No More Junk Email

One thing every tech savvy homeschooler should try to do is keep their email account private.  I can't count the number of times I have been in the middle of: checking out a website, sampling free software, or downloading an e-book, only to be asked for my email address.  Ugh.

If I was to blithely comply with all these requests to surrender my email address, I know that my inbox would soon be filled to the brim with junk. In other words, I would be feasting on SPAM for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Yuck.

Luckily, there is a simple way to get around most requests for forking over your personal email address - start using mailinator.  A free email service, whose slogan is - "Let Them Eat Spam!".

Mailinator is totally different from most email hosts in that any email account you set up with them is only temporary.  And when I say temporary, I mean it will only be around for a few hours.  This makes mailinator the perfect program to get a single-use email address.

Here's how it works.

Say you are in the middle of registering for a LOGIN at a website you just want to check out.  Instead of typing in your real email address, you can simply create a mailinator email account on the fly.  Your account name can be pretty much anything you want (25 characters or less), as long as it ends with the extension of:  @mailinator.com

Here are some examples of possible names:

• youaremysunshine@mailinator.com
• whatever1975@mailinator.com

What is especially cool, is that even though the name is fake - the inbox for your account is totally real. This allows you to access any mail in your in-box at the mailinator website.  This feature is especially helpful for when you are signing up at one of those websites where to you required to click on a "confirmation link" contained in an email to "complete the registration process".

What I really like about mailinator is that there is no registration or account required.  Even better... the service is absolutely free.

P.S.  I have just learned of Guerrilla Mail, another free web-based service that allows you to create and use temporary email accounts.  This service works a little bit differently than mailinator, because the program assigns you a specifically named email address and it is only good for one hour (although it can be renewed for one additional hour).  At Guerrilla Mail, they even give you a fun game to play (aka Tetris) while you are waiting for your emails to arrive.

Personally, I like mailinator better, but it's always nice to know that there are additional options... just in case you need them.