's many years ago after getting a couple of nasty viruses & other horrible malware. This was before anti virus, spam etc was a big deal. I decided it was better that my ISP deal with the nasties than me on my computer.

The decision came after a marathon 24hr effort to rid my computer of a nasty that installed itself without me so much as clicking on it. Apparently the process of downloading it via my Outlook Express was enough to open it & send it right through my system. Yes I did have paid for security but in those days that wasn't enough mostly because the updates weren't regular enough.

Since then I haven't had any issues with email nasties. Although I do have spam issues with the free account but as has previously been stated here, that's unavoidable. There are harvesting devices, tracking devices, email address generators all working 24/7 covering millions of addresses daily & no matter what you call your email, it will get generated eventually. As soon as it lands in a real box it sends it's little message back to base & there you are recieving spam.

I have an email account that I pay for because it comes with my internet connection & a free account for all the joke mail etc. Only really important emails come through the paid ISP. However I still log-in via the internet to both of my email accounts to read all mail. If I need to keep an important email I download just that one. I can read all my mail anywhere & use anyone's pc without leaving traces if needed.

I know this wouldn't suit most business people & many other people get heaps daily that they really need to keep & have instant access to, but this method suits me. It would also suit most people who don't generally recieve important emails or are travelling. (I don't class joke mail as important enough to keep. I send a few on then delete it all).

That means my online data storage needs are small. Actually my paid for email has worse data limits & time storage limits than my free account. The free account has very generous data volumes whereas the paid ISP deletes everything after 45days no if's or buts! I got caught by that one because I was already used to my free account which has no time limits & never deletes any of my contacts details. The paid ISP deleted all my contacts' extra details which was a real p!ss-off I can tell you!!! X8

So the only problem I have is that many people's email security is set to label as spam, many of the free email clients, I guess because they contain tracking features. That's why they're free afterall.

So sometimes I have to send a particular contact an email from my paid ISP just to be sure the free one got through! Which is a bit silly actually. But I tolerate it.