Email packages
For a long time the most popular email program on the Net was Qualcomm's Eudora. Although the full-featured Pro version costs US$39.95 (~AU$60), for free you can use an ad-sponsored full version or a cut-down 'Light' version that gives you the basic functions and a few extras.
Because Eudora is still widely used, a lot of programs import and export its address books. You can also, of course, use the email facilities built into Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Mozilla (or its spin-off, Firebird). The latter in particular is getting rather sophisticated, including spam-blocking and other functions. Mozilla is even capable of synchronising its address book to Palm handhelds.
Among other free choices is Pegasus Mail, which has the distinction of coming from closer shores than most products; its base of operations is New Zealand. While users moving from Outlook may find Pegasus' interface a little plain, it's a surprisingly powerful and free package.
For junk filtering there are a number of free options. SAProxy, for example, integrates the well-known SpamAssassin technology into email clients. Mailgate, which makes mail transfer agent software, also gives away a spam filter that works with any client. Most of these things work by interpolating themselves between your email client and POP3 mailbox and marking junk as it comes in. Then you just set your email client to filter out anything so marked.
