I think he's talking about email from agnostic sources - Yahoo mail, Gmail, etc., You can change your ISP as frequently as you like and still have the same address to use. Which brings up a thought to share - sometimes you can save money on your internet connection by changing your supplier periodically. Most offer cut rates for new customers. Switch to take advantage of that, and then when the reduced price period ends, switch to another provider (maybe the one you left originally) who likely also offers a deal for new customers. Many mail services - like Gmail - can be set up to collect email messages from multiple accounts and concentrate everything in one central place. It helps you avoid the annoyance of multiple logins, but if you do that with non-work related email accounts, it does bring into question why you need more than one account in the first place. Oh, and for the OP, really there's no advantage or disadvantage to using a mail program. Maybe you prefer the user interface, but there's likely little difference between any one and the web experience using a browser

Wow; what a happining site you all have here. My garden sites don't move along like this. Thanks for the good information. I will find a new email to link with as suggested. Part of the reason I didn't already try that, was because I was concerned that someone might have been using my account somehow. Of course, I haven't seen any indication of damage other than the above problem of google saying i have and then dont have an account. I also was asked an unusual login question via utube when I attempted to start an account. That was what got me started on trying to reactivate in the first place. Since then my memory has kicked in a bit and suggested I might have used that unusual question after all. That probably means all is well. Maybe the utube attempt is actually the hang up. I may even try to get back to the utube startup and see if I can answer the unusual question to get me in from that side. I suppose putting my logins and passwords in a book is a plausable idea, and it certainly would have prevented this thread. HOWEVER: to ravencajun and your accurate detection of my upset with google; may I at least claim 'contributary neglegence'. Loogin appears to be a major problem and it is absurd to require 'login' to get on the google help forum that is the only form of google help; and secondly re a book of logins; that seems to be a great way to get on a ton of threads of police, attorney's, banks and God knows what for ten years trying to recover your life savings, credit and whatever following a break in or a questionable friend. I suppose a compromise is in order. I think I might try putting such a list in a real book in the book case and not the computer desk. Unfortunately that reminds me of a day several decades ago (when I actually had a functioning memory) when my young son opened up a random book and a pile of twentys or hundreds fell out from whence they had been placed for secure keeping several years before and been completely forgotten!

One weird problem I've had (that I attribute to the awfulness of the GW message board software...) is that, occasionally, if you do a search on Google, you'll hit on a thread that has http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/ as the leading part of the URL rather than the normal http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/ that you get if you go to the GardenWeb website and navigate to this forum. For whatever reason, although you can click and see new messages just like you would if you were actually in the forum, if you try to log in it will just cycle you through a loop, with "name" appearing blank. I have no idea why these aren't seamlessly integrated or why it's possible to see the new posts with the old domain, but if you just type over it with ths.gardenweb.com it will fix the problem. Probably won't work for every instance of this, but if you're someone like me who searches in Google or other outside search engines, it's worth making sure the address bar shows the right domain if you have trouble logging in. Also, for those with Macs---if you're having problems with not being able to clear the old user name/password, you might make sure Keychain isn't set to save your user names. That info won't get reset when the browser cookies and cache are cleared.

@dsg2015 -- I had the exact same choice 1-1/2 years ago. I did switch in the end and it has been an excellent decision for me. Our girls always touted Apple to us. I stubbornly stuck to PC and Android. Then we had to get DH an iMac for the accessible features -- he has low vision and it was recommended by the Lighthouse. So I had to learn to use it in order to adjust it for him. It's been excellent. So when my last PC started wearing down, I went to Apple. I like a desktop as I do a lot of photo editing. I got an iMac with a fusion drive which means it boots up super quickly and is very fast. It is, hands down, the best desktop ever. I did need to reorganize things and I do have my quibbles. But overall there is no comparison. Plus I don't need to keep spending money updating software and adding internet protection -- those are included! I did have an iPad in advance of the desktop and loved it. Didn't put much focus on the ability of those to synch up but it's come in very handy. So when I went to get a new phone at the end of '14 I took a hard look at the Iphone 6+ vs the Samsung. Everyone I spoke to with the 6+ loved it. I went for it. Like the desktop, it is by far the best phone I've every had. Easiest to use, 0 audio issues, almost no dropped calls. If I take photos with the phone they transfer over to the desktop library. So now I'm a convert. I still have a PC laptop that's been lightly used. It should have many good years as it's not used all that much. But when it goes, I'll get a Mac. Sure, Apple support varies from store to store. But it's worlds better than the nightmare overseas non-English, nonsense support I experienced in the past.