eGIX woes, con't -- Help?

I finally got sufficiently tired of waiting for an electronic response that I called eGIX's customer support line.  They told me that the reason I couldn't download my mail was that there was something wrong wtih Eudora Light, and that I should download an up to date version of Eudora.  I was not pleased, (a) I don't WANT to download a new version of Eudora; the one I have does what I want a mail reader to do just fine; (b) the new version of Eudora wants to make you pay for it, and tries to force you with spam; and (c) I suspected that it wouldn't work anyway.  But I went ahead and downloaded the new version of Eudora, and told it to cripple itself rather than spam me, and tried to download my mail.

And, surprise surprise, it fails in exactly the same way as the old version does:  finds the POP server OK, transmits password, server rejects login.

First question:  does anyone reading this have any suggestions for things I might want to try to make Eudora talk to their server?  You probably know as much about the eGIX mail system as their customer support people do.

Second question:  would anyone care to recommend a different email reader I could try?  Requirements:

• free
• does not display images or go to the net for any other HTML content without my specifically asking for it (i.e., clicking on a specific object)
• does know how to decode attachments, but doesn't do anything with them until I specifically say so (i.e., by clicking)
• can be configured to sort mailing list messages into folders
• not Outlook, Outlook Express, or otherwise full of Microsoft holes

Third question:  if I can get off my fat ass and get my own domain where I can hang the web site I was supposed to be putting up six months ago, how much of a problem and how much of an extra expense will it be to have that domain include mail hosting that won't stop working when some pointy haired boss decides that it doesn't matter if one of the most popular email clients doesn't work any more because a web interface to email is the current buzzword-compliant way to get mail anyway?  Do I have to actually admin a machine myself to be sure a normal POP client will continue to work, or are there hosting companies I can trust to do it right?

Related point:  If someone would be willing to lead me through the maze of buying a domain, getting it hosted for a fair price, getting a hello world web page set up, and making sure I know how to upload new content to the web page, I would (a) be abjectly grateful, (b) would certainly spring for several beers or the equivalent, and (c) might pay money, as long as it wasn't TOO much.  I am intimidated enough by the process that I haven't been able to motivate myself to do it on my own.