EmailChoice.com - This professionally-designed Web site offers a completely free email account for life that's accessible from virtually anywhere with an Internet connection. If you choose to register here, your email address will be yourname@emailchoice.com. This service also provides an online calendar service and reminder service, so you can input all the events that you need to remember.

IceMail - Send and read your email from any Web browser, anywhere in the world with this revolutionary new email-encryption service. IceMail (formally Joybox) is secured by SSL technology, which means you can access your private POP/ISP email accounts with complete privacy. The site is particularly useful if you are away from your computer, and need to check your email in a hurry.

HushMail - Provides an online email service with extra security features. You can send email to any person with an address but to take advantage of their high 1024 bit encryption, your recipient must also have a HushMail account. After the recently hiccup with the "Hotmail hackers" you should seriously consider this if handling important email. HushMail is robust, solid and extremely secure.

OemMail - Tired of your boring and unstylish Hotmail or Yahoo! address? OemMail.com offers the coolest email accounts on the Internet and best of all, they're completely free to claim. Once registered, you'll receive all the bells & whistles expected from a world-class provider, plus have a choice of over 140 different names, ranging from serious to funky. POP3 access is also supported.

USA.net - Sign up with USA.net and receive a free permanent, full featured email address. They have recently updated their site to offer increased security over local area networks. Their strict spam policy that attempts to combat outsiders sending advertising messages and junk mail. Being one of the best services of it's kind, USA.net has won many online/magazine awards.

N2 Mail - Another of the email services that have an auto reply service. We found that the N2 Mail attachment system was very good. You must log in at least once every 6 months to keep e-mails from being deleted in your account. They have a huge selection of names so you can be whoever you want to be. Not hugely popular, but certainly one of the most reliable services on the Net.

Netscape Mail - If you have ever registered a Netscape Web browser or AOL Instant Messenger, there is a good chance you'll already have an account with Netscape's Web Mail, but haven't actually used it. To be honest, it's not got anything any other service here hasn't but seems very reliable and is quite speedy when sending out messages. CompuServe ISP users also have access.

FSmail - Here's a popular service from the UK's biggest free Internet Access Provider. You can choose from numerous addresses, they include yourname @ fsmail.net, freeserve.co.uk, fsbusiness.co.uk, fsnet.co.uk, fslife.co.uk and fsworld.co.uk. Although you don't have to be a member of Freeserve's ISP to register, it will speed up the registration. (Recommended)

Onebox.com - One of the few sites on the Internet that allows you access your email, voicemail and fax all in one place. Onebox.com is a very reliable service plus you will receive a personal "Onebox" number (similar to a telephone number) which you can give to your contacts. It also features an address book allows you to add additional folders for collecting newsgroup messages.

mail2web - This service allows you to access your own email from anywhere in the world. You can even access it through a mobile phone. All you need to is a computer with an Internet connection or a WAP compatible portable telephone. To start using mail2web, just enter your email address and password. After that it's easy. You can send mail, forward, compose and even delete messages.

Panda Mail - Use this friendly Web site to access your POP3 mail accounts from anywhere in the world with a computer Internet connection. To begin reading / writing email messages, you'll need to know some important information about your POP account (login name, password and mail server). After that, it's just a case of entering these details into text fields and clicking the "login" image.

My Own Email - You'll find a number of cool email addresses at this well-designed site. At the time of writing this, you could register yourname @hehe.com, smileyface.com, netexecutive.com, keg-party.com, imtoosexy.com and hundreds more with film, music and even TV themes. Other options provided here include customizable inbox, address book, spam filter and a spell checker.

Postmaster - Postmaster is a solid and reliable free email service, allowing people to access messages from anywhere in the world. It claims to be Europe's largest provider and includes many features, such as password protection, address books, attachments and mail filtering. The service also allows you to send voice email messages. Addresses are yourname @ postmaster.co.uk.

ZDNet Mail - Here's a great email service from the popular technology portal, ZDNet and takes advantage of Onebox.com's range of instant messaging features by collecting all your email, faxes and instant messages in one inbox that's accessible from anywhere with an Internet connection. If you choose to register for a free account, your email address will resemble @zdnetonebox.com.

EMail.com - A service of the popular search engine and directory NBCI (formally Snap.com). Signing up is straight forward and will allow you to take full advantage of Snap's services including their Live Directory, Snap Chat, Snap Games and Horoscopes. They send occasional updates regarding their service and spam mail is kept to a minimum. Addresses are yourname@email.com.

ZipLip - The ZipLip.com email service offers a free, and highly secure email service for business and personal use. When registering you are asked to choose a ZipLip ID, this will be used for the first part of your email address and for logging in. They provide a fast and reliable service, with zero spam mailings from other companies. FreebieList.com has found this service to be one of the best.

AlloyMail.com - Alloy Online's free email service (powered by Mail.com) provides you with a fair number of features, such as an online address book, deleted and sent messages folder, 5mb of mailbox space and even supports file attachments. Although the interface looks familiar if you've used a "Mail.com" provider before, there is a strong sense of originality in the design here.

Hotmail - Hotmail is the world's most famous on-line email service. They provide fast, secure inbox access from anywhere in the world. One of the downsides is you get an awful lot of junk mail from inappropriate Web sites. We've found it's an average email service that provides you with quick and easy mail management. Anti-mail bomb filters contribute to the success of this veteran provider.

Lycos Mail - Quite a nifty set up here - again powered by Mail.com. Read email on the web, forward messages anywhere, read email through your favourite email program, you can do everything. You also get to choose your own unique email address at Mail.com, engineer.com or any of their 300 other names. Spam is kept to a minimum however there are no features to help you combat this.

Mail.com - Mail.com (as used to power Lycos and numerous other services) offers a free personalised email service that is private and accessible from anywhere. You can choose from a variety of domain names and because this service is password protected, only you will have access to your account. If you share a computer, their secure log-out function will protect your messages.

Big Foot - "Tools For The Internet". With a free email address Bigfoot will deliver your messages to any email account you want. Regardless of how often you change providers, which provider you choose, or how many accounts you might have. Your account will never expire unlike most other similar services because you have the ability to change where your email is forwarded to.

Yahoo! Mail - On the whole this service is very good. Yahoo! is usually very fast and the mailbox interface is appealing. You get very few junk messages and their mail servers are lightning fast. Some users have reported that their pages don't expire, meaning people using the same computer could read your mail offline. We have now seen an account being accessed offline. Be careful.