Use GMail as your webmail client and/or SPAM filter

GMail has a very popular webmail interface -- and a well-respected SPAM filter. You can put these to use with your own domain name and email address. It just takes a few of steps to get it set up.

1 - Setup a GMail account

You may already have one. Or you can setup a new account.

Sign-up for GMail here: gmail.google.com

2 - Setup to have GMail get email from your account

There are two ways to accomplish. Choose one. DO NOT do both.

2a - Get email to GMail with a forwarder

Setup a forwarder so that mail to your email address is redirected to GMail.

How to setup a forwarder

Note: If your email account is not hosted on the Ready-Set-Go! server, you may or may not be able to setup a forwarder on top of your email account. You will need to consult that email provider for instructions.

GoDaddy -- GoDaddy only allows forwarders if you remove the actual email account. This would mean you can only access your email through GMail. You would not be able to access your email through Outlook, Outlook Express, or Thunderbird.
Juno -- Juno does not allow email forwarding, unless you subscribe to their paid services.

2b - Get email to GMail with GMail Fetcher

This is a little more complicated to setup, but provides a viable option if it is not possible to setup a forwarder on your account (e.g. GoDaddy hosting). [You'll need to know your login information, including server address]

If you also want to be able to access your email through clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express, or Thunderbird, then be sure you set "Leave a copy of retrieved messages on the server." Similarly, on your Outlook, Outlook Express, or Thunderbird installation, you should also select Leave a copy of the message on the server and Remove message after 5 days.

Note: Not all email providers offer POP3 access. For instance, Juno does not allow POP3 access, unless you subscribe to their paid services.

3 - Setup GMail to "send as" your email

Go into your GMail account and setup a "send mail as" identity.

Click on Settings
Click on Accounts
Under Send mail as, click on Add another email address
Enter your name and email address in the popup window
Click Next Step
Click Verify
Wait for GMail to send your verification link and code. If you set up the forwarder in Step 2, then this information will arrive in your GMail account.
Click on the verification link in the verification email, which will activate your new send from address

If you want GMail to always use your other email address to send mail, then set it as the default address. And under When I receive a message sent to one of my addresses:, mark Always reply from my default address.

If you want to have GMail use different addresses depending on the email, then mark the settings accordingly.

Everytime you compose new mail, you will be presented a drop-down box from which you can choose among the addresses your email will be using as “sender.”

[Step 4 - Setup your email client to get emails from GMail]

This step is necessary *only* if you want to access your email through a desktop email client (e.g. Outlook, Outlook Express, or Thunderbird). If you want to do eerything through webmail, then ignore this step.

GMail now allows both POP3 and IMAP access to its email servers. Click on the one you prefer to find GMail/Google's setup directions.

See also: My discussion of the difference between POP3 and IMAP.