I've been using mail.app but I'm dissatisfied w/ its performance w/ dial-up connections. I use DSL at the office, and dial-up at home since I'm online less at home (and besides, it's cheap). I'd like an email client that isn't so picky w/ the connection. I'm thinking of using either thunderbird or eudora. I'm also considering netscape, but maybe I'm just being nostalgic since I used to love netscape. hehe. Any suggestions or opinions?
If you have Microsoft Office, try Entourage but I am not so sure how fast it is on dial up. I'd love to hear suggestions as alternate to Apple Mail as well since client is acting up lately so I just check my webmail.
There are many standalone email clients in the market, but I don't see how any of them can resolve connection issues. A poor connection, which is what dial-up is, will always be a problem for you, no matter what client you use. I know because I help my dad-in-law download email on his iMac using Eudora. Since he checks his at a frequency of once per month, each time we check results in dozens of accumulated messages. We can never complete a single transaction without losing connection the mail server. So it takes a few attempts to complete a full mail check. Even if you find a good alternative to Mail.app, you'll be giving up a lot of great features like Spotlight, Slideshow, Address Book integration, image resizing, etc. Sayang naman.
Thanks for the replies. I tried entourage some time ago. There were things about it that were clunky. Like I couldn't delete the mailbox for microsoft news groups and the thing is, I wasn't subscrbied to MS news groups. But, even if I can't stand MS programs, I must say I didn't have an email download problem even when connected via dial-up. Yes, dial-up sucks big time. Anyway, what happens w/ Mail.app is that while I download emails, Mail.app takes forever to sync, then it freezes. I have to quit and restart and then I have to start downloading all over again. I tried Eudora some time ago, too. It seemed slow (and ugly) and the ads are just really irritating. I guess I'll have to weigh what I might give up. The other possibility is I could use two clients, one for the house and one for the office.
I think the big question that I have to ask, is what kind of mail system are you using? IMAP or POP3? A properly configured IMAP account is actually better on dial up than Pop3. If you are using Pop3, are you optimizing the settings for your pop3 server? By default Mail keeps your mail on the server even though you downloaded it. Even messages that you delete from your system, will only be deleted one week after you empty your trash. Majority of pop3 servers use flat files for storage. Not very condusive for indexing. Even the new large enterprise mail servers that use database for message storing can be tedious on a dial up. Your mail program will have to check the status of each message UID that your application knows about and check if it still exists on the server or perform action on each one. Ideal set up for a pop3 account on dialup is get all your mail at one time and delete them from the server right away. I've never had mail hang on me, even when connected at 9600 baud via a bluetooth dial up from my cellular (yes, i was desperate).
hehe, Mr. D, when I'm desperate, I go GPRS which is about 300% faster than a 9.6kbps bluetooth/cellular/dial-up connection.
Yeah, but with the amount of mail I get, it gets expensive on a per KB charge rate for GPRS. And Dave_D and my partners get upset when my phone bill is high hehe. But in all fairness, I have only had to do it once when I was bidding on an item on Ebay and we were at a company retreat.
I use MS Entourage and got to use it on dial up . It is ok but you have large attachement like any other email program it slows down.
I'd recommend Thunderbird, it's pretty much overlooked by the Mac community since we already got Mail for free.
sorry if I revived this old thread. what's the best alternative email app for mac? i feel medyo mabagal ang mail app ng mac, mas mabilis pa ata yung mail app ng iphone ko. i have an account for yahoo and gmail. salamat guys!
How is it exactly 'mas mabagal'? I have my .mac, gmail, yahoo, 2 office emails integrated with my Mac Mail app & have rarely had problems. This with several macs & iOS devices hooked up to it. Dating back to 2005.
Hi greta! mabagal sya in terms of fetching new mail. actually yung yahoo, ok naman, pero yung gmail account ko ang mabagal at matagal mag fetch ng new mail, unlike my iphone na pag nag refresh ka, kita agad yung new mail.
did sparrow stop its development already? is't still safe to use? been reading good reviews regarding sparrow and im considering it. thanks micburz!
Yup sparrow has been acquired by google last year so there are no more updates. But if you want fast, simple email app.. sparrow is the best.
i already download sparrow lite and all i can say is it is fast in fetching new mail. also i like the design compare to mail.app. also what's the difference between sparrow lite and the paid version? is't in the paid version, they remove the ad?
yes it can, i tried it last night, hehe! also i searched for it, just now, and it says There is 2 differences between Sparrow and Sparrow Lite: - Sparrow Lite displays ads in your mail stream - Sparrow Lite adds a 'Sent with Sparrow' signature on all your outgoing messages
