Web-Based E-mail

Many sites now offer free Web-based e-mail, so how do you decide which one to go with? Think about this: You expect the postal service to deliver your letters reliably every day and to keep your communications private. As you come to depend on e-mail for business and personal communications, having a reliable, trustworthy service becomes critical. Evaluate each service based on its track record.

A few services stand out for their longevity, reliability, friendliness and unlimited storage. Our top recommendations are:

Gmail, from the folks at Google.

Hotmail, from Microsoft.

Mail.com, which offers a choice of addresses, such as europe.com and doctor.com.

Yahoo! Mail, from the popular Web portal.

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 get this information is to check the settings in your desktop e-mail program. For instance, with Outlook, 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 Internet Service Provider.

Armed with this information, here is how to configure Hotmail:

1.Click Options on the toolbar.

2.Under Additional Options, click POP Mail.

3.Enter the account information for up to four accounts.

4.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:

1.Click on Options in the left-hand box.

2.Under Mail Management, click on Check Other (POP) Mail.

3.Click on the Add Mail Server button.

4.Enter the account information for up to two accounts.

5.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.

Once you've configured your account, you can stay connected from anywhere.

Last update: Jan 8, 2010