<p>We're up to 18 major providers of free email. This must be some sort of big business.</p><p>OK, the "free" is a "definite sort of." Basically, you're trading the free service for becoming an advertising target, with banner ads on your screen and plenty of text ads in your text box. Rest assured that without the ads, there would be no "free" email.</p><p>Then again, some providers are selling your address to legitimate spam outfits. Sometimes, you sign up and the spam instantly begins to flow.</p><p>On the plus side, a number of the freebies offer unlimited space to store messages. You often do not find that with the email service of your Internet access provider.</p><p><a href="http://www.enterprisenews.com/lifestyle/columnists/x470405412/On-Computers-It-s-free-email-Well-not-quite">Keep reading...</a></p>