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Gmail, if you don’t know, is Google’s email service. I’ve had an account for a while, but till recently had no use for it.

My primary account is still the one provided by my ISP. Sure, I have other email addresses, but the ISP one is what everyone uses. But, to have SPAM filtering on that account I actually pay money. Further, I their webmail interface is just horrid – looks pretty but is very clumsy.

So, inspired by Using Gmail as a Spam Filter, I’m currently using Gmail as a “pass-thru/webmail” service.

Basically, I auto-forward my primary account to Gmail. When I’m away from primary machine (often) I use Gmail to check my mail.
On my primary machine I have the default mail account set to use Google’s POP and SMTP servers.

Some benefits:

• Gmail is now my SPAM filter – works well
• Works very much like IMAP – all my mail is in one accessible and searchable place. Once Outlook downloads to my primary machine, Gmail moves that message out of my inbox
• I now have a backup of my email – with 2Gb and rising of space.
  
• Gmail is an excellent webmail interface
• When I send from my primary computer, because I am using Gmail’s SMTP, it saves a copy of sent messages on Gmail – nice!
• When I send via Gmail, Outlook gets a copy of the sent message

The only downfalls I see:

• If I send from Gmail it displays my gmail address, rather than my primary email address (although I have set Reply-to) which somewhat reduces that problem
• Will some servers think I’m a spammer because I present one email address, but I’m using gmail servers?

So far, the above is a nice solution.

If I know you, and you’d like a Gmail account – drop me a message, and I’ll send you an invite. Why the Gmail service is still invite only – who knows…