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Email Accounts and Email HostingIn order to use email you need first to get an email account. There are two types of account: free (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo), and paid accounts. I only recommend the use of free accounts for temporary use. Paid accounts come in two main types:
Dedicated Email Accounts and HostingUntil recently this capability was only available to large businesses because of the cost now web hosting providers which always offered email hosting as part of the package have started to offer email hosting as a service on its own. As an example 1and1 uk offer email hosting for £0.70 ( 70 pence per month). Here are some of the features:
It has the same capabilities as the email hosting that comes combined with the basic hosting package (£1.99 per month). see below The idea is probably to attract customers that have been put of because they only wanted email and not web hosting. Using a Combined Website and Email Hosting PackageJust because the email host also offers web hosting doesn't mean that you have to set up and maintain a website. You can use the package just for the email capabilities. Here is a snapshot of the email capabilities offered with the basic 1and1 uk web hosting.
As you can see even with the very basic package you can have 20 email mailboxes complete with spam filtering and virus scanning (for 5 of them). In addition you can access them via pop3,Imap4 and Webmail. These email capabilities are all that most small businesses/personal email users require. Domain NamesWith either type of account you will be required to register a domain name. Most UK providers allow you to register UK, European and International domain names. American providers usually only allow registration of International Domain names. So if you want a .uk domain name you need a UK host. If you want a .com domain name then any provider will do. Email Accounts, Mailboxes and AddressesIt is very important that you are aware of the distinction between an email account (or mailbox) and an email address. An email account generally gives you access multiple email addresses and mailboxes used to store email. You login to your email account to manage your mailboxes and email addresses. You can have an email address and not an email mailbox, in which case you would use email forwarding to forward the email to an address that had a mailbox associated with it. Without a mailbox you cannot access or store email. Therefore all email will need to end up in a mailbox. Mailboxes are always linked to an email address/addresses but email addresses are not always linked to mailboxes. Email Addresses can, and often are linked to other addresses (Email Forwarding). Free AccountsAlthough they are very popular I only recommend free accounts from providers like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail to temporary/disposable email addresses. They should not be used for business email and should only be considered for personal email on a temporary basis. See free email accounts for more details. Related Articles and Resources: Email Account/Hosting Options -What feature should you look for in your email hosting and what do the options mean and how are they used. Email Account Setup Information- What email account information do you need before you can set up your email client and how do you get it -------------------------------------------------------------------- Useful Resources |SiteMap| Privacy Policy| Contact |About Me| -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
