Recently, my internet provider, comcast had some freak outage on their servers. I was not able to check mail from Outlook, and when I went to the webmail site, I just could not log in to any portion of comcast.net.

I was sort of ok with the thing, till the point I realized that during the 4 hour down time all emails I received, had been rejected! And when I called them, they said there was no way they could retrieve it and if I was expecting any important emails, I should just request the senders to re-send the emails!

What?!?! I am responsible to inform everyone that they have to re-send the emails because my freaking internet service provider had a bad downtime? Unplanned, too!

When I asked them to be compensated, I was just told a simple fact - internet service is paid for, email is not. Email service is a freebie with comcast internet service, so there is nothing to compensate me for!

HAHAHHAHA. I was floored at the explanation.

So now I am looking for a reliable email provider who provides me a web interface (non-client interface) as well as ability to check email from POP/IMAP client. I know gmail is one option, and am seriously trying it out. Wish Yahoo offered free POP access…they seem to be the most reliable, though I have had problems with them in their early stages.

Gmail has a quirk though. If I check email from Outlook at work, I don’t get to retrieve those emails from home (different computer, different Outlook). That sucks because I regularly check mails on both work and home computers, and usually ‘download’ all messages to my home computer.

Of course I could invest some money into Yahoo Mail Plus, but I don’t like the idea of putting money into something like email. Maybe it is time to wake up.

For now, comcast it is. But active search is on for a better alternative.