SOAR requires users to use their own email address, so if there are more than one of you who share one email address (perhaps several of you use a communal practice email address, or perhaps you share one with your spouse), you will need to set yourself up with an individual email address.
But with so many free email service providers out there (the likes of Hotmail and Yahoo have been around for a very long time), how do you know which one is right for you?
To be honest, it's all a matter of personal preference.
The three most common and popular free email providers are Google Mail, Hotmail, and Yahoo.
| Website | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Google Mail www.gmail.com |
Best spam / junk mail filter, by far. Easy to setup / signup (more text based, less fancy pictures to distract and slow things down). |
Lists emails in "Conversation" style, meaning that all emails with the same heading / subject title will be grouped together. Quite different from a traditional email Inbox. |
| Hotmail www.hotmail.co.uk |
Easy to navigate, novice users may feel more confident with this because it looks more like Outlook / Outlook Express. |
Terrible, terrible spam / junk mail filter (practically non-existent). Not easy to setup, because it takes you through different screens trying to entice you to sign up with "free newsletters" on various interests (which is one of the sources of the many junk emails you will receive), which can be misleading and rather confusing. |
| Yahoo www.yahoo.co.uk |
Easy to navigate, novice users may feel more confident with this because it looks more like Outlook / Outlook Express. Provides easy to follow tutorials on how to use the email after signing up. |
Terrible, weak spam / junk mail filter. Quite a lot of Adverts, "Help / Tips" pop up unexpectedly, which can be quite distracting. |
If you have a mobile phone, chances are you can setup an email address with your mobile phone company website as well (eg Orange). Consult your mobile phone company or their website for further information.
And of course there's also NHSmail at NHS.net.
The free email service provider we would recommend is Google Mail, purely because, at the time of writing, it offers the best junk/spam mail filter. However it should also be noted that as good as the filter is, the odd occassional spam mail will still come through, so do take care about which emails to open.
What if you want to continue to share the email address? Perhaps it's practice policy, or because of IT security at your office, you cannot access the above email providers?
You can easily setup email forwarders (from the created email address) so that any emails that go into your Google Mail, Hotmail or Yahoo account, a copy will automatically be forwarded to your shared email address.
To setup email forwarders in Google Mail, login to your Google Mail account (after signing up with them of course), click on Settings (along the top), then from the available options below, click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
Select the option Forward a copy of incoming mail to, then enter your shared email address in the box provided.
In the dropdown menu underneath, it is entirely your preference whether you wish to keep Google Mail's copy in the Inbox, or archive Google Mail's copy, or delete Google Mail's copy.
You may wish to setup particular filters also.
Once this is set, scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes - and that's it!
Any emails that get sent to your Google Mail address will now be automatically redirected to your shared email address.
To setup email forwarders in Hotmail, login to your Hotmail account (after signing up with them of course), click on Options (on the far right), then from the available options, under Manage your account, click on Forward mail to another e-mail account.
Select the option Forward your mail to another e-mail address, then type in your shared email address in the box below.
Once this is set, go to the bottom right hand side of the screen, and click Save - and that's it!
Any emails that get sent to your Hotmail address will now be automatically redirected to your shared email address.
To setup email forwarders in Yahoo, login to your Yahoo mail account (after signing up with them of course), click on Options > Mail Options (on the right), then from the available options, under Management, click on POP Access and Forwarding.
Go to the bottom and select the option Forwarding, then type in your shared email address in the box below.
Once this is set, go to the bottom left hand side of the screen, and click Save - and that's it!
Any emails that get sent to your Yahoo address will now be automatically redirected to your shared email address.
The instructions above are just a general description and as you can see all three, though different, follow the same pattern (Options > Forward > Enter Email address > Save).
Please be aware that although the descriptions above are true and valid at the time of writing (19th August 2008), these may and probably will change as and when Google Mail, Hotmail and Yahoo decide to update their software and change the way forwarders are set.
If you require further help with this, please contact raise a Helpdesk ticket via SOAR.
This page was last updated on: 12/05/2021
