Free Email Accounts - Are they what you need?

Are you looking for a free email account? There are many companies offering free email accounts on the Internet; two of the most popular ones being Yahoo and msn Hotmail.

But is a free email account suitable for your needs ? and if it is which one do you choose? .

Accessing Email Accounts

Web based email (HTTP mail)

Almost all email providers (free or otherwise) provide access to your email via a browser (Internet explorer). This makes it very easy to check your email from any computer anywhere, with zero configuration.

The disadvantage of this method is that the mail is stored on the server and you need to always be connected to the internet to read it. Therefore if you require access to the mail when on the move and also require access when not connected you need to choose a email provider that lets you retrieve mail via webmail and POP3.

As with all things there are exceptions Msn hotmail even though it is web based does let you retrieve email using Outlook Express and Incredimail and save it to your local computer.

POP3 Access

This was until recently (pre 2003) the most popular method for accessing email. It probably still is but since the success of hotmail, all other email providers have started to offer web based email and POP3 has become a premium service for some (Yahoo email).

If you want access to you email when not connected to the internet then POP3 is the best way to go. When you connect to you email provider using POP3 email the email is normally moved form the server on the Internet to you local computer.

It is however possible to configure POP3 such that you leave a copy of the email on the server as well. From the point of view of the email provider this is not encouraged as you are using disk space on the server an they have to pay for it.

From a users perspective the main disadvantages of POP3 are that it needs you to have a POP3 client (e.g. Outlook Express or IncrediMail) on the machine you are using and that client needs to be setup and configured for the email provider. If you travel and use a laptop then this is no problem, however if you want to pick up you email in a cyber cafe then this is not the way to do it.

IMAP4

This is basically a replacement for POP3 but not very often offered by free email providers. The same considerations apply as for POP3.

Email Addresses of Free Email Accounts.

All email addresses have the form name@domain-name.

Where name is your name and the domain name is usually the domain name of the email provider e.g. Yahoo.com. So if your name is John Doe and you have an email account with Yahoo, then your email address would be:johndoe@yahoo.com. See  email addresses for more details.

The problem with free email providers is that they are popular- after all they're free! and so what you normally get is an email like: johndoe1234@yahoo.com. Not an easy one to remember! These types of addresses make them totally unsuitable for a business!

Because of the fact that getting the name you want can be difficult and also owing to the fact that many people have more than one free email account I would recommend that you adopt some kind of system for choosing them.

Do you Already Have a Free Email Account?

If you connect to the Internet the you connect using an ISP (Internet service provider). Most ISPs not only provide you with an Internet connect they also usually provide you with basic Internet services such as email accounts and web space.

So before you go looking for free email providers and in fact free web space look at what your current ISP has to offer! You may already have what you need.

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