What is the Safest Free Email Service Available to the Public?

This is a good question I will try to answer. There really is no “safest, free” e-mail service out there. However, I will discuss the good, bad, and the ugly of using a “free” email service.

Please remember anytime you use a “free” online service, the service itself is not really free. Why? Well because they have your data. Today, data is like a product to sell. People can sell data they collect to people like advertisers and private companies who can make use of it (for good reasons……or bad reasons).

Unfortunately this data is usually personal information you provided through a “free” e-mail account, “free” instant messaging service, “free” video call (e.g., Skype), “free” web hosting account, “free” file storage (who puts their personal files [like photos] on a random, who-knows-who-really-owns-it server anyway?), “free” video hosting service (e.g., YouTube), etc.  You get the idea.

These companies that provide free e-mail services are probably selling your data to other companies. This is one way they can make money to pay for hosting those “free” e-mail accounts to begin with. Also, this is why if you do anything personal on your “free” e-mail account, it isn’t really private.

The Good

  • No technical knowledge of email needed to get started
  • No worry about making backups (if using a reputable provider like Gmail)
  • No worry about blocking spam (the provider should be doing this for you anyway)
  • No worry about managing your own server to run your own e-mail server
  • No worry about others not getting their e-mails to you (reliable providers should be constantly monitoring their servers for issues like Gmail or Yahoo would do)

The Bad

  • No control over how much disk space you can have
  • No control over who the service provider decides to block e-mails coming from / or going to
  • No control over service outages (they probably will just silently fix the issues with little to no notifications about what happened)
  • Sometimes you may not get the exact name you want for your e-mail address, since someone else may have previously taken the same name (for example: you want john.doe@example.com, but someone has already taken that name; you then may have to settle for john.doe193@example.com instead…not something that everyone may want)

The Ugly

  • No control over your data (they have your e-mails, you do not!)
  • No ownership of your e-mails (not only do you not control your e-mails, you technically do not own them either…they do)  —- I know you may disagree with me, but let’s face facts, like I said before, they have the data, not you!
  • Anyone at the company (or individual hosting free accounts) can snoop into your e-mails that you send or receive.
  • Your “free” e-mail service with _all_ of your e-mails could be deactivated and erased with no prior notice for _any_ reason they deem acceptable.
  • Your emails may also be stored permanently in backups the hosting service makes, which means when you delete an e-mail, it may not really be deleted!

You may want to consider carefully reading the “Terms of Service” agreement for “free” e-mail providers to see how they deal with their users’ privacy.


Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers, Security

When Should You Update Software?

Software updates are one of the things that can cause pain for server and network administrators.  They do not have the luxury to just click an “upgrade to next version” button like you would see on a WordPress website.  There is usually more involved when updating software.

When you have a new software (or operating system) you can upgrade to, there are a few things to check out first.

(Not an exhaustive list)

  1. Does it have any features that are beneficial to my daily work?
  2. Does it have any features that have been removed?
  3. Will the currently running software work with the new OS, or have people complained about the software not working correctly?
  4. Will your hardware work with the new software?
  5. How much downtime will an upgrade incur?
  6. If a lot of downtime will occur, is there a way to minimize the downtime?

Whenever you want to use a newer OS, you should always perform a fresh install on the computer. Never just do an in-place upgrade.  This is a very good way to mess things up on the computer.  Even if the in-place upgrade (not a fresh install) seems to work fine, there may be small issues that will pop-up later that you are not aware of.  Then you will wish you had done a fresh install in the first place. 🙂

Also, whenever you want to update a piece of software, always make sure you are using a “stable” release of the software.  Never run Beta, RC, Alpha, or any “not finished” software in production.  This can cause you grief that you could have avoided.


Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers, Operating Systems, Programming, Software

Always Check Your System for Memory Problems

Have you ever tested your computer’s memory (RAM) before for errors? If not, it would be a good idea to. Why? I’ll explain.

System memory stores temporary information for programs to quickly access. System memory is 100+ times faster than conventional hard drives, and thus minimizes delays in programs that you are running.

Programs depend upon the memory to be reliable, otherwise program malfunctions may occur (sometimes serious malfunctions).

For instance, say one of your memory sticks is bad, and this memory stick happens to be storing information containing an online order you are submitting to an online retailer. Now since this memory stick is bad, the debit card # you entered (e.g., 1111 2222 3333 4444) ends up being (e.g., 1111 2222 3333 4445)!

You see what happened? The last digit [ 4 ] became a [ 5 ]!  This would obviously cause a problem with your order. This is just one example of many potential problems you may have when dealing with bad system memory.

Other symptoms of bad memory are:  Blue Screen of Death (or Kernel Panic on Linux), outright programs crashes, and corrupt files.

So what can you use to test your system memory? Well a couple of programs I have used are MemTest86+  or  PassMark’s MemTest V7.1. These programs do not run in Windows. These programs require to be run by CD, USB drive, or any other bootable device.  You can Google these programs to find the downloads.

In my opinion, you need to run these tests for at least 3 complete passes* (with no errors) before considering your system memory to be reliable.

* A “pass”  =  a complete system memory test; so 3 “passes” means 3 complete tests


Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers, Operating Systems, Software

Gone Full-SSL Encryption on My Blog

I have finally gone full-SSL encryption on my blog. You should notice the lock symbol to the left (maybe right…depends upon the web browser you are using) of the URL in your browser.

What this means is that all your communication to my server is encrypted and the chance of someone decrypting your communication to my server is small.

More and more the World Wide Web is going SSL-only (encryption) for communications, regardless of the actual confidentiality of the information being transmitted.

Since there are people and organizations out there trying their hardest to invade people’s privacy, SSL encryption all the more has become necessary.


Posted in Computers, General, Internet and Servers, Operating Systems, Software

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