Why should I sign up for Mailshell?

Mailshell's patent-pending Intelligent Email system lets you:

• Stop spam now and forever. Use Mailshell's advanced spam filtering technology to weed out spam from your current email address so you only get the messages you want. By setting our adjustable filters to the "Aggressive" level, we'll block up to 99% of all spam you receive.
  
  
• Get the most personalized and flexible email available. Get your-name@mailshell.com as a spam-free email address and use @your-name.com to create disposable addresses. Check your email from any computer or use Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape, and other popular email clients.



• Keep your email safe and private. Send and receive all the email you want without revealing your private email address, block viruses and hidden tracking devices, send encrypted messages so only the intended person can read it, and track your messages so you know exactly when they are received and opened.



• There's no risk. Mailshell's Premium Service comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose by signing up now!

What is the Mailshell Premium Service?

Mailshell's Premium Service is the first true Intelligent Email System and includes many features to help you stop spam, protect your email, and more:

• Stop existing spam: You can clean out spam from up to three of your POP, IMAP, AOL, Hotmail, or Yahoo! accounts and block up to 99% of all spam you receive by using our "Aggressive" filter setting.



• Get email where you want: You'll have complete control over where you read messages—send different messages to your work email, home email, cell phone, PDA, etc.



• Keep your computer safe: Use our filters to screen out viruses, unwanted images, and hidden tracking devices from senders you don't trust.



• More than enough storage: Get 50 MB to save all your emails.



• No ads: You won't have any extra ads cluttering your email.



• Use your own name: You can use @"your-name".com to create disposable addresses. It's simple and easy to remember.



• Track and encrypt messages: Know when recipients have opened your messages and send password- or PGP-encrypted messages for extra security.



• Tons of other great features: Send attachments, point your Mailshell domain to an existing website or IP address, remove Hotmail ads, and much more.



• Read on your desktop: Mailshell Premium integrates fully with POP- and IMAP-capable email clients like Outlook and Eudora, letting you download and store messages locally if you want.

The Premium Service costs $34.95 a year and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. To sign up, click here.

What is Mailshell's 30-day money-back guarantee?

Mailshell guarantees that if you sign up for our Premium Service and aren't completely satisfied, all you have to do is delete your account within 30 days of registering and we'll refund your money. It's that simple!

What do I get with the free trial service?

Mailshell's free trial service gives you a Mailshell address and subdomain (e.g., joe@mailshell.com and joe.mailshell.com), 10 MB of storage, one forwarding address, one-click subscribe/unsubscribe through the Special Offers directory, and basic email functionality (send/receive messages, folders, address book, etc.).

For the first 30 days after you sign up, you will also be able to use several Premium-only features: Clean Existing Email Addresses (to retrieve and filter messages from your other accounts to Mailshell), Virus Protection (to block viruses and hidden tracking devices), Secure Email (to send password- and PGP-encrypted messages), Track Delivery, (to know when recipients have opened your messages), the Email Provider Hider (to remove Hotmail tags from outgoing messages), sending attachments with outgoing messages, and no Mailshell-inserted ads in your email. To keep those features after the trial period has ended, you will need to upgrade to the Premium Service.

Does Mailshell's service affect my existing email account?

Signing up for Mailshell's service will not affect your existing email account unless you choose to have it do so—however, since one of the main benefits of a Mailshell account is the ability to clean spam from your existing email, we highly recommend that you use Mailshell to retrieve and filter messages from that account:

• If you have the Premium Service, you can retrieve messages directly from up to three other POP, IMAP, AOL, Hotmail, or Yahoo! email accounts to one of your Mailshell addresses in order to use Mailshell filtering. You can set this up when you register or by using the Clean Existing Email feature once your account is set up.



• If you have the free trial service, you will be able to use the Premium features for the first 30 days. After that, you can still take advantage of Mailshell filtering for existing addresses that allow auto-forwarding. For example, if you want to filter your Yahoo! email, you could create a yahoo@your-name.com email address, then set your Yahoo! email to forward to yahoo@your-name.com. You will now receive all of your Yahoo! email at Mailshell and have all the benefits of Mailshell filtering.

Is there a fee for using Mailshell?

Mailshell's Premium Service is $34.95 a year and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can also sign up for a free trial, which includes basic functionality and 30-day access to Premium features.

Could the cost of the Premium Service increase in the future? If so, will I have to pay more?

Prices can change at any time. Your price will be locked in for whatever term you have paid for and can be extended at any time at the most current rates.

How do I sign up for a Mailshell account?

Signing up is easy! To sign up for the Premium Service, go to the front door, enter the username and password you want, and follow the step-by-step registration process to set up filtering for your existing email account and choose where you want to get your messages. To sign up for a free trial, go to the front door and click the "FREE 30-day trial!" link under the standard sign-up fields.

If I don't want Mailshell to start cleaning my existing email right away, can I set that up later?

Yes. During the registration process, you will be asked if you want to clean spam from your existing email address. If you do, you will need to provide your email address and password so Mailshell can retrieve and filter the messages; if you don't, you can skip that step and set it up later by using the "Clean Existing Email" feature.

Please note: If you are signing up for the free trial service, we highly recommend that you set this feature up during registration in order to try it out, because after the 30-day trial period has ended it will be turned off.

How does Mailshell stop spam?

Mailshell's advanced spam-filtering technology rates incoming email based on the probability that it is spam, using proprietary spam-filtering technology in addition to standard anti-spam techniques. Each message is checked against known good commercial senders, known black-listed spammers, common spam signatures, users' responses, and other criteria to compute the likelihood that it is spam. The system also relies on a robust, proprietary White List of more than 10,000 known legitimate commercial senders to ensure that legitimate email passes through without compromising overall filtering. By using the "Aggressive" setting, Mailshell will stop up to 99% of all spam sent to you.

Mailshell offers several different ways to stop spam:

• The easiest way is to retrieve and filter messages from your existing email account: Mailshell's advanced technology will weed out the spam and only send the email you want to your Inbox. You can set this up during the registration process or by using the Clean Existing Email feature once your account is set up.
  
  
• If you don't want to use Mailshell with your existing email account, you can just start giving out your spam-free Mailshell address (your-name@mailshell.com) instead of your current address. You can even forward messages to your current address so you can keep using the same account you're used to.
  
  
• You can also use Mailshell's advanced features, like creating disposable addresses @your-name.com to identify and block sources of spam without affecting the rest of your email. (Click here to see an example of this process!).
  
  

Can I use Mailshell to stop spam coming to my current email address?

Yes! You can easily take advantage of Mailshell's Intelligent Email filtering for your current email. There are two ways to do this:

• If you have the Premium Service, you can retrieve messages directly from up to three POP, IMAP, AOL, Hotmail, or Yahoo! accounts to Mailshell in order to use Mailshell's advanced filtering system. (Free trial users will have access to this feature for 30 days.) You can set this up during the registration process or by using the Clean Existing Email feature once your account is set up.
  
  
• If you have the free trial service or don't want to retrieve messages directly, you can also forward your current email address to a Mailshell address. For example, if you want to clean spam from your Yahoo! email you could create a yahoo@your-name.com disposable email address, then set your Yahoo! email to forward to yahoo@your-name.com. (Many ISPs and email services let you forward email to a different address, although some do not.) You will now receive all of your Yahoo! email at Mailshell and have all the benefits of Mailshell filtering.

Will Mailshell really stop up to 99% of spam I receive?

Yes! By setting our adjustable filters to the "Aggressive" level, Mailshell will stop up to 99% of all spam you receive.

How does Mailshell compare with other email providers?

Mailshell offers a complete service for intelligent email management, including many features not available from standard email providers. You can see a comparison chart by clicking here.

Can I keep using my current email address?

Yes! If you want Mailshell to clean spam from your current email address, you can continue receiving messages at that address through Mailshell (although you won't be able to send from it).

If you don't want to use Mailshell to clean spam from your current email address and would rather just give out your spam-free Mailshell address (your-name@mailshell.com) and disposable addresses (@your-name.com), you can have those addresses forwarded to your current address. You can even reply to the forwarded messages and send new messages without compromising your privacy by turning on Mailshell's Email Address Redirection feature in Options—your actual address can be stripped from the "From" field and replaced with the appropriate Mailshell address. (For example, you reply to a message from your Yahoo! account so that the recipient will see the message as coming from a Mailshell address rather than the Yahoo! address.)

Do I have to download or install anything to use Mailshell?

Nope! Mailshell is an entirely web-based service—there is nothing to download, nothing to install, and you don't need to worry about upgrades or patches because we are working to improve our service all the time.

How much storage space do I get?

Users with the Premium Service have 50 MB of storage space to use for messages saved on Mailshell. Users with the free trial service have 10 MB.

How strong is Mailshell's technical system?

Mailshell uses multiple custom-built servers running an open-source OS and highly-scalable, enterprise-class mail software. User data on the servers is stored on mirrored RAID sub-systems to ensure integrity, availability, and fast access. All servers are monitored to ensure maximum uptime and performance.

The servers are housed in a world-class facility with raised floors, HVAC temperature control systems, seismically braced racks, fire suppression systems, fully redundant power on the premises, and multiple backup generators.

The facility is connected to the network backbone via dedicated and redundant OC-3, OC-12, and OC-48 fiber trunks from multiple sources for the highest level of reliability. Close proximity to major ISPs and Tier-1 providers ensure maximize connectivity rate and overall performance.

Can I use an email client (e.g., Outlook) to send and receive email?

Yes! Premium users can use any POP- or IMAP-capable email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Messenger, etc.) to access their Mailshell messages. For more information, click here.

Does Mailshell provide Internet access?

No, Mailshell does not provide Internet access.

What is Mailshell's privacy policy?

Privacy is our business—Mailshell does not generally share member information with third parties without permission. Please refer to our privacy policy for a complete explanation of cases where that information may need to be divulged.

What are Mailshell's terms of service?

You must agree to the terms of service before using Mailshell. To read our complete terms of service, click here.

What if I have more questions?

More information is available in our full help guide. If you cannot find the answer to your question there, contact the Mailshell Support Desk; your question should be answered within two business days.