Your New E-Mail Account
Making Choices

It is important to recognize that you can use your new account with any ISP dial-up account. When you signed up with your internet service provider (ISP), you were most likely issued an e-mail account. You may set up your new East Carolina Network account in a variety of ways:

1. You could ignore your old ISP issued account and use only your new account (most of our customers select this option).
2. You may set your new e-mail account to automatically "forward" all e-mail to your current ISP e-mail account.
3. You may set up your new account and retrieve mail from BOTH accounts (may require special e-mail software).

When you signed up with your ISP you were, most likely, provided software with your account that was intended to allow you to browser the web and send and receive e-mail. Some ISPs send you a copy of "Netscape" that has been configured to handle BOTH operations. Others allow you to use the software that came with your Windows 95 operating system (Internet Explorer ... the browser and Outlook Express ... the e-mail software). Still others provide you with a copy of Netscape ... the browser, and a copy of Eudora Light ... the e-mail software.

While this may sound awfully confusing, it's just a matter of picking the software on which you want to install your new e-mail account ... that decision should be driven by how you intend to use your account(s) and how much traffic you expect to encounter.

For instance, if you have just signed up to become a sponsor of The North Carolina's Outer Banks Internet Initiative, chances are you will be receiving more e-mail than you dreamed would be possible. Depending on the type of business you have, you could receive several THOUSAND e-mail messages a month. Before long, you'll want to find a way to automate your e-mail system ... by having incoming mail sorted and placed in different "folders" on your machine based upon subject matter or content ... by having a personalized "thank you" generated and sent in response to various types of inquiries ... you get the idea. The point is, if you expect to encounter reasonably heavy traffic, you'll need "industrial strength" software ... and that's NOT normally provided by your ISP!

So ... no matter what software your ISP provided with your sign-up package, it may not be sophisticated enough to handle commercial applications. We recommend you choose one of the following packages listed in order of preference:

1. Eudora Pro [Windows 95, 98, NT or Mac] ... The best there is. Version 4.0 cost you about $40 and is worth every penny (Version 3.0 is still available for about $30 and is nearly as good as 4.0). Contains address books, filters (for sorting), multiple account capabilities (can maintain an almost unlimited number of different e-mail accounts), automatic responses, signature files, spell checkers, grammar checkers and is built to take the pounding of high volume traffic.

   You may download a demo version of Eudora Pro and receive a 30 day evaluation by visiting the Qualcomm Site or simply order it on-line.

2. Microsoft Outlook Express [Windows 95, 98, NT or Mac] ... We were tempted to choose Microsoft Outlook 98 over its "little brother" Outlook Express but the fact is you can download the entire Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 package INCLUDING Outlook Express for free. It's really hard to beat this combination.

   Outlook Express allows multiple user accounts, some degree of filtering (sorting), and address book and signature files. The full version of Microsoft Outlook is better ... but then you must pay for it.

   You may download your free version for any of the Windows Operating Systems by visiting Microsoft's Windows Update. The Mac versions are also available for download free of charge. In addition, you may order any of this software on CD for about $5.00 if you want to avoid the download altogether.

3. Eudora [Windows 95, 98, NT or Mac] ... Eudora comes in three versions .. two are free (one with advertisements, one without). The third paid full-featured version is free of advertising.

   Downloads are available for every conceivable machine and in nearly any language. Make your selection at the Qualcomm Site for Eudora.