Once e-mail becomes an essential part of your life, you will want to check it often. With a Web-based e-mail account, you can do it from any computer connected to the Net, anywhere on earth. There's no need to lug around a laptop when you're traveling, because you can access your e-mail from a computer at a friend's house, a hotel business center or at one of the thousands of cybercafés that have sprung up around the world. (Coffee and e-mail make a potent brew.) For a list of global addresses, visit Cybercafés.com.
Another benefit of Web-based e-mail is that you can keep the same address for life. Once you have an account, even if you change companies or switch Internet service providers, the address remains yours.
How It Works
With client-based e-mail, like Outlook Express or Eudora, a software program running on your computer accesses a remote mail server. With Web-based e-mail, to send and receive messages, you access a website, so all you need is Internet access and a web browser. Here's how to access your e-mail:
First, log on to the site by entering your account name and password. Now you can read your messages, send replies, forward messages, and send and view attachments. Most services offer online address books to store your e-mail addresses and contact information. You can also set up folders to manage your messages.
One thing to keep in mind is that many free Web-based e-mail services limit the amount of storage that they provide. For instance, Yahoo! Mail has a 4.0 MB limit. If you receive loads of mail, particularly if it includes attachments like photos, you will have to delete them periodically to stay below the limit or pay for additional storage.
Setting Up an Account
Establishing a new e-mail account takes only a few minutes and couldn't be easier. You'll have to provide information about yourself and choose an account name and password. Your account name or ID becomes part of your e-mail address. If you open a Hotmail account and choose "wiseguy" as your ID, your address becomes "wiseguy@hotmail.com." Account names can use letters and numbers, such as "professor2000," can't contain any spaces, and are limited in length, depending on the service.
Hundreds of websites now offer free Web-based e-mail, so how do you decide which one to go with? Think about this: We expect the postal service to deliver our letters reliably every day and we trust it to keep our communications private. As you come to depend more on e-mail for business and personal communications, having reliable, trustworthy access is critical. You will have to evaluate each service on its track record.
A few services stand out for their longevity, reliability and friendliness. Our top recommendations are: Hotmail, part of the Microsoft Network
Mail.com, which offers a choice of addresses, such as europe.com and doctor.com
Yahoo! Mail, from the popular portal
Check Messages Anywhere
A useful feature of Web-based e-mail is that you can use it to check your other e-mail accounts. (This works for mail servers that use the POP3 protocol.) To do this, you'll need the following information:
The name of your mail server
Your account name
Your password
One way to find out this information is to check the settings in your desktop e-mail program. For instance, with Outlook Express, click on Tools on the Menu bar, then Accounts, and then click on the Mail tab. Now highlight the account name by clicking on it once, and then click on the Properties button. Finally, click on the Servers tab to see the mail server and account names. If this sounds too complicated, contact the technical support folks at your ISP.
Armed with this information, here's how to configure Hotmail:
Click on Options on the toolbar.
Under Additional Options, click on POP Mail.
Enter the account information for up to four accounts.
If you want to leave your messages on your primary mail server so you can download them later on your PC, check the appropriate box.
Configure Yahoo! Mail like this:
Click on Options in the left-hand box.
Under Mail Management, click on Check Other (POP) Mail.
Click on the Add Mail Server button.
Enter the account information for up to two accounts.
If you want to leave your messages on your primary mail server so you can download them later on your PC, check the appropriate box.
