Ruchi Sharma, who works for an MNC in Mumbai, knows the pain of losing her ID only too well. “I forgot the password of my primary email address, and the information they needed for its retrieval. They, then, wanted, me to recollect all the names on my address book. That was ridiculous."

She dumped her service provider. But it was easier said than done. "Since I didn’t have a copy of my address book, it was painful informing people that I couldn’t access my mail any longer."

But what was worse is she also lost a lot of precious correspondence "including the last mail from a friend two days before his death, which I had seen but not read".

"It was a shattering experience," she says. "Now I have noted down my password in a secure place, and have a copy of my address book on my hard disk."

More recently, when she got married, Ruchi wanted an email ID that reflected her new name. "It was much simpler this time though. I just sent a mail to everyone in my address book about my new email ID, and kept monitoring my old one for a while. I still log into it, but less frequently."

Though Ruchi’s case is exceptional, many people are forced to change their email addresses for a variety of reasons. Like Ajay Bhatt, who began using email only with his first job. "Then I had no concept of web-based email, and separating private and official correspondence. I received all my email on my office address."

It became a major problem for him when he quit. "Unknown to the senders my personal mail was disappearing into a black hole. And they were wondering why I was not replying."

Now, he keeps his private and official correspondence separate. "I use a web-based email service with a forward facility for my private mail. So, I get them in my office inbox, and don’t have to check two accounts. When I quit I will just stop forwarding my email."

Milind Deshpande, who runs a process house in Mumbai, recommends not using the email address provided by your ISP as your primary one. "I receive most of my mail on my Web-based account to act as a hedge against a switch of ISP. I don’t want to be stuck to my ISP because all my mail comes to that account."

But a number of people choose to - and often find joy - in changing their email IDs and providers. They do it for fun, convenience, cost, storage space, and even the uniqueness of an ID.

Arun Roy, a marketing professional, says he switched from Hotmail to an official account at work: "I got so hooked that I started using it for personal mail too. Since it’s a POP3 account it’s faster than Web-based email. Also, I get additional features like importing address books and choosing templates."

Services that are free, fast and simple attract people. Spam repels them. "If I start receiving too much junk, I change my mail ID," complains Arun.

Zubin Fitter who has many accounts says: "What I look for is something fast, accessible from everywhere, with large storage space and a default chat application that is universally popular, so I don't have to register for another service. A lot of Hotmail users actually registered because of MSN chat." He also wishes for an attachment feature that's more dynamic, "like click and drag from your desktop into the body of your email message."

Another factor is identity. Vikash Shangari, an engineer, decided to move from excitemail.com to mail.com because the latter offered an @engineer.com mail extension.

Next come aesthetics: "I find the Yahoo Mail interface very cluttered -- too many advertisements, banners, etc. But I still keep it only because it’s my oldest account and most people write to me there," says Vaishali Kaul, a marketing professional.

Bells and whistles are only interesting if the basic service is sound. "Rediffmail is my favourite because its fast, simple, and has more value addition due to the language option. I can reach out to more people," says Vaishali.

Another surefire way of losing customers is to charge. Usa.net lost a horde of subscribers when they went paid. "The value addition in paid services is not worth it," says Arun, "I don't need a mail account that offers SMS or chat facilities, I can get that anyway from other free services." Zubin too would not pay for an email service even if it offered larger storage space, simply because "all this time it's been free!"

Exceptions do exist. "I'm looking for a paid email service with lots of space and POP3 access as I get many attachments and huge files up to 1 MB. I like my mailbox to have just mail - not news and content," says Vikash.

The most common snag remains the one of importing your address book manually from your old account to the new one, and informing your contacts about the change of address. You could miss out on some important communication in the process.

Free POP-3 email services: -- E-OmniNet -- Freemark -- HotPOP -- Howlermonkey -- iMailBox -- Inbox.lv -- MyRealBox -- NewMail Free IMAP email services: -- MyRealBox -- NewMail -- NewMail Resources: -- Email Addresses -- Guide Types

"I believe that an email ID will become the identity of the person and one will face the same problems they might face while changing residence," says Raman Rangaswamy.

Vivek Sharma has different email IDs for different purposes like newsletters, free stuff, etc. Moreover, when he was in the US, he wanted an ID with 'India' in it and so he switched to Indiatimes. He dislikes the registration process, though: "I don't like to fill out long forms with irrelevant questions. All they should ask for is a unique ID. Keep it to a minimum."

"I prefer an IMAP service," says Rakhi Gupta. "I can read headers and choose whether I want to download the mail. It saves on network bandwidth too."

Apart from issues of space and speed, some also want their account to be with a popular service that's easy to remember. "I would not go to something like Lovermail, Chequemail etc," says Raman Rangaswamy.

So what, then, makes an ideal email service? Here's a user wishlist.

• Lightning fast
• Good folder management
• Multiple email signatures
• Sorting facility
• New mail notification sent to your desktop, pager, cell phone
• Multiple auto-responders
• An intelligent spellchecker
• Customised templates
• Emoticons in the body of your mail
• Allowing your contacts to see your calendar details, so they know which on days you are free.