Moving to US. Some questions please?

wotnoshoeseh

All,
I am emigrating to the US at the end of the month and therefore need to cancel my broadband connection etc. I have contacted them to do this and have been told that I will lose my e-mail address also. One of those things, I suppose.
Therefore I neeed to create a new e-mail account and e-mail address, preferably a free one. I was thinking that on moving out there too I will want to set up things like some form of instant messaging and probably Skype etc. to utilise cheap calling home methods.
Can anybody give any direction as to the best e-mail account to use?
Also does the e-mail account and instant messaging a/c. require any downloads etc.? If so am I best setting it up from my home computer rather than setting it up while at work?
Also if anybody can give me a brief overview as to how Skype works then that would be most appreciated.
I look forward to your responses.

mjdh1957

For e-mail I'd recommend Google mail. Pretty reliable service, no limits on the size of your inbox and you can access it anywhere. Get it from the Google website.

Skype is easy. Download a piece of software from skype.com, get yourself a headset with microphone and you can phone other Skype users for free. It's easy to set up, all you need to do really is choose a user name. You can also add credit and use it to phone landlines, though their rates aren't always that cheap.

IamJen

Skype is wickedly easy. You'll need a microphone, most likely, as the ones built into PCs usually aren't sufficient. You can get one for 20 quid or less though, I'm sure.

I've used Yahoo! mail with little or no trouble for nearly 10 years now. You can use the same ID for email, Yahoo! Groups (which include Freecycle), Messenger, etc. They have a calendar and some other goodies worked into the software too, like being able to make your own startup page. Anyway, I like them.

wotnoshoeseh

mjdh1957 wrote: »

For e-mail I'd recommend Google mail. Pretty reliable service, no limits on the size of your inbox and you can access it anywhere. Get it from the Google website.

Skype is easy. Download a piece of software from skype.com, get yourself a headset with microphone and you can phone other Skype users for free. It's easy to set up, all you need to do really is choose a user name. You can also add credit and use it to phone landlines, though their rates aren't always that cheap.

Does Google mail give you instant messaging functions as well?

Also anybody spot any Skype headsets at a good price recently??

Marty_J

Hey wotnoshoeseh, I'm marrying a wonderful American woman and moving out there myself next year.

Google mail is great, but I'd advise you to wait until you're out there before you open an account. The service is actually called GMail, but due to some copyright issues, it can't be called that in the UK.

If you sign up in the US, you'll get an @gmail.com address, whereas if you sign up in the UK, you'll get an @googlemail.com address, which isn't very widely known in the States (and it's longer too).

Google have a messenger program, and you can also use instant messaging on their website when you're checking your emails without installing any additional software.

ormus

skype headsets from 1.95 at aria technology.
skype phones are dirt cheap these days.
use yahoo or google for an email addy.

DCFC79

ormus wrote: »

skype headsets from 1.95 at aria technology.
skype phones are dirt cheap these days.
use yahoo or google for an email addy.

plus yahoo have instant messaging