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Free email service categories and the features offered by them.
Know about the different types of free email services and choose the one that best suits you!
There are a host of services which give you a free email address with either a POP3 mailbox access, IMAP access, web email access, or email aliases that will forward or redirect email sent to that address again to another. They may be used by people who are looking for an email address that is independent of their ISP, and thus hopefully more permanent that that given by the ISP. We enumerate them below, giving in brief their distinctive features.
POP Mail: POP (or POP3) mail services store your incoming messages on a server until you are ready to collect them. You download them using an email software package like Eudora, Pegasus Mail, Netscape Messenger or Outlook Express for instance. Once you download the messages, they are deleted from the server and stored on your PC. POP mail is what most ISPs offer, so probably you already have at least one POP mail account. Most POP mail clients support features such as document attachment, automatic document encoding and decoding, user lookup, internal address books, font selection, signature files, and multiple mail management options.
The pros:
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): In IMAP, the mail stays on the server. But messages can be saved either on the server or your local computer, and feels as if you are handling it on your local computer. Important mail that is kept and stored on the server is backed up every night, so accidentally deleted files may be retrieved before the next backup cycle occurs (unless mail was delivered and accidentally deleted on the same day).
The pros:
Web-based Email: In web-based email, you go to the email provider's site, then log in with a user name and password. The email provider stores all your messages for you. Most free email providers are in the web-based email business since this kind of service is easy to implement and brings repeat visitors to a site. Many services offer extra functions, such as online spell-checkers, personal address books, distribution lists etc.
The pros:
Mail Forwarding Services: Mail forwarding services forward messages to an existing email address. This is great if your current email address is difficult to remember, but it means that you need to have an email address already before you can use a forwarding service.
The pros:
POP Mail: POP (or POP3) mail services store your incoming messages on a server until you are ready to collect them. You download them using an email software package like Eudora, Pegasus Mail, Netscape Messenger or Outlook Express for instance. Once you download the messages, they are deleted from the server and stored on your PC. POP mail is what most ISPs offer, so probably you already have at least one POP mail account. Most POP mail clients support features such as document attachment, automatic document encoding and decoding, user lookup, internal address books, font selection, signature files, and multiple mail management options.
The pros:
- You can compose and read messages offline, and connect just to send messages and download your new mail.
- You can also use powerful email software, with spell checking, filters etc.
- You can keep an almost unlimited number of messages (as long as you keep downloading them regularly) since they are stored on your hard disk.
- This also means that you can re-read old messages without connecting to the Internet.
- A big disadvantage of POP mail until recently was that you could not access your email while travelling since you needed special email software, configured accordingly. Now however, many companies offer simple web-based solutions for reading POP mail.
- Only one account per server generally.
- Unless you back up your email every day, you could lose all your email if something happens to your local machine.
- If you sign up with a free POP mail service, you can generally expect to receive ads in your mailbox a minimum of a few times a month.
- Some are essentially commercial email services with a free option that provides a limited subset of their services.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): In IMAP, the mail stays on the server. But messages can be saved either on the server or your local computer, and feels as if you are handling it on your local computer. Important mail that is kept and stored on the server is backed up every night, so accidentally deleted files may be retrieved before the next backup cycle occurs (unless mail was delivered and accidentally deleted on the same day).
The pros:
- Can simultaneously access many accounts on various servers.
- Messages can be accessed from any computer in any location.
- Since IMAP needs to maintain a connection to the email server, there is no off-line mode.
- Mailbox access is slower, especially for large mailboxes.
- You may not be able to do anything with an attachment, depending on your IMAP client.
Web-based Email: In web-based email, you go to the email provider's site, then log in with a user name and password. The email provider stores all your messages for you. Most free email providers are in the web-based email business since this kind of service is easy to implement and brings repeat visitors to a site. Many services offer extra functions, such as online spell-checkers, personal address books, distribution lists etc.
The pros:
- You can easily log in and collect your email from any web browser.
- You don't need to configure a program to read your email - great if you're not technically minded.
- Messages can be read on any computer and in any part of the world.
- You are limited to a relatively small amount of storage space (typically a few megabytes) so you won't be able to keep your old messages for very long before you run out of room!
- Web-based email services generally show you banner advertisements while you are collecting your mail.
- Many also add a short "tag line" to each message you send, identifying the service you used. This makes it very easy for the recipient to see that you used a free email service!
Mail Forwarding Services: Mail forwarding services forward messages to an existing email address. This is great if your current email address is difficult to remember, but it means that you need to have an email address already before you can use a forwarding service.
The pros:
- The best thing about email forwarding services is they let you continue to use your existing email account given to you by your ISP.
- If you change ISPs at any time, just change the email address your email is forwarded to, and it will automatically be redirected to your new address.
- Forwarding services let you choose a memorable, fun, distinctive name.
- With an email forwarding service, you are putting another layer between the sender and your email account. This means that you are twice as exposed to network or other problems.
- If either the forwarding service or your email account is down, the email will not get through.
- This also means that your email may be delayed getting to you.
- Generally, mail forwarding services make money by adding a small advertisement to the top or bottom of each email message they forward.
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