Need a new email provider, but Seamonkey is not supported. Now What?

[sabeletc]

I received notice from my email provider of 25+ years that they are closing up shop mid-December and I need to find a new email provider. I am not looking forward to notifying everyone I know and everything I subscribe to about a new email address but first, I need to find a new email provider. I am considering TutaMail but when I tried to start an account, I got a screen telling me they don't support my browser.
I am using Seamonkey 2.53.19 on an Asus desktop all-in-1 computer, running Windows. Hopefully, this will help:

Build Configuration
SeaMonkey 2.53.19 - 20240827202154
SeaMonkey source
https://gitlab.com/seamonkey-project/se ... 3_19_final
Platform source
https://gitlab.com/seamonkey-project/se ... 3_19_final

The latest information on building SeaMonkey can be found at https://www.seamonkey-project.org/dev/.
Build platform
Target
i686-pc-mingw32
Build tools
Compiler Version Compiler flags
e:/builds/tools/clang/bin/clang-cl.exe -Xclang -std=gnu99 -m32 19.29.30154 -nologo -wd4091 -D_HAS_EXCEPTIONS=0 -W3 -Gy -Zc:inline -arch:SSE2 -Gw -wd4244 -wd4267 -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Wno-ignored-pragmas -Wno-deprecated-declarations -Wno-invalid-noreturn -we4553
e:/builds/tools/clang/bin/clang-cl.exe -m32 19.29.30154 -Qunused-arguments -Qunused-arguments -TP -nologo -w15038 -wd5026 -wd5027 -Zc:sizedDealloc- -wd4091 -wd4577 -D_HAS_EXCEPTIONS=0 -W3 -Gy -Zc:inline -arch:SSE2 -Gw -wd4251 -wd4244 -wd4267 -wd4800 -wd4595 -wd4065 -Wno-inline-new-delete -Wno-invalid-offsetof -Wno-microsoft-enum-value -Wno-microsoft-include -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Wno-ignored-pragmas -Wno-deprecated-declarations -Wno-invalid-noreturn -Wno-inconsistent-missing-override -Wno-implicit-exception-spec-mismatch -Wno-microsoft-exception-spec -Wno-unused-local-typedef -Wno-ignored-attributes -Wno-used-but-marked-unused -we4553 -D_SILENCE_TR1_NAMESPACE_DEPRECATION_WARNING -GR- -Zi -O2 -Oy-
c:/Users/seabld.sea-vm-win64-2/.cargo/bin/rustc.exe 1.73.0
Configure options
'MOZILLABUILD=C:\mozilla-build\' --enable-application=comm/suite --target=i686-pc-mingw32 --enable-update-channel=release --disable-tests MOZILLA_OFFICIAL=1 --enable-optimize=-O2 'CC=clang-cl ' 'CXX=clang-cl ' LINKER=lld-link.exe --enable-irc --enable-dominspector --enable-js-shell --with-l10n-base=e:/builds/rel-253/l10n-release --with-google-location-service-api-keyfile=e:/builds/data/google-api.key --with-google-safebrowsing-api-keyfile=e:/builds/data/google-api.key --with-crashreporter-url=https://seamonkey_project.bugsplat.com/post/bp/crash/postBP.php MAKE=c:/mozilla-build/bin/mozmake.EXE

I am the ultimate end-user. I am in my 70s, learned Fortran in college, which is pretty useless. I started on PCs with AutoCAD in DOS, a digitizer tablet and puck, moved onto Windows, drop downs and a mouse. Finally decided that drawing by hand with a pencil on paper was easier and more efficient. At this point, simple is the only thing I can deal with. I use Seamonkey because the email function is built into it and I don't need to use an additional program for it. If I try to change email programs, I am afraid that I will lose my emails. That happened once before when I tried to update it. As it is, I am not sure how to download the folders from my webmail other than the received emails, such as the "Sent" and "Draft" folders.

I do not want to use Gmail, I already have a Gmail account and it is full of SPAM so I only go into it about every 3 or 4 months to clean out the garbage, usually in the thousands of emails at a time. I looked at Proton Mail and also got the "unsupported" notice. Tuta looks like a safe option at a reasonable price but I am not sure what my next step should be. Do I need to download a completely different email program? If I do that, can I still save my Seamonkey email folders? I am looking at a deadline a month from now.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me.

Sabel

[sabeletc]

BTW, when I say "end user," I mean that I don't program, I don't speak "Geek," I avoid installing apps on my phone, my tablet and my computer. I don't use my phone, my tablet or my computer to listen to music or watch TV or movies. I don't "Stream." In fact, I don't bother to watch TV or movies anymore. I try to avoid buying through Amazon, I do not do any online banking. I am a "Ludite" in many ways.
In other words, you need to give me simple instructions that are in plain English, spell out everything. You are dealing with someone who gets easily frustrated by computer glitches.

Sabel

[WojtekH]

Tuta and Proton encrypt messages, and standard email programs do not support this encryption.
You have to use special applications.

Tuta

Can I use a third-party email app like Thunderbird?

No, this is not possible for security reasons. Tuta does not support the use of third-party email clients or the protocols IMAP/POP3/SMTP as we cannot guarantee end-to-end encryption of your data. Instead, Tuta offers email desktop clients for Linux, macOS and Windows as well as a web client and apps for Android and iOS. We aim to provide all required functionalities with our own apps, for instance, offline access to your encrypted data is possible with our apps.

https://tuta.com/support/howto#imap


Proton

Proton Mail Bridge is an app that integrates your Proton Mail Account with desktop email clients that use the IMAP and SMTP protocols.
Bridge gives you the security and privacy benefits of Proton Mail within the convenience of your favorite email client.

https://proton.me/support/clients-supported-bridge

[LIMPET235]

Hi,
As this is not really a Support question, it's being moved to the Tech. forum.

Thank you.

[OldBrowserInUse]

first, I need to find a new email provider. I am considering TutaMail but when I tried to start an account, I got a screen telling me they don't support my browser.

If you want to keep using Seamonkey instead of some other program, you should look for a provider that offers either POP3 or IMAP, and also SMTP access (these are the standards for email protocols that various client apps implement). Otherwise you will have to either use it in a webmail interface, or install their app. Tuta Mail does not seem to be using those, hence the need for their app or the webmail version. Looking at their site, Seamonkey does indeed have trouble with it so if you want to use their service you would have to use some other browser for the webmail access and/or install their app.

You could try some other providers. A partial list of possibilities is at https://prxbx.com/email/ and another list with some snarky but possibly useful commentary is at https://digdeeper.neocities.org/articles/email

Regardless of which provider you choose, you will want to make some backups of your current email data as well as other details like your address book, while you still have a little time to get this done. Details of how to do this will depend on how much stuff you want to keep (Drafts, Spam folder, Deleted emails, Sent messages, etc) and whether the accounts in question are set up as POP vs IMAP, and also on who the provider is (some make this easier than others). You could also ask your current provider for any suggestions they might have about exporting your data. With them closing up shop there are bound to be many other customers with the same questions.

You should also think about whether or not you want to migrate that stuff to the new provider (a copy of the above mentioned backups might make that easier), or just keep a final copy on your computer(s) while letting the new provider handle only the new emails going forward (in which case you might want a backup of your backup).

[sabeletc]

Thank you for your help. I will see if my son can help me understand all those suggestions and get me headed in the right direction.

As I said..."Ludite.

Sabel

[jc1]

The first item to point on is
-that if an email provider doesn't support any of those email protocols but just offers a web interface, he's the one who can look, watch and store all the data flowing between your computer's web interface and his servers port before or after sending to your address.

The 2nd item is:
Their transport might be encrypted by SSH/TLS but this encryption ends behind the addressed ports of your providers' computer.

There is no chance for you to see what happens with them afterwards (besides eventually the confirmation of the receiver). The only way to prevent useful interception known to me is end-to-end encryption with 'sufficient strength', that is length of keys. However, it depends on your mail receivers' capabilities to handle such a garbled text flawless and on your mail providers' goodwill to pass these messages which he might intercept but neither read nor understand.

[DanRaisch]

JC1 your security concern is rather misplaced. With any email provider, without end to end encryption, the provider has access to your data simply by the fact that your data sits on their server. That has nothing to do with the protocol they offer to transfer your data to an email client (POP or IMAP) or to send from an email client to their outgoing server (SMTP).

[sabeletc]

Well, I got the problem solved by having my son set up Firefox on my computer so I could then get Tuta to work. Thank you, all, for the assistance. I am fairly confident in the security offered by Tuta.com, at least I think certain it is safer than Gmail or Yahoo. I really just want to cut down on the scams/spam/phishing/porn offers. Since I need to find a new email provider anyway, I might as well go for a deluxe model.

Ahhh, for the good old days of CompuServe....life was simpler....except for the " Blue Screen of Death" on DOS.