Cable modem - Secure mail

[basher584]

I just got a cable modem last week and I am worried about security.  (I
use www.pointman.org's pm-firewall script for a firewall).

>From what I read around is that anybody in my "neighborhood" could sniff
the network.  So I am worried about getting my mail from my old ISP
through their POP-email server (as the password is the same as the
dial-up (out of my control)).  Is this worry justified?

What have people been doing to securely get their mail?

I was thinking about doing port forwarding with my web host using
'ssh'.  Has anyone done this before?

Thanks,
Benjamin Noggle
Basher584