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I've actually purchased two computers to replace my five year old HP Pavillion laptop running XP SP3.

I bought a new, larger HP Pavillion running Windows 7 Home Premium and a Toshiba netbook Mini running Windows 7 Starter. I would like whatever I use to function on both.

On my current laptop, I use both Outlook Express 6 and Earthlink Mailbox, which appears to be a modified Outlook Express. Both allow me to send the same email to as many as 850 recipients simultaneously. This is done a couple of times a month, as needed, to communicate with our range membership. The Outlook Express is now used for that purpose, having earlier used the Earthlink Mailbox. The Earthlink Mailbox is currently used for personal email, but this will be supplanted by whatever program I end up using.

Whatever I use, the software package cannot itself prevent such bulk distributions. It also must be an off-line client. I already have email addresses in Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail. I don't consider any of them appropriate as the messages and addresses are stored online.

In the distant past, I have used Pegasus and Eudora but do not remember why I stopped. I began using Earthlink TotalAccess in 2003. Recently, Earthlink dropped the browser from TA and it became just an email client. Their FAQs are unclear on whether Mailbox will work under Windows 7. Apparently, they will assist in setting the program up, but will not assist in solving any technical issues afterwards.

I read both good and bad reviews of Thunderbird.

Outlook seems to be the logical choice, but one I'd rather avoid. I date back to 8088 processors and DOS 2.1, but a decade ago I was too ignorant to learn Outlook on the machines at work.

I use Outlook 2003 on my Win 7 HP laptop and have no problems connecting to any POP mail accounts. Win 7 has a built in mail client that I believe was meant as a replacement for Outlook Express, it is not difficult to setup, but takes some time to get used (my wife's laptop is using this setup). I don't think you would have any problems with sending that many emails at one time, I would think it would be a limitation from your Internet provider (mail provider) and not the mail client.

I'm sure others will chime in too.

I did find some instructions on setting up Windows Live Mail to work offline.

The clincher is that I can't have club member's addresses stored online.

So even if the messages are removed from the server, I can't have any situation where my address book is online.

I haven't found an answer to that, yet.

I've been using Thunderbird on multiple computers for years. Yes, it has its quirks but none have been show stoppers for me. I use it to manage multiple e-mail addresses and do admit that is pretty clunky.

That said, I've never tried an 800+ mailing list. I would suspect that the ISP is more likely to stop those than the mail client but have no practical knowledge to back that up.

+1 for Thunderbird. I've been using it for a couple/few years. It isn't a perfect program, but I do love the handling of multiple email addresses all in one app. At least it handles my large mailboxes (I keep too many messages forever) without any problem. Eudora (my previous email app) choked on the amount of data I was trying to store.

Depending upon how geeky you are, you might want to consider Mulberry. Handling a mailing list of that size would be extremely easy. You would create a group, add all the addresses to that group, then send one mail to the group, which would distribute to all the members. Download here Mulberry works fine in offline mode and has both online and offline address capability. If you're interested, we can talk by phone. Just PM me.

Russell wrote:Thunderbird + Mail Merge plugin


https://addons.mozilla.org/af/thunderbi ... ail-merge/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mail merge isn't really an issue since the exact, non-personalized message goes to all 850+ members.

Even Earthlink Mailbox and Outlook Express allowed one large mailing group.

Thunderbird is still in the running, though.

baldeagle wrote:Depending upon how geeky you are, you might want to consider Mulberry. Handling a mailing list of that size would be extremely easy. You would create a group, add all the addresses to that group, then send one mail to the group, which would distribute to all the members. Download here Mulberry works fine in offline mode and has both online and offline address capability. If you're interested, we can talk by phone. Just PM me.

Definitely not geek level. I did find a January discussion thread on their site indicating it should work with Win 7 64 bit.

Forum support only would be a drawback. I do find myself needing to call Earthlink support occasionally.

As long as I'm running my old laptop, there is no urgency. I can even experiment with some of the programs to help me decide.

I appreciate the continued suggestions.

I know you said you tried Outlook in the past but I'd strongly recomend it for a couple of reasons. One is that it's as main steam a you can get for a business class email program. So, anything you learn with it translates to just about any company you walk into. It also means there is a wide base of people to get help from. It also supports setting up multiple email accounts within the same program. The contact book is good and the calendar featurs are good. Much of it's functionality comes with being in a corporate environment but it's still strong as a persoanl email client.

I'd say invest the time in Outlook. Many people will point to other things and there will be a feature here or there that's better but, this is the defacto standard in companies.

jerry_r60 wrote:I know you said you tried Outlook in the past but I'd strongly recomend it for a couple of reasons. One is that it's as main steam a you can get for a business class email program. So, anything you learn with it translates to just about any company you walk into. It also means there is a wide base of people to get help from. It also supports setting up multiple email accounts within the same program. The contact book is good and the calendar featurs are good. Much of it's functionality comes with being in a corporate environment but it's still strong as a persoanl email client.

I'd say invest the time in Outlook. Many people will point to other things and there will be a feature here or there that's better but, this is the defacto standard in companies.

Both the new computers came with the Office 2010 trial on them, so I have a few weeks to play with Outlook before it goes away.

I'll give it another look.

But since I've only got the Student Office 2010 installed, it means spending another $120 for Outlook.

The Student/Teacher version of Office allowed three user licenses. Can someone verify that Outlook 2010 does the same?

Mike1951 wrote:Both the new computers came with the Office 2010 trial on them, so I have a few weeks to play with Outlook before it goes away.

I'll give it another look.

But since I've only got the Student Office 2010 installed, it means spending another $120 for Outlook.

The Student/Teacher version of Office allowed three user licenses. Can someone verify that Outlook 2010 does the same?

I am not sure, if I remember correctly it's licensed for two computers. If you know anyone who goes to a UT system school they can get you the entire suite (Office Pro) for $30.

warhorse10_9 wrote:I am not sure, if I remember correctly it's licensed for two computers. If you know anyone who goes to a UT system school they can get you the entire suite (Office Pro) for $30.

You are correct. I never could find the EULA online, but I asked one of their chat representatives.

Technically, it can be installed on one desktop and one laptop. That means I can install it on both new machines.

Unfortunately, i don't know anyone with access to special pricing. Amazon has Outlook for $117.

OK, I've got both my personal and club identities functional to the point of sending and receiving in Outlook.

I also managed to import both sets of contacts from Outlook Express and Earthlink Mailbox. I will have to reconstruct all of my mailing groups manually.

I would have liked to export/import my Outlook Express messages, but I get a MAPI error when I try. This is exporting on one computer. I think if I copy the data file to the Outlook computer and do an import, I may have better luck.

It's less important to import the messages from Earthlink.

I may never learn the rest of Outlook, but it will probably suffice for email.

Mike1951 wrote:I may never learn the rest of Outlook, but it will probably suffice for email.

The calendar is pretty good too. It's pretty easy and straight forward to use. I use it all the time, you should give it a try.