Mail Woes...Options??

I've been primarily been using my DSL provider's HTTP email (AT&T Yahoo DSL). It's the real slick interface Yahoo purchased from OddPost...very "ajax-ie". They've incorporated some excellent spam filtering IMHO. However, there are a few "forced" issues that I have real displeasure with. You can skip past the rants for the help part.....

Rant begin:
1.) Recently, AT&T has decided that their online email (a service that I pay for mind you) be pilfered with annoying / obnoxious flashing and animated side-bar adds...not to mention other inconspicuous adverts elsewhere above, below and anywhere possible in the pane. Why do I have to pay for these?

2.) EVERY attachment uploaded or downloaded is automatically "Scanned by Norton Anti-Virus" on the server side. Hey, that's great for my 70 year old dad on Win XP. However, I a fairly savvy computer user in general and know the "don't open attachments" revelry. More importantly...IM ON A MAC. What Virus???

3.) Yahoo has incorporated Yahoo Messenger/Chat into the email application. It's sort of nice since I can chat with my relatives overseas. However, more frequently I'm invited to "meet" large-sized women of ethnicity in my area. Also, I get frequent solicitations questioning my sexual performance and "size". I have 4 healthy children all 5 years old and under. I hardly believe anything regarding my genitalia is in question. Simply annoying.

So for the Help:
I'm seriously considering an email application on my Mac. I'm on Tiger so I have 10.4 email as an option. I also have Mac Office 2004, so there's Entourage as well. Its got to have good automatic Spam filtering; the kind that requires little to no "Training". I don't really care for Thunderbird. Is there any other free email applications I should consider?

Maybe your ISP should be the main consideration. They are doing the side bar adds for one reason ... the bucks.

My ISP here in Australia allows users to set the SPAM rating on email messages and never see these dumb adds any more. They are held by the ISP and I can check them if I wish or delete automatically.

harryb2448 said:

Maybe your ISP should be the main consideration. They are doing the side bar adds for one reason ... the bucks.

My ISP here in Australia allows users to set the SPAM rating on email messages and never see these dumb adds any more. They are held by the ISP and I can check them if I wish or delete automatically.

Click to expand...

I think you misunderstood my issue. They are not pop-up or pop-under adds. The web-based email windows was reconfigured so that it now has a side pane to fit/accept adds.

I understand why the "free" Yahoo version has the side-bar adds. However I pay monthly for my DSL service and don't think I should be subject to any "in-your-face" advertisements. I feel like I'm paying for their dirty-little-tricks.