I have had a gmail account for over a year, and while I do get some spam, it seems to come in bunches and soon ends. Gmail can be configured to download in Outlook Express---don't know about Outlook, so you don't have to check via webmail unless you wish. Overall, I have been pleased with gmail.

I have mailwasher that lets me know what is there B4 it downloads from server and the option to mark "friends" and check spam for deletion if need to do so. Get very little spam.

I have gmail and like it better to open in OE as I can write back just as though it was OE but with gmail address etc.

I just opened another web mail account called Windows Live Mail that is an excellent program excepting all your other mail accounts too so you can open, read, and answer all from one place.

Urlee

Here is a link that might be useful: Windows Live Mail

I like gmail because of the way you can organize messages. Rather than putting them in a folder, you attach labels to them. You can add multiple labels if a particular message covers more than one subject, or just might be filed more than one way.

The user interface is visually clean and well-organized.

They do a good job of catching spam.

I have several different email accounts that I use in various ways and one way I combat SPAM is to use one of the email accounts for registering at forums or different sites or for shopping online so that all of the junk email goes to that one account. Otherwise it won't matter how often you change accounts as once the email address gets to third parties the spam starts all over again.

Bob