Think of this as a shortcut guide to getting along in the modern world. It is aimed at anyone from my mother to far younger people (sorry mum) running small businesses. It is UK based, but much of it can be applied in other parts of the world too.
There is some bias here. If you read my bio in the About page above, you’ll know that I run an email company, so that side of things will definitely be biased. I also dislike most things Microsoft, which will be explained in a separate article.
This article won’t be full of choices. I’m basically telling you what I choose to do and why, and if you copy me you’ll be starting from a decent place. It will likely evolve over time as I think of new things or, god-forbid, change my mind about something. It’ll also be quite long, so I hope you don’t mind a bit of reading – maybe I should narrate it into a youtube or tiktok video so that it’s more ‘readable’! Anyway, brace yourselves – here goes…
Desktop/Laptop Computer
If there’s one thing I wish I told my mum many years ago (I did tell her, but not forcefully enough), it was to buy a Mac. They may be more expensive than a traditional PC, but boy do they save a lot of hassle. Apple know how to do user interface software, you don’t have to install nasty anti-virus software, you get a word processor (Pages), spreadsheet (Numbers), an equivalent of Powerpoint (Keynote) and a great Email client program called Mail.
I know it’s probably too late for you. But please consider it next time you need a new PC. There are a few sections in this article that would be very short for a Mac owner…
Smartphone
This can be a bit more tricky. If you have a Mac, the logical thing would be to get an iPhone. Trouble is it’s not a very cheap option as this is where Apple make most of their profit. I started with iPhones, and then moved to Android, first with a Samsung device, and then I moved on to a brand called OnePlus. There are so many brands out there that are good that I can’t possibly advise on this front. However, choosing to use Android rather than iPhone does present some challenges.
Assuming you have an Android phone, here is the essential software that you need.
- Thunderbird (for email)
- DAVx5 (for calendar and contact syncing) $
DAVx5 is a low cost CalDAV/CardDAV syncing tool that will keep your calendars and contacts in sync with your provider (hopefully my company) and your PC.
If you have an iPhone, then you’re in luck as it comes with a great Mail program built in, plus calendar and contact syncing, so you don’t need to download or pay for anything extra.
Tablet
I use an iPad, and would strongly recommend doing this rather than a Android based one. They are more expensive, but not by a massive amount, and if you plan on using it as a substitute for a computer, it is the best choice.
Broadband/Fibre
It amazes me when I see what the big providers are getting away with. Rates going up in line with inflation + 3% ever year! That’s just crazy, and is a complete con. Coupled with that, you have the joy of dealing with an overseas call centre and multiple levels of support technician before you get to one who actually knows what he/she/they are talking about.
The solution is simple. Go to Zen. Back in the early 2000s when I ran an Internet Service Provider, Zen were one of our most respected competitors. Unlike the rest of us, they never sold out, and continue to run as an independent company to this day. Prices are reasonable, and they haven’t outsourced their tech support.
Email Services
This is where some personal bias comes in. We at The Very Good Email Company have been focussed solely on running reliable email services for over 20 years. So please come to us for your service. A mailbox costs less than £2/mon and is an essential part of your internet life. Don’t rely on an email address provided by your Broadband provider. It is a great way of them tying you in to their service.
When you lose access to your email, it can be very traumatic as so many other things depend on it. Some things that you don’t even realise may use your email address as a security measure in case you forget your password.
There are free services available, such as Gmail. They are ok, but there are some issues you need to be aware of:
- Your data could be used for their search algorithms and advertising
- It’s not that free – as you use more, and other Google services, you’ll eventually need to start paying them for storage space
- They are big and ugly enough to do ugly things.
On that final note, a cautionary tale. At some point in 2024 Gmail stopped accepting emails from people who didn’t have SPF setup correctly. If you were a Gmail user, suddenly you were unable to receive emails from many of your contacts. If you weren’t and had your own domain, you were then wondering what the hell SPF was, and why it was your problem. You then had to remember how to configure your domain (something you probably hadn’t touched in many years) to add some obscure config to it.
This is one of the reasons why I would strongly recommend hosting your domain name with your email provider.
Email Software
If you have a Mac, life is simple. Use Mac Mail. It’s free and works just great. Easy to configure.
For everyone else, try to avoid using Outlook. There have been many versions of Outlook, each seemingly more complicated than the previous. The latest version seems to not actually work at all with third party email providers (apart from the biggest ones of course), unless you put it in Classic mode. At our business we spend hours every week trying to support people with Outlook issues. We can’t very well tell them to go to Microsoft for support, although we’d like to, so we end up doing Microsoft’s work for them.
So my recommendation is Thunderbird. It works on Windows, Mac and Android phones. Simple to set up, and works great. Totally free of charge, and will also handle shared Calendars & Contacts.
Domain Names
It’s great to have a personal or business domain name. It means you can have your own website, and an email address or two that isn’t tied to a specific provider.
Let the people who handle your email look after your domain names. While it may be tempting to sign-up for the cheapest from the usual suspects (123-reg, fasthosts etc), you’ll then be self-managing. That’s fine to start with but when you need to make a change in 4 years time, you may not remember how to do so! We’ve particularly seen this recently with the Gmail SPF issue (see above).
Website Hosting
On this front, you need to be careful. I’m sure you’ve all seen the adverts offering super-cheap hosting. Mostly it’s a bit of a con with some crazy discount of 80% or more in the first year. They know it’s hard to move once you’re setup, so they hook you in with a cheap entry fee and then they’ve got you for years.
We recently started offering basic WordPress web hosting to our customers due to demand as some were made rather homeless by their existing supplier. We buy the hosting service from a company called Krystal, and it is them I would recommend for all levels of hosting.
If you’re demands aren’t massive, come to us at The Very Good Email Company and we can help, otherwise, Krystal come highly recommended.
Here are some examples of basic WordPress web hosting (as of 28th July 2025) so you can see how the ‘con’ works with the bigger providers:
- Very Good Email Company: £49.90pa
- Krystal: £70pa
- Fasthosts: 49p/mon for 6 months, then £8/mon (£96pa)
- 123-reg: £47.88 first year then £143.87
Calendars & Contacts
If you’re using a Mac, it’s all built in and works with existing standards. For PC users, please see the section on Email Software and download Thunderbird.
iPad/iPhone all built in as well, and Android users need DAVx5 as detailed in the Smartphone section.
So what is this all about anyway. Well, you need to be storing your contacts and calendars in the ‘cloud’, so they are backed up and synced between your various devices.
With our email service and many others, you can do this, and also share calendars with colleagues and family. They use a protocols called CalDAV and CardDAV. These are industry standards, so obviously won’t work with Microsoft Outlook!
Office Software
If you bought a Mac, then it’s all included, so relax.
For those with a PC, I would recommend installing Libre Office rather than paying Microsoft rather a lot of money each month for their software.
File Sharing & Backups
For this there is one simple solution. Install Dropbox asap. It’s free for up to 2GB of storage. It allows you to share folders with friends and colleagues, keeps your data backed up, and syncs between all your devices.
Make sure all your working documents are in a Dropbox folder and you may never have to worry about backing up again.
Notes App
If you have a Mac and an iPhone, then the inbuilt Notes app isn’t at all bad. However, you’ll then be fully committed to iPhones and you’ll miss out on one of my favourite bits of software.
It’s really quite simple, and it’s called Simplenote. It works on everything, so will work for everyone. You can invite others to share a note by just typing in their email address.
Here’s a typical use. My wife, Katie, might ask me to pop to the shop for some groceries on the way back from golf. She will simply make a checklist in Simplenote on her computer and tag me in it. I then go round the shop with my phone ticking off the items as I go. Simple, and brilliant. And totally free.
Business Comms
Photos
If you’re happy to stay with Apple throughout, then use the Apple Photos app.
Because I have an Android phone, I use Google Photos. This enables me to take photos on my phone and automatically upload them to Google Photos where I can later view, organise etc on my computer.
Artificial Intelligence
A lot of my job over the last 30 years has involved me ‘Googling’ for stuff on behalf of people. If you’re on any online forums you’ll probably be fed up of new members coming in and asking the same questions time and time again when they could have simply searched for the answer. If you have a question, it has almost certainly already been answered, so Google before asking.
The world has moved on a step with Ai though. I rarely Google for stuff now. I just ask my favourite Ai, which is either claude.ai or Grok. Not only will they do the searching for you, they will also present a well worded reply.
If you’re not using Ai yet, you should give it a go. My mother-in-law recently asked if it could do a risk assessment for using robots for surgery in the NHS (she used to work in a Hospital) and Claude generated a multi-page document in about a minute that might have taken a day or more from someone experienced in the field.
See Claude the English Teacher for a good example of how to make use of Ai.
Very interesting. A lot went over my head. Don’t know how to synch iPhone & iPad to Mac laptop , which rarely gets used , but I have about 14000 photos that I would dearly love to save to iCloud , along with my music, but have no idea how. Maybe in September you could sort me out with that (& also the cameras etc to buy and set up for security) Then I will owe you and Katie a special dinner somewhere.
I like what you are doing here xx
great stuff, and an interesting read. my only thought is that ’em client’ is a great free (for domestic use anyway) outlook replacement – my non-geeky customers find it much more user friendly (or maybe familiar) than thunderbird. keep up the good work.
EM Client does look like a nice piece of software. However, the free version appears quite limited – non-commercial use only and max of 2 email accounts.