Email Consulting 101: Choosing The Right Email Service
Email services are dime a dozen in today’s highly networked world. With so many services providing both free and paid email services, you have quite a task ahead if you are trying to choose a business email service provider. You should always opt for a paid email service if you are looking for a high-security email hosting service with your own domain name. On the other hand, if you simply want an email address for your personal communication, go ahead and sign up for free email services.
What Are Email Services?
Strictly speaking, the term “email services” can be used to describe the components and facilities available as part of emailing: email addresses, email hosting servers and email clients etc. The general reference to email services includes all of this plus the actual provider of these facilities. Therefore, free and paid email providers are generally known as email services.
What Can I Get From Email Services?
It depends on what you want from your particular email service. Email services are divided into four categories – SMTP, POP3, IMAP and Web-based. Each category can be briefly described as following:
SMTP: The default and most basic email standard, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) allows you to connect to a mail server on your domain and download the available emails to a desktop email client and send emails through the same email client (such as Outlook Express).
POP3: This protocol stores your email in a remote server and lets you download it to any email client. POP3 accounts can also be accessed via a Web interface.
IMAP: Offers all the functions of POP3 plus the facility to view and download only selected emails. IMAP also allows the synchronization of your mail folders between your local computer and the IMAP server of your email provider, meaning that you will see the same folders and messages from wherever you log into your mailbox.
Web-based: Sending and retrieving emails are limited to a Web interface. Most free email services are Web based.
Depending on your requirement, you can select one of these email service types. ISPs provide SMTP, POP3, IMAP and Web-based email services. Free email services are usually web-based (except for Windows Live Hotmail, which can be downloaded and viewed via Microsoft Outlook).
Conclusion
Again, the type of service you should use depends on what your requirements are. If you are a constant traveler and need a “portable” email account, you should opt for a Web-based email account, provided by either a free service or a paid service. Most ISPs provide POP3 accounts, which are accessible both from your local email client and through the Web.
If you are interested in getting reliable and secure email services for your business, always opt for a recommended paid email service provider. For personal use, unless you are constantly accepting payments and confidential information from your email contacts, choose a free, easy, Web-based email service.
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